This Hugo Award-winning novella is a balm in an increasingly shrill world. This first in the Monk and Robot series is the first “Cozy Sci-Fi” sub-genre that I’ve read, having heard about it in a Long Now Foundation event that piqued my interest. The cozy, some might criticize, as not having enough action, but the idea of the genre is less to juice up the adrenaline-fueled parts of the nervous system and more about soothing, reflecting, and tapping thoughtfully into deeper questions, new relationships, and the introspection necessary to navigate a changing world from a sense of growth rather than with lasers and battles.

The story is fairly simple. Dex, a tea monk in need of something meaningful but they don’t know what, breaks from their life as a wandering tea monk to venture to an old hermitage. Along the way, Dex meets a self-aware robot who has lots of questions about humans since the time that humans and robots split ways on the planet of Panga. Together they journey to the hermitage and forge a new relationship between self-aware people and self-aware robots. 

If you need things to blow up, this isn’t for you. But if you are looking for a quieter, more contemplative, thought-provoking escape, then give this series a whirl. 

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