Willowmill reviewed A Prayer for the Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers (Monk and Robot, #2)
Caution: fodder for the ideologically blinded
3 stars
Chambers accomplished what i affirm is the most important role of the sci-fi genre: to present potent reflections of our own day to day. The virtues we yet lack, the ways things could be different, the questions that are pervasive and perhaps inescabably human. Its not about the future, and my issues with the book come less from the contemplative value, but in the set dressing that fools the reader into shallow idealism. I think Chambers is aware of this, and is reluctant to fully embrace ideology, carefully placing Dex and Mosscap in a space of ambivalence. The treatment of the luddite colony i found however, in bad taste. the colonist who differentiates themself from the rest, further reinforces ideology that luddism is equal to close-mindedness and that technology is akin to enlightenment. I feel that Chambers consulted someone to write this characters dialogue, but doesn't internalize the meaning of …
Chambers accomplished what i affirm is the most important role of the sci-fi genre: to present potent reflections of our own day to day. The virtues we yet lack, the ways things could be different, the questions that are pervasive and perhaps inescabably human. Its not about the future, and my issues with the book come less from the contemplative value, but in the set dressing that fools the reader into shallow idealism. I think Chambers is aware of this, and is reluctant to fully embrace ideology, carefully placing Dex and Mosscap in a space of ambivalence. The treatment of the luddite colony i found however, in bad taste. the colonist who differentiates themself from the rest, further reinforces ideology that luddism is equal to close-mindedness and that technology is akin to enlightenment. I feel that Chambers consulted someone to write this characters dialogue, but doesn't internalize the meaning of what she wrote. She could have simply depicted people living happily as they pleased like we know indigneous people have for thousands of years. different, but no lesser than the rest, but instead she wrote the Amish. It gives the impression that the harmony and cohesion of this society is because they simply have everything right and that deviation from the model is inherently reactionary. I think Chambers grapples with this haunting element present in utopias with the presentation of the luddites, but i think it could have been more valuable if communties had more challenging differences that upend the apparent unity of the world. Circling back, i appreciated the treatment of human nature, the search for meaning, right relationship and the smaller discussions about money, consciousness and mystery. Overall, a bit too challenging a read maybe for believers in the status quo, too much ideology for the hungry leftist, just enough targets for thorough anarchist to take shots at.
