You know what’s annoying? When you keep reading books that seem to keep calling you out specifically in weird ways. And let me tell you, it’s worse when that book is a fiction book that is about robots and tea and somehow it still manages to get in your head in strange ways.
This is the story of a tea monk named Dex who runs into a robot named Mosscap. The robots gained sentience ages ago and human let them go to live their own lives, rebuilding their world without. Mosscap is here as a representative to understand what humans need, and so it joins Dex as they travel the countryside.
The whole book is a series of Socratic dialogues, which I was not expecting. I honestly thought this would be more of a road trip book, but instead it was a series of conversation about life and purpose and meaning and perspective changing those things with the framing device of a robot and a monk travelling a quiet countryside where little would interrupt their dialogue or provide any external stakes to distract from the internal conflict.
There isn’t really that much in terms of narrative to cling to, but there is a degree of character progression. Dex is someone who keeps chasing purpose and cannot seem to find something to give them that feeling of fulfillment which, well, hits a little too close to home at this moment. Through the winding series of conversations, there isn’t so much a resolution as peace that comes out of it all and the whole thing leaves this feeling of calm that I really appreciated.
Overall, not what I was expecting but still one of the more interesting reads so far this year. If you need something pretty calm that will let your mind wander into some more philosophical places, this might be a good one to check out.