A Psalm for the Wild-Built

 

By Becky Chambers

Sibling Dex is a monk at Meadow Den Monastery. Dex is feeling a bit discontented and decides they (throughout the story, Dex is never referred to as he or she, only as they) want to be a tea monk. Tea monks are monks who travel around making tea. They brew the tea they feel their clients need and listen to their problems and give the client feedback. Sometimes it is just sympathy, sometimes it is gentle advice, sometimes it is just a quiet moment in which to relax and enjoy their tea. Tea monks hitch a camper to a bike-like vehicle and peddle along to the next destination on their route. They are very popular with the communities they visit.

Back before Dex's time, the people on this world were just like us, with their factories and their technology. Part of the technology was intelligent, humanoid robots. Who suddenly one day became self-aware and who walked away from their robot jobs and into the wilderness. This event caused the people to rethink their way of life and they shut down most of the factories and put aside much of the land to let it return to wilderness. And they tried their best live their lives in the most sustainable way possible and with the fewest negative impacts on their world.

So Dex learns to be a very skillful and valued tea monk. People enjoy his teas and they appreciate his care of them. But Dex is not satisfied. The same feelings that caused him to leave the monastery now push him to leave his tea route and venture off into the wilderness, ostensibly to search for an abandoned monastery, Hart's Brow Hermitage. But soon after setting forth on his search, a robot wanders into his camp and kind of attaches itself to Dex. So together Dex and his new companion, the robot Mosscap, will travel through the wilderness, searching for Hart's Brow and getting to know each other and possibly becoming fast friends.

The first part of this story was the best part, with Dex setting forth to become a tea monk and learning his craft. But after Dex is joined by Mosscap it became a lot more philosophical. And I'm not the least bit interested in philosophy. 

Here's a review by Publishers Weekly.

The Beast Master

 

By Andre Norton

The war with the Xik was finally over and humankind won but at the cost of the complete destruction of planet Earth. Hosteen Storm was a Galactic Commando and Beast Master in the galactic Confederacy and now that the war is over, he has no home to go back to. He chose to be repatriated on Arzor because it has a climate similar to his Navajo homeland. His four "beasts" will be with him, as the military as no further use for them. They are Surra, a dune cat; Baku, an African black eagle; and two meercats, Ho and Hing. 

Arzor is a frontier world and it has a native population referred to as Norbies. They are tall, thin humanoids with yellow skin and horns. They can't speak human language and humans can't speak their language so they communicate by using sign language. The Norbies are hunter/gatherer people that live in tribal groups scattered across the planet. They have accepted the presence of humans settlers. Humans activities on the planet consist mainly of ranching the local herd beasts. So basically it's the Old West, revisited.

Hosteen has another purpose in coming to Arzor. He is on the trail of a man, Brad Quade, from Arzor who killed his father when Hosteen was little. 

Hosteen's skill with horses quickly lands him a job and earns him the respect of the locals. And his work with his animal companions impresses him employers even more. One of his fellow workers is a Norbie, Gorgol who becomes Hosteen's friend and who teaches him the sign language Norbies and humans use to communicate. 

Once Hosteen and his new employer and company are on the trail, they run into trouble when they get caught in a heavy downburst. The valley they are in quickly floods and only Gorgol and Hosteen manage to survive. They rest are swept away along with most of the supplies. But both Gorgol and Hosteen are no strangers to surviving on their own. They bury the bodies of their companions and set out to find a way out of the deadly valley. But before they can, Hosteen discovers that the Xik, who he thought had been thoroughly defeated, have a secret base on Arzor. And that they are trying to foment a war between the Norbies and the human settlers. 

This is pretty much just a frontier Western, with the settlers as the cowboys and the Norbies as the Natives. With the twist that the Navajo man is the cowboy who sympathizes with and understands the Natives. Frankly, I found the story boring.

Here is a review by Kirkus. This is their review from 1959 and they refer to the author as he. Andre Norton was the author's pen name. Her real name was Alice Norton. 

 

Bertie Wooster Sees It Through

 

By P.G. Wodehouse

Bertie has woman problems once again. When Lady Florence Craye asks Bertie to escort her to a night club, Bertie ends up being arrested in a police raid and Florence ends up breaking off her engagement to G. D'Arcy Cheesewright. Florence then transfers her attention to Bertie, to whom she was once engaged, laboring under the misapprehension that Bertie always has been and still is hopelessly in love with her. Which he isn't. But he is too diffident to tell her the truth.

The rejected suitor, D'Arcy longs to murder the man he blames for Florence's defection. But he has placed a large bet on Bertie winning a darts tournament and the money is more important than revenge. 

Bertie's favorite aunt needs his help with a financial matter and Bertie travels to Brinkley Court to help Aunt Dahlia out. Things being what they are, D'Arcy and Florence are also staying there along with several others. All of these people are involved in various plots, with poets and novelists and ladies' magazines and hen-pecked husbands and fake necklaces and angry accusations and blackmail and burglary and broken engagements and new lovers and plotting spouses and mustaches and ladders at windows. And, of course, Jeeves, Bertie's manservant, who is the only one who can see the way through.

This is a classic Bertie and Jeeves story. It is silly and fun and it makes you wish so very much that you could be there, with Bertie and Jeeves and jolly Old England. It has everything you want in a Bertie and Jeeves story and it does not disappoint. Lighthearted, comical and a grand trip to a time and place that never really existed except in the mind of P.G Wodehouse.

The Box in the Woods

 

By Maureen Johnson

Back in 1978, four teens snuck off to the woods to get high and fool around. But what should have been just teenage nonsense resulted in all four kids murdered.

Now teen sleuth Stevie, famous for solving a cold case dating from the 1930s, has been invited to Sunny Pines camp for kids by its new owner, Carson. Carson wants to do a podcast about the more than forty year old mass murder and he hopes Stevie can use her sleuthing skills to solve what the professionals could not. As a bonus, he will give jobs to any of her friends she brings along with her. 

Stevie has been working at a grocery store for the summer and the idea of a summer at a camp in the woods is very appealing, especially since two of her friends are eager and willing to join her. So the three head off to Sunny Pines and Stevie is happy to be on the trail of the person or persons who brutally murdered four teenagers one warm summer night forty-two years ago.

As far as mysteries go, this was a pretty good read. It wasn't as engrossing as some mystery stories I have read. But it also wasn't as boring as some I have slogged through. It kept me engaged. The one thing I didn't much care for is the killer was not one of the main characters and is only briefly mentioned in passing a few times in most of the book.  I don't like it when authors pull some obscure character out of the background of a story to be the killer. But other than that, I enjoyed the book.

See also Kirkus for another review of the story.

The Foundling

 

By Georgette Heyer

Adolphus Gillespie Vernon Ware, Duke of Sale is only twenty-four years old. An orphan, he has been raised by his uncle, Lord Lionel Ware. A sickly child, Gillie has grown up to be a biddable and diffident young man.  Currently his uncle is in charge of Gillie's money and of his many estates but in a few months, Gillie will be of age and will gain control of his vast wealth and many properties.

All his life, Gillie has been closely cared for by his uncle and the people hired to care for him. His butler, his valet, his nurse are all old family servants and they truly love the young Duke. But Gillie is feeling a bit oppressed by the close care and supervision and sometimes wishes he was just an ordinary fellow, free to come and go as he chose. 

Gillie is unpleasantly surprised that his uncle has arranged a marriage for him with Lady Harriet Presteigne, a quiet and docile young lady he has known for a long time. Although he doesn't dislike Harriet, Gillie still feels like he is not in control of his own life. But despite this, he travels to town to propose to Harriet and his proposal is accepted, both young people doing exactly what they are expected and required to do. 

But after be coming engaged, Gillie is wishing even more that he were free to live his life as he chooses. So when he finds out his cousin is being blackmailed, Gillie decides to pose as his cousin Matthew and confront the blackmailer himself. So he sets off on a grand adventure in which he rescues a runaway school boy and a hapless maiden and thwarts a villain determined to squeeze as much money as he can out of the wealthy young Duke.

This is one of my favorite Heyer stories. It is not so much a romance as it is the adventures of the young Duke. The Duke proves his capability over and over again, dealing with thugs and rogues and rambunctious school boys and a very beautiful but very stupid young woman, the Foundling. It's a lot of fun and a lot is going on in the story and the ending is not only very satisfying but also a bit surprising. 

See also a Review by Austenprose.