#34 in Science fiction
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
- 160
- Pages
- about 3 h
- Reading time
- Hugo Award for Best Novella
- Stonewall Book Award
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Our view
“A Psalm for the Wild-Built” is a quiet novella about a monk and a robot, and its calm is the whole point. Chambers writes soothingly and leaves room for the reader’s own reflection, so the book works less through plot than through the questions it raises. At 160 pages it is quickly read. Those wanting tension or spectacle from science fiction will not find them here; those wanting hope will.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
A Psalm for the Wild-Built is a 2021 solarpunk novella written by American author Becky Chambers, published by Tor Books on July 13, 2021. It is the first book in the Monk & Robot duology, followed by A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, which was released on July 12, 2022. It won the Hugo Award in 2022.
Reading order · Monk and Robot
Full order & progress →- A Psalm for the Wild-BuiltThis book
8.58.5 / 10 - A Prayer for the Crown-ShyA Prayer for the Crown-Shy–Not ranked yet
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.5 across 1,008 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 87% of the weight and the score stays at 8.5 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.8 | 10 | 1% |
| Hardcover | 8.5 | 998 | 99% |
Frequently asked
How long is A Psalm for the Wild-Built?
It has 160 pages — shorter than 98% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 8.4 and 8.5, closest to this book.
