First published 2025
Tea monk Sibling Dex tends their cart along the familiar routes of Panga, brewing comfort for travelers. Their quiet routine shatters when a robot emerges from the wilderness after centuries of absence. The robot, called Mosscap, carries an ancient obligation to check on humanity's wellbeing. It cannot return to its kind until it answers one question: what do people need? Dex agrees to help, and together they journey through communities where humans have built a sustainable world free from want. Yet each person they ask gives a different answer. Some need purpose, others connection, still others simply need to be heard. As Dex and Mosscap travel deeper into both the physical landscape and the puzzle of human desire, their unlikely friendship challenges both to reconsider what fulfillment means. In a world where survival is no longer the central concern, they must discover whether contentment is enough or if something deeper drives the human spirit.
Genres: fiction, science-fiction, adventure, contemporary, 21st-century, artificial-intelligence
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: found-family, unlikely-friendship
Setting: Panga
294 pages · Paperback · Tordotcom