Travel Documents 135: The Cybernetic Tea Shop
Genre: sci-fi, near-future, social change, cultural change
The Dust Cover Copy
Clara Gutierrez is an AI repair technician and a wanderer. Her childhood with her migrant worker family has left her uncomfortable with lingering for too long, so she moves from place to place across retro-futuristic America.
Sal is a fully autonomous robot. Older than the law declaring her kind illegal due to ethical concerns, she is at best out of place in society and at worst vilified. She continues to run the tea shop previously owned by her long-dead master, lost in memories of the past, struggling to fulfill her master's dream for the shop while slowly breaking down.
They meet by chance, but as they begin to spend time together, they both start to wrestle with the concept of moving on...
A F/F retro-future sci-fi asexual romance. A story about artificial intelligence and real kindness, about love, and the feeling of watching steam rising softly from a teacup on a bright and quiet morning.
The Scene
Worldbuilding
Make a nice cup of tea. Cosy up with your favorite blanket and this book. It’s the perfect cuddly snow-day read! There’s a hint of Castle in the Sky in this setting, a little of Miyazaki’s gentle nostalgia and melancholy, and also a bit of an Amile or Chocolat air about it (if you haven’t seen those movies, highly recommend). But its questioning of what makes someone human and worthy and its exploration of memory takes it solidly out of the cozy fantasy genre and drops it firmly in spec-fic. Aligned in style with the Monk and Robot series, it has a similar gentle touch for weighty topics.
In this world, the Robot Revolution has come and gone. There are still robots here and there, existing in the limbo between personhood and property, but nobody’s made them for a hundred years. Creators have learned their lesson, and the only thing created now are Raises, which have the usefulness of robots without the ethically messy element of AI that can learn and evolve. Raises generally appear as synthetic animals; anything from a hummingbird to a horse. But no more human synthetic beings will be made. The kind of people who always need an Other to hate have been hating, hazing and attacking robots for a long time; another reason there aren’t so many around. Sal has gone through her fair share of that, and the effect of long-term discrimination are a constant undernote in this story.
The setting feels like a shaky post-scarcity utopia. The problems are mostly solved, but the culture is still in an odd sort of shock that it still exists. There’s a liminal, fragile sense to everything in this work, mixed with the soft and sad memory of so much we’ve lost. The brew of soft emotions in the face of a harsh world infuse a reader’s mind like a perfect cup of tea.
The Crowd
Characterization
This is a short cup of story and there aren’t many characters. But within the small scope, loss and love and possibilities are explored in equal measure. The gentle chemistry between soft, set-in-her-ways Sal and friendly, bubbly Clara is a classic odd couple story; out of context it seems strange, but in context it’s the perfect fit. What starts in curiosity and courtesy grows into a deep and abiding love that does both characters good. The supporting cast of a friendly detective and an opinionated hummingbird-shaped Raise rounds out this story in fine style.
Writing Style
Written in the style of a Studio Ghibli film, this is a story of apparent simplicity and hidden intricacy. As I’ve said, it really isn’t a long story. You can read it in an afternoon. But it moves at the quiet, dreamy pace of an afternoon in the tea shop.
The Moves
Plot
The story isn’t complex, but it has an element of Greek tragedy to it. You can see trouble coming. You can watch it approach. Watch it hit. And then you learn how the storm can pass and leave the chance for something new in its wake.
A story that revolves around the inner lives of its characters, the true arc of this story is in that overcoming: how we grow, how we grieve, how we move on, and how we learn to come back from absolute rock bottom.
Overall Rating
A soft and sweet afternoon’s read, perfect for a snowy afternoon.