I read largely sff, some romance and mystery, very little non-fiction. I'm trying to write at least a little review of everything I'm reading, but it's a little bit of an experiment in progress.
No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body …
Then she added, I want you to work on this with Station Security. Even if it isn’t anything to do with our corporate problems, it’s a good opportunity for you.
Double ugh. I told her, They don’t want me. (Hey, I don’t want me, either, but I’m stuck with me.)
No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body …
Fugitive Telemetry
3 stars
This isn't a bad Murderbot novella, but it doesn't really move enough forward enough for me to appreciate it as anything more than an action/detective side event in between the much more emotionally impactful Exit Strategy and Network Condition. I think my favorite parts of this book are Murderbot snarkily interacting with Indah and station security, where it's trying to one up them but also do its job and also (mostly) obey the rules that they've given to it.
This novella does get some more into Mensah's trauma (and avoidance) but I'm not sure this story is doing extra on top of what Home or Network Condition is doing, and her trauma is not the thematic focus of this novella either. (Although what that focus is, I'm not sure I could really pin down. Maybe that's part of the problem.)
If Murderbot was going to stick around in Preservation space …
This isn't a bad Murderbot novella, but it doesn't really move enough forward enough for me to appreciate it as anything more than an action/detective side event in between the much more emotionally impactful Exit Strategy and Network Condition. I think my favorite parts of this book are Murderbot snarkily interacting with Indah and station security, where it's trying to one up them but also do its job and also (mostly) obey the rules that they've given to it.
This novella does get some more into Mensah's trauma (and avoidance) but I'm not sure this story is doing extra on top of what Home or Network Condition is doing, and her trauma is not the thematic focus of this novella either. (Although what that focus is, I'm not sure I could really pin down. Maybe that's part of the problem.)
If Murderbot was going to stick around in Preservation space and Indah was going to become a recurring character, or we were going to have ongoing themes of Murderbot trying/failing to fit into Preservation systems and culture, then maybe this could have felt more impactful in retrospect.
I have a spoiler-y offhand comment, so I'll post that separately.
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory is a short story set just after Exit Strategy. Home …
Home
4 stars
This is a short story that can be read online. The most notable part about this for me is that it was the first story not from Murderbot's point of view, but from Mensah's instead.
This viewpoint shift works for me because Mensah's trauma around being abducted on TranRollinHyfa comes through much more clearly in her own voice. It functions similarly to Rapport in that getting to see the other side of a relationship strengthens your understanding of both sides.
Her feed notifies her of a message packet, addressed to her and Bharadwaj. It’s a link to some sort of catalog weapons supply service. Ayda sighs, mostly amused. “It’s listening to us right now.” It must be hard to respect other people’s privacy when you’ve had to fight and scheme for every minute of your own. Hard not to be paranoid when you remember all the times your paranoia …
This is a short story that can be read online. The most notable part about this for me is that it was the first story not from Murderbot's point of view, but from Mensah's instead.
This viewpoint shift works for me because Mensah's trauma around being abducted on TranRollinHyfa comes through much more clearly in her own voice. It functions similarly to Rapport in that getting to see the other side of a relationship strengthens your understanding of both sides.
Her feed notifies her of a message packet, addressed to her and Bharadwaj. It’s a link to some sort of catalog weapons supply service. Ayda sighs, mostly amused. “It’s listening to us right now.” It must be hard to respect other people’s privacy when you’ve had to fight and scheme for every minute of your own. Hard not to be paranoid when you remember all the times your paranoia was justified.
But I also quite enjoy seeing how (and why) Murderbot is always compulsively invading everybody's privacy. Mensah clearly understands and (mostly) feels cared for by it. And also it's awkward and invasive too, and I don't think that we'd be able to get all of that without being in Mensah's head.
For just a moment, things seem to be under control for the soldier known as …
An excellent finale
4 stars
This trilogy was so great. I love everything that the author did with gender and language. I love everything about how the series spends so much time on the question of who deserves respect and why...or perhaps rather why we attribute respect to certain individuals.
It's just so good. I'm so excited to read the standalone novels as well. Especially because I want to learn more about the Presger!
"Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling …
I had a complex emotional reaction. A whole new burst of neural connections blossomed. Oh right, I often have complex emotional reactions which I can’t easily interpret.
"Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times and USA Today bestselling …
Exit Strategy
4 stars
Maybe that was why I had been nervous about meeting Mensah again, and not all the other dumb reasons I had come up with. I hadn’t been afraid that she wasn’t my friend, I had been afraid that she was, and what it did to me.
The band is back together. I really like the way this fourth novella comes back around back to the Preservation Alliance folks that the books started with. It's fun to see Murderbot with the same people and in a similar protection role, but having a lot more agency.
Pin-Lee groaned and rubbed her face. "I'm almost glad you're here."
This is minor, but Pin-Lee also has some amazing moments here and finally gets to pull out her scary lawyering. I love the combination of how both angry at and yet how also protective of Murderbot she is.
SciFi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris …
I don’t even know why I was reacting this way. Was I jealous of a human-form bot? I didn’t want to be a pet robot, that’s why I’d left Dr. Mensah and the others. (Not that Mensah had said she wanted a pet SecUnit. I don’t think she wanted a SecUnit at all.) What did Miki have that I wanted? I had no idea. I didn’t know what I wanted.
And yes, I know that was probably a big part of the problem right there.
SciFi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris …
Rogue Protocol
3 stars
This is the Murderbot novella that feels the most forgettable to me. It's not bad, but partially it's that it has the most action in it, which is fine and good but isn't really what I'm here for. I do like that it establishes that there are still dangers out there for Murderbot, even as it is wildly competent in its own domain.
When I’d called it a pet robot, I honestly thought I was exaggerating. This was going to be even more annoying than I had anticipated, and I had anticipated a pretty high level of annoyance, maybe as high as 85 percent. Now I was looking at 90 percent, possibly 95 percent.
The best part of this book is Miki, the human-form bot that Murderbot can't help but be irritated by. Miki ends up being a great foil, especially around Murderbot's feelings of not-jealousy about Miki's relationship with …
This is the Murderbot novella that feels the most forgettable to me. It's not bad, but partially it's that it has the most action in it, which is fine and good but isn't really what I'm here for. I do like that it establishes that there are still dangers out there for Murderbot, even as it is wildly competent in its own domain.
When I’d called it a pet robot, I honestly thought I was exaggerating. This was going to be even more annoying than I had anticipated, and I had anticipated a pretty high level of annoyance, maybe as high as 85 percent. Now I was looking at 90 percent, possibly 95 percent.
The best part of this book is Miki, the human-form bot that Murderbot can't help but be irritated by. Miki ends up being a great foil, especially around Murderbot's feelings of not-jealousy about Miki's relationship with its human Don Abene.
Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in …
Rapport
4 stars
This short story in the Murderbot universe was released recently, and can be read online on Reactor. Delightfully, it's from Perihelion's point of view after its encounter with Murderbot in Artificial Condition.
I'm not sure that the bones of a story about sneaking into a corporate rim structure had quite enough going on for me, but the underlying delight of this story for me is getting to hear just how affected ART was by its encounter and connection with Murderbot. I think there's just such a power differential between ART and Murderbot, that I'm not sure I ever would have expected it to be so affected if you had made me guess. Getting to hear these feelings (and hear them avoided) from Perihelion's point of view is quite good.
Also, Martha Wells is here making extra sure that you know explicitly that Murderbot is a story about trauma …
This short story in the Murderbot universe was released recently, and can be read online on Reactor. Delightfully, it's from Perihelion's point of view after its encounter with Murderbot in Artificial Condition.
I'm not sure that the bones of a story about sneaking into a corporate rim structure had quite enough going on for me, but the underlying delight of this story for me is getting to hear just how affected ART was by its encounter and connection with Murderbot. I think there's just such a power differential between ART and Murderbot, that I'm not sure I ever would have expected it to be so affected if you had made me guess. Getting to hear these feelings (and hear them avoided) from Perihelion's point of view is quite good.
Also, Martha Wells is here making extra sure that you know explicitly that Murderbot is a story about trauma through and through. This is maybe a snarky aside from me, but given that this story was released at the same time as the end of the first season of the television show, I wonder how much of this is a deliberate poke or a reminder to new audiences. I'm still working through the first season but this critical element seems quite sidelined.
For fans of Emily St. John Mandel and Kelly Link, a profoundly imaginative debut novel …
A fascinating fractal
5 stars
This is the book version of the theme-and-variations composition structure used in classical music and sometimes techno. The first chapter is a lovely and sad story in its own right; it almost feels like what Chekhov might have come up with if he'd been writing with today's gender and sexuality sensibility. Each thereafter takes mostly the same set of characters but with progressively larger twists - at first it's very much "what if protagonist had made a different choice at this key moment?", but it gradually shades over into wilder sci-fi speculations.
Strangely, it was the wilder variations that really made the book click for me. Before things got really weird I was starting to question how the book was going to sustain interest for 11 chapters, but North answered that question very effectively. I don't think it would have worked to go directly to those, the smaller variations feel …
This is the book version of the theme-and-variations composition structure used in classical music and sometimes techno. The first chapter is a lovely and sad story in its own right; it almost feels like what Chekhov might have come up with if he'd been writing with today's gender and sexuality sensibility. Each thereafter takes mostly the same set of characters but with progressively larger twists - at first it's very much "what if protagonist had made a different choice at this key moment?", but it gradually shades over into wilder sci-fi speculations.
Strangely, it was the wilder variations that really made the book click for me. Before things got really weird I was starting to question how the book was going to sustain interest for 11 chapters, but North answered that question very effectively. I don't think it would have worked to go directly to those, the smaller variations feel needed for the coherency of the whole, but I loved the effect of the whole set together.
It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. …
I told myself I still looked like a SecUnit without armor, hopelessly exposed, but the truth was I did look more human. And now I knew why I hadn’t wanted to do this. It would make it harder for me to pretend not to be a person.
It has a dark past - one in which a number of humans were killed. …
Artificial Condition
5 stars
This is my favorite Murderbot novella. What stands out the most to me is the prickly but endearing not-friendship between ART and Murderbot. I also love seeing Murderbot taking on its first clients (by choice) and feeling just as invested in doing a good job in protecting them. My delight in this book is probably why I also like the novel Network Effect so much, as it feels like a thematic expansion of all the best bits of this book (plus ART).
I think it's also easy to read this book as such a queer and trans story (only metaphorically, as it would be horrified at this comparison). It really gets into how fraught physical change for the purpose of passing is; it's something that Murderbot feels it needs to do for safety as rogue SecUnit, even as it feels emotionally unsafe to do. And also it's Murderbot having to …
This is my favorite Murderbot novella. What stands out the most to me is the prickly but endearing not-friendship between ART and Murderbot. I also love seeing Murderbot taking on its first clients (by choice) and feeling just as invested in doing a good job in protecting them. My delight in this book is probably why I also like the novel Network Effect so much, as it feels like a thematic expansion of all the best bits of this book (plus ART).
I think it's also easy to read this book as such a queer and trans story (only metaphorically, as it would be horrified at this comparison). It really gets into how fraught physical change for the purpose of passing is; it's something that Murderbot feels it needs to do for safety as rogue SecUnit, even as it feels emotionally unsafe to do. And also it's Murderbot having to navigate this change with the (extremely pushy but supportive) help of ART.
This book also gets into some of Murderbot's traumatic history in its investigation of Ganaka Pit. On a reread, I think I was surprised at how little reaction this gets from Murderbot in the moment once it has unraveled a core mystery of its past. But, at the same time, trauma is unevenly distributed, Murderbot is not the best at feelings, and it certainly catches up later in conversation with ART and Tapan.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
It’s wrong to think of a construct as half bot, half human. It makes it sound like the halves are discrete, like the bot half should want to obey orders and do its job and the human half should want to protect itself and get the hell out of here. As opposed to the reality, which was that I was one whole confused entity, with no idea what I wanted to do. What I should do. What I needed to do.
"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, …
All Systems Red
4 stars
I've been watching the recent tv show and thought I'd give the books a reread so I could ground myself in the text again. Also brains have been bad, and Murderbot is such short grippy comfort fiction. I think what makes me come back to this (personally) is my empathy for Murderbot's exhaustion and horror around being asked to be a person.
Murderbot also epitomizes the mortifying ordeal of being known (but simultaneously the even more mortifying ordeal of being loved). There's so much joy for me in the grumpiness of the internal monologue. If I had to come up with a one sentence emotional arc for each book, this one would be Murderbot moving past apathy and learning that it does in fact want to protect (some) humans.
Confession time: I don’t actually know where we are
On a reread, I had also forgotten the level of indifference that …
I've been watching the recent tv show and thought I'd give the books a reread so I could ground myself in the text again. Also brains have been bad, and Murderbot is such short grippy comfort fiction. I think what makes me come back to this (personally) is my empathy for Murderbot's exhaustion and horror around being asked to be a person.
Murderbot also epitomizes the mortifying ordeal of being known (but simultaneously the even more mortifying ordeal of being loved). There's so much joy for me in the grumpiness of the internal monologue. If I had to come up with a one sentence emotional arc for each book, this one would be Murderbot moving past apathy and learning that it does in fact want to protect (some) humans.
Confession time: I don’t actually know where we are
On a reread, I had also forgotten the level of indifference that Murderbot has, in terms of not even knowing what planet they're on. It's an aspect that comes through so much stronger in the original text.