Pixel rated The Outside: 3 stars

The Outside by Ada Hoffmann
Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when …
I primarily listen to audiobooks using Libby, and sometimes Audible. Feel free to ask me about how I have 11 cards on Libby.
Check out my book lists about things like Asian authors, or Autistic characters!
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Autistic scientist Yasira Shien has developed a radical new energy drive that could change the future of humanity. But when …

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.
When …
Finished reading on Libby. An actual continuation of book 5 but now I'm disoriented from the plot from book 6. The voice actors were also different (I miss ART's old voice, it was easier for me to distinguish) from the previous graphic audio performance. Considering the book is more about the story and not the casting of the narrators, it's not a huge deal. There were definitely points in the second half of the book where it became a lot harder to keep track of why things were going on. I like that Murderbot's understanding of themselves is taking time to manifest slowly over these books, unlike in some sort of book that jumps ahead to now they know how to be a prophet of the good word. I like when it's slower and they mention the messy and impractical conflicts.
Finished reading on Libby. Was really confused because it's more of an episode in Murderbot's life but it's not a continuation of Book 5 directly. You can sort of guess where it is in the timeline but it felt like a harsh jump as if Murderbot has already been able to reconcile with the previous events. It's like if you jumped into Steven Universe future in the middle of Steven Universe. Like ok we like to get to see this and there's still work to be done here but what about the work we were just doing? Still fun to listen to, I was just confused.
Finished listening to this on Audible. It was pretty good. Between young adult and adult. Some funky characters that remind me of the Imperial Radch series. Had some qualms about how they designed the lover of the main character. A little put off by the white author. Sometimes the commentary on neurodivergence and ableism felt forced but it was still interesting and sometimes being blunt can be better.

Red Mars is the first novel of the Mars trilogy, published in 1992. It follows the beginnings of the colonization …
Seems like this book works by focusing on the perspective of 1 of the 100 scientists in the Mars Colony. I've heard the perspective of 4 or 5 people at this point. There's a time jump at the start but otherwise it's been linear.
So far the plot of this book is "here's what happens when you put a bunch of American (including one Japanese woman who is definitely not a "dragon lady" says one character) and Russian scientists around the ages of 40-60 on a spaceship to start the first colony on mars. subtext: and they fucking like high school band kids".