Murderbot May

I reread all of The Murderbot Diaries (TMBD) series by Martha Wells in order to prepare for the newest book, Platform Decay, coming out on May 5. I read them all last year and have been obsessed with them ever since. I made a "Michelle's guide to the Murderbot Diaries" Canva carousel and posted it on my bookstagram in lieu of a May wrap-up, as the only books I read that month were TMBD series. You can see it here. I am tempted to post all the slides here in this blog entry, or replicate the information on the slides, but I'll hold off. The IG post has general information about the series, such as genres, themes, and reading orders (for which I relied heavily on Book Series in Order but also made my own suggested reading order list). The last slide is my Murderbot moodboard; you can see the Pinterest board here. 

You can read my general summary for the series in my TMBD guide slides. Here are my flash summaries of each book; flash reviews would be useless because they'd all be "I love this book and Murderbot" etc. I've given each book 4 stars. No chili peppers as there's no spice, although some references to sex are made. 

BOOKS

The books are Murderbot's personal logs and are in first person POV. 

All Systems Red (TMBD #1) - We meet Murderbot, a SecUnit (security construct that is part human, part robot, completely sentient) that hacked its 'governor module' so that it is no longer forced to follow orders and is free! ...to continue pretending to be a regular governed SecUnit, since it can't figure out how to escape or what to do with its life. At least it can watch as much television as it wants. Murderbot is on a planet guarding an environmental survey group called PresAux, who are all nice to Murderbot (very weird, after having been treated like property for so long), when suddenly they're all thrown into danger... 

Artificial Condition (TMBD #2) - Murderbot is on its own for the first time and on a mission to find out the truth behind a tragedy it was in... or behind. To get to the planet where it happened, Murderbot hitches a ride on an unmanned cargo ship, whose bot pilot turns out to be very different than it expected. With guidance from its new friend ART, Murderbot takes a job protecting some humans while they attempt to get some stolen work back from their ruthless ex-boss on that planet. Can Murderbot pass as an augmented human, keep its clients safe, and find out the truth?

 

Rogue Protocol (TMBD #3) - Its own fact-finding mission over, Murderbot decides to travel to an abandoned mining station to find out what GrayCris, the company behind the murders in All Systems Red, was doing there, hoping that that information can help its PresAux humans. It gets roped into helping a different survey team there, which consists of more humans (some nice, some with unknown intentions) and a human-form "pet" bot that might be able to see through Murderbot's "human security consultant" cover story. 

 

Exit Strategy (TMBD #4) - Murderbot learns that Dr. Mensah, the PresAux leader and its favorite human, has been kidnapped by GrayCris. It travels to the planet where she's being held prisoner and reunites with some of the other PresAux humans in order to help free Dr. Mensah and get them all off that planet safely. 

 

Network Effect (TMBD #5) - Murderbot is helping its PresAux humans on a mission when a big transport vessel shows up out of nowhere and kidnaps Murderbot and Dr. Mensah's teenage daughter Amena. The people on the ship don't seem quite human and have strange, unhackable tech, while the ship seems really familiar... Can Murderbot keep Amena safe and figure out how to help ART and its crew?

 

Fugitive Telemetry (TMBD #6) - This book takes place before book 5, on Preservation station (the space station above Preservation, the planet the PresAux humans are from). There's been a murder, and detective Murderbot is on the case! This means having to work with Station Security, who suspect it of the murder and limit its technological access, and having to talk to humans and bots (ugh). Can Murderbot solve the case? Will the Station Security humans finally trust it?

System Collapse (TMBD #7) - This book takes place right after Network Effect, on the same planet where everything goes down in book 5. Murderbot, ART's crew, and the PresAux humans are trying to help the planet's human colony, as a corporation called Barish-Estranza is trying to use their ignorance of capitalism to trick the humans into entering corporate slavery. Murderbot is also dealing with PTSD after the events of book 5. Can Murderbot, ART, and their humans figure out how to save the colonists from corporate slavery, and themselves from Barish-Estranza's retaliation?

Platform Decay (TMBD #8) - Murderbot must rescue and lead 3 kidnapped members of Dr. Mensah's family through a huge Corporation Rim space station to safety. The mission is made even more complicated by the addition of another kidnapped family to protect and wrangle. Murderbot must keep its humans safe while navigating the huge space station ring, all of the various corporations that own parts of it, the lack of consistent  transport, air pirates, corporate warfare, and clingy children. All while posing as an augmented human, of course.

    This is the only one I'm bothering to do a review for as it's new. I really enjoyed this book, while also not enjoying it because it was so suspenseful the whole time. Even so, I read it twice, basically back to back. This is similar to Network Effect in that Murderbot is entrusted with Mensah's family members who don't even like it but it has to keep them safe. Farai is nice but struggling to understand SecUnit and her wife's bond with it, and Naja (her grandmother, I think) is one of my favorite things in the world, a badass old lady. The third family member is Mensah and Farai's daughter Sofi, whose age isn't given (Murderbot refers to all children and teens as juveniles), but I think she's a tween, somewhere between 9 and 14 years old. Murderbot's growth is really shown in this book; it's actually installed a mental health program (!) and does frequent emotion checks (!!), and its main reason to avoid giving its humans a gun is because it's afraid shooting people will give them trauma! What a change from its previous reason for withholding guns from humans (because it was afraid of being shot by them)! It's also making a real effort to incapacitate instead of kill. I'm so proud of Murderbot :')  ★★★★

 

Martha Wells said in an interview that she's on contract to write one more book, which may be the last one in the series 😭

SHORT STORIES

"Compulsory" - published on Wired.com - This is a TMBD prequel that takes place before book 1. Newly rogue Murderbot decides to disobey its orders and save a human worker.

 

"Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" - This short story takes place on Preservation after Exit Strategy and is told from Dr. Mensah's point of view. Mensah is struggling with PTSD after having been kidnapped, and takes comfort in knowing Murderbot is there for her and will protect her.

 

"Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy" - This short story takes place after Artificial Condition (book 2), but we don't meet most of the characters until book 5. It's told from Iris (ART's "sister" and favorite human)'s point of view. ART's crew is on a mission on a planet undergoing a hostile corporate takeover. Iris notices ART is acting unusually, moping like it misses someone...

 

"Obsolescence" - published in an anthology called Take Us to a Better Place (free on most ebook platforms) - I kind of hesitate to add this one, as none of TMBD characters are in this, but it does take place in TMBD universe, only way earlier (still hundreds of years in the future for us). In one of the later books, Murderbot mentions having started watching a historical TV show about rovers exploring and terraforming planets, and this short story centers rovers (which are like cyborgs I guess). This does have a lot of overlap with TMBD books and stories: human/bot hybrids, augmented humans, precocious children, murder mystery, the themes of capitalism exploiting humans and treating them like things, what it means to be human, etc. This was very sad and rather horrifying and I did not enjoy reading it, but it's very thought-provoking. 

 ~

Trigger warnings for this series: violence, murder, death, gore, corpses, blood, body horror, torture, slavery, kidnapping, that thing of constructs being forced to obey by being electric-shocked by their governor modules and forced to hurt and kill (SecUnits) or have sex with humans (ComfortUnits), Murderbot makes references to having been forced to record humans having sex in the past, inferred threat of gendered sexual violence (Platform Decay only; Murderbot stops it), PTSD, anxiety, depression, trauma, capitalism, constructs and bots not having full sentient person rights and being treated like things/property

~

TELEVISION SHOW - Murderbot

I don't think I've ever talked about the TV show, only that I wanted to watch it! I broke down and paid for 6 months of Apple TV+ (they had a pretty good deal for Black Friday) and have probably watched it 3 times at this point. It's a fairly faithful adaptation, although they trimmed down the PresAux crew and kind of dumbed down/simplified everybody a bit. Like show!Pin-Lee is way less confident than books!Pin-Lee, and they made Ratthi a himbo. Casting Alexander Skarsgard as Murderbot feels a little uninspired, but he's actually so good in the role; he constantly looks like he's seconds away from vomiting from anxiety, which is perfect. The first (and currently only) season adapted All Systems Red (book 1), and it's a pretty decent adaptation. They added and changed things unnecessarily, of course (I wish we could read the feed stuff that pops up better as it's a little too translucent, and the cubicle's design is ridiculous to the point that it's not a cubicle anymore, and don't get me started on Labeebee), but I really like it. They've greenlit a second season, which will adapt books 2-4!! They're novellas, and all part of a story arc, so it makes sense to do them all at once. I can't wait. Murderbot and ART's friendship is so important to me, and I hope the show does it justice. 

End of Gaiman kick

After American Gods and Anansi Boys I read Smoke and Mirrors: Short Fictions and Illusions, which turned out to be a collection of short stories (which I expected) and some poems (which I did not). Gaiman's poems are lovely and creepy, like his fiction. Some pieces were interesting (like the one about an author trying to negotiate with Hollywood people wanting to make his book into a movie and the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired pieces about the coming of Cthulhu and a werewolf) and some were too disturbing or confusing for me. I'd give it an average of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Next I read Neverwhere, which was just great. I wish I'd read it first of all the other Gaiman books; the other books seemed to be competing with it in my mind...? idk. It's a very familiar story: the hapless ordinary guy who get sucked into a fantasy alternate world he didn't even know existed because of a girl he helps (or wants to bang. Luckily it's the former in this book) and then finds out What He's Made Of and proves himself a hero or whatever. Neil Gaiman made it original and wonderful, though. The tone was slightly closer to Anansi Boys'. I believe I mentioned the style reminded me of Terry Pratchett? I think I meant Douglas Adams (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy books), but whatever, I love all of them. Great stuff. I'd give it 4/5.

Here are the Gaiman books I read (I bought them for $1 each at a yard sale benefiting the school where I went to kindergarten. Did I mention that?), in the order of first to least favorite:

1. American Gods (I can't help it; it's so haunting and just stays with you. It pushed too many of my buttons. Shame about the explicit stuff)
2. Neverwhere (yay alternate London! and history! and stuff)
3. Anansi Boys (more funny than anything else. Slightly less awe but still great)
4. Smoke and Mirrors (I cannot write or read or even think of the title without getting this song stuck in my head)

With the addition of the other Gaiman books I've read (most to least favorite, again):

1. American Gods
2. The Graveyard Book (slightly more original than Neverwhere's premise. Also, the only book to date that has made me feel sorry for a vampire. And in the whole book the word vampire is never used! Gaiman respects our intelligence and knows we can figure it out on our own! I love him.)
3. Neverwhere
4. Instructions (Gaiman reads it here in the book trailer)
5. Anansi Boys, Stardust (It's been a while since I've read Stardust. I may like it slightly more or less than AB; I'm not sure)
6. Blueberry Girl (sweet book trailer here)
7. Smoke and Mirrors

Basically I need to read everything else by him. Coraline looks too creepy for me, though.

The Rivals and Further Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

I read two books that are collections of short mystery and detective stories, written and set around the same time as Sherlock Holmes. They ranged from the mediocre (there were some where the mystery was solved but the person got off free, or where the ending was just "...oh." I hate that) to the awesome (a blind detective BAMF is put in a hostage situation because the villains know he's the only one who can stop them. He cuts the electrical light's cord, plunging the room in darkness and putting them all on equal footing. He has the drop on them due to his enhanced hearing and threatens to shoot anyone who moves. They all sit there in the darkness until his friends arrive to save him. The whole time he didn't have a gun). My favorite ones where the ones with lady detectives, because usually other people (men, mostly. These stories tend to be quite male-centric as a matter of course) underestimate them and they come out and solve the case like a boss. I think I liked the Sherlock Holmes stories more because Conan Doyle is better about explaining how he figured out the case. It drives me crazy when no explanations are given. The writing varied due to the different authors, but most of it was about as good as Conan Doyle's. I think the popularity of Sherlock Holmes is due mainly to his singular character. He's just so memorable and iconic. You think of mysteries and detectives and you think of Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson.