Book Review: Murderbot
Apr. 29th, 2021 07:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI have finished Martha Wells’ Network Effect, thus bringing me up to date on all the Murderbot books!... except not, because Fugitive Telemetry was published two days ago. However, I am 18th in line at the library, so I will take this little breathing space to muse briefly on the Murderbots to date.
One thing that struck me about the Murderbot books is that they are basically the opposite of a space western: instead of taking place in a world where there ain’t no Ten Commandments and a man can raise a thirst, they take place in a galaxy where even the most remote of frontier worlds are caught up in a litigious web of contracts. The violence occurs not because of an absence of law, but because most Corporate Rim law is really just a legal fig leaf over injustice and brutality.
The other thing that struck me is that Murderbot is SUCH an iron woobie. (Side note: in the course of polishing the fangirl book, I have learned that modern fandom no longer uses the word woobie. I realized the book was a snapshot of a specific fandom moment but I didn’t realize it was THAT much a fly trapped in amber). This is such catnip for fandom; no wonder I was bombarded by recs for this book on all sides.
I know this is a minority opinion, but at times I wanted Murderbot to be, how shall I put this - fucked up in an uglier way. Yes, sure, it’s pissy and nihilistic in its thoughts (Murderbot uses ‘it’ pronouns), but at bottom it has a rock solid protective streak toward every single decent human being that it meets, and sometimes I wanted a less prosocial manifestation of its trauma.
However, when you have made a character who basically an unstoppable badass, maybe you can’t afford to have it act out its trauma in damaging ways, given that “damaging” might in this case mean “literal mass murder of innocents.” (Also, let’s be real, it’s sooooo satisfying to watch Murderbot rain righteous vengeance on the baddies, no one would want Murderbot to be less unstoppable.)
Also, for some fic brainstorming, check out this Wednesday Reading Meme whereoracne and I discussed a possible Murderbot and Mrs. Pollifax crossover. Carstairs sends Mrs. Pollifax on a mission to the Corporate Rim, where she accidentally befriends Murderbot in a concourse on a station or something, which soon after results in Murderbot saving her from Peril in the very nick of time. (Mrs. Pollifax is always making unlikely friends who become integral to the spy plot.)
Also, somehow Mrs. Pollifax befriends a CombatBot. (Actually, I think it would have to be a CombatUnit? The actual bots Murderbot fights didn’t seem to have enough sentience to be befriendable.) Either the CombatUnit has already hacked its governor module, or Murderbot helps it hack its governor module, or Carstairs sent the CombatUnit to protect Mrs. Pollifax, in which case Mrs. Pollifax will probably have Words with him about the CIA’s use of enslaved sentient constructs when she returns.
Anyway, Murderbot hates the CombatUnit, because (1) it is a CombatUnit, and (2) at the end of the story it goes home with Mrs. Pollifax to become a GardenBot and Murderbot just can’t be having with this pet bot business… By which of course I mean that Murderbot pings GardenBot at least weekly, just to make sure Mrs. Pollifax hasn’t gotten herself in Mortal Peril again, not because it actually cares about GardenBot or anything.
One thing that struck me about the Murderbot books is that they are basically the opposite of a space western: instead of taking place in a world where there ain’t no Ten Commandments and a man can raise a thirst, they take place in a galaxy where even the most remote of frontier worlds are caught up in a litigious web of contracts. The violence occurs not because of an absence of law, but because most Corporate Rim law is really just a legal fig leaf over injustice and brutality.
The other thing that struck me is that Murderbot is SUCH an iron woobie. (Side note: in the course of polishing the fangirl book, I have learned that modern fandom no longer uses the word woobie. I realized the book was a snapshot of a specific fandom moment but I didn’t realize it was THAT much a fly trapped in amber). This is such catnip for fandom; no wonder I was bombarded by recs for this book on all sides.
I know this is a minority opinion, but at times I wanted Murderbot to be, how shall I put this - fucked up in an uglier way. Yes, sure, it’s pissy and nihilistic in its thoughts (Murderbot uses ‘it’ pronouns), but at bottom it has a rock solid protective streak toward every single decent human being that it meets, and sometimes I wanted a less prosocial manifestation of its trauma.
However, when you have made a character who basically an unstoppable badass, maybe you can’t afford to have it act out its trauma in damaging ways, given that “damaging” might in this case mean “literal mass murder of innocents.” (Also, let’s be real, it’s sooooo satisfying to watch Murderbot rain righteous vengeance on the baddies, no one would want Murderbot to be less unstoppable.)
Also, for some fic brainstorming, check out this Wednesday Reading Meme where
oracne and I discussed a possible Murderbot and Mrs. Pollifax crossover. Carstairs sends Mrs. Pollifax on a mission to the Corporate Rim, where she accidentally befriends Murderbot in a concourse on a station or something, which soon after results in Murderbot saving her from Peril in the very nick of time. (Mrs. Pollifax is always making unlikely friends who become integral to the spy plot.) Also, somehow Mrs. Pollifax befriends a CombatBot. (Actually, I think it would have to be a CombatUnit? The actual bots Murderbot fights didn’t seem to have enough sentience to be befriendable.) Either the CombatUnit has already hacked its governor module, or Murderbot helps it hack its governor module, or Carstairs sent the CombatUnit to protect Mrs. Pollifax, in which case Mrs. Pollifax will probably have Words with him about the CIA’s use of enslaved sentient constructs when she returns.
Anyway, Murderbot hates the CombatUnit, because (1) it is a CombatUnit, and (2) at the end of the story it goes home with Mrs. Pollifax to become a GardenBot and Murderbot just can’t be having with this pet bot business… By which of course I mean that Murderbot pings GardenBot at least weekly, just to make sure Mrs. Pollifax hasn’t gotten herself in Mortal Peril again, not because it actually cares about GardenBot or anything.
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Date: 2021-04-29 12:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-29 02:33 pm (UTC)Also, there's clearly some SecUnit-CombatUnit rivalry, and it would be kind of hilarious to see Murderbot FORCED to put up with one of those asshole CombatUnits, ugh, what does Mrs. Pollifax even SEE in it?
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Date: 2021-04-29 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-29 12:15 pm (UTC)Speaking of having enough sentience to be friendable, I liked how Murderbot interacted with bots up and down the self-awareness/sentience scale--in fact I was pretty charmed/amused when she'd be dealing with some very limited ship navigation bot, etc. Yeah, she would pull the wool over its eyes, but always politely and in a friendly way.
I really liked the time we got to spend with the other SecUnit in Network Effect, because it showed just how much of Murderbot was Murderbot's own personality and not, y'know, "Well, any SecUnit who's freed of its governor module is probably going to be like/feel like/act like Murderbot." I liked that that was an eye-opener for Murderbot itself.
Can't speak to your Mrs. Pollifax crossover having never read Mrs. Pollifax, but I'm sure you'd have takers!
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Date: 2021-04-29 12:51 pm (UTC)I think Murderbot's protectiveness towards other bots is solidly consistent with its protectiveness of humans who aren't awful.
I really want to read more about Three from Network Effect.
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Date: 2021-05-03 07:39 pm (UTC)I don't know if we actually get any info about this during Murderbot's quest for information about the massacre, but I could definitely see that contributing to Murderbot's whole SECUNITS CAN'T BE FRIENDS thing, too.
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Date: 2021-04-29 02:34 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2021-05-03 04:26 am (UTC)It *is* well done--the way human characters are pretty much Obstacle No. 1, Obstacle No. 2, Irritation No. 1, Irritation No. 2, etc. ... until eventually a few of them pull into focus and win a sense of presence that attaches to a name.
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Date: 2021-05-03 04:33 am (UTC)I'll have to check but I don't think it does descriptions that often -- that's another human thing, when we're reading, we get detailed or semi-detailed descriptions of the people immediately, and some standout detail so we don't confuse Meatsack 1 with Fancy Tunic Meatsack. But Murderbot really isn't into that. I think that's another reason why some reasons find the humans flat, altho Murderbot just isn't interacting with the humans in a human-type way (eye contact, big facial expressions, basic politeness lol).
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Date: 2021-04-29 12:18 pm (UTC)I've seen "sweaterboy" used on Tumblr in recent years, although it lacks a verb form a la woobify.
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Date: 2021-04-29 02:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-29 03:13 pm (UTC)* = "The Sweaterboy is stable. The Sweaterboy is settled. The Sweaterboy lives within a familiar pattern, and is, in all likelihood, highly competent at what they do. But is the Sweaterboy happy? Fuck no, dude! For all the love and devotion and loyalty that the Sweaterboy puts out into the world, they rarely receive any such appreciation or recognition in return. And the Sweaterboy thinks that this is what relationships — of any kind — should look like: giving and giving and giving, and never actually asking for what they want. Because that would be selfish. The Sweaterboy would never want to burden anyone; the Sweaterboy, deep down, fears very much that they are a burden." (x)
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Date: 2021-04-29 03:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-29 06:21 pm (UTC)Internet fan culture! It's odd.
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Date: 2021-04-29 10:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-29 11:37 pm (UTC).................okay this one was a bad example. (Also, my experience of both of those fandoms was in a vague, second- and third-hand, "oh, look what the neighbors are doing now" kind of way. Possibly Theo was the sweaterboy, because Boris seems like a solid choice for absolute nightmare? Although really that seems like more of an Absolute Nightmare 4 Absolute Nightmare situation.)
Note that one of the "sweaterboy" examples given in the article I linked was Grantaire from Les Mis, so we're at like, unhinged levels of fanon-characterization nonsense here. Which I guess loops us back around to woobie/woobified.
Honestly the Ultimate Sweaterboy is Quentin Coldwater from The Magicians TV show. Absolutely not in the books though.
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Date: 2021-04-30 12:20 am (UTC)/end rant about a fandom you are not even in.
Grantaire characterization has become WILDLY detached from anything that is any iteration of Les Miserables canon. My personal favorite complete nonsense fanon is the trend for him to be Woker than Enjolras, because it's the complete opposite of their characterization in the books.
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Date: 2021-04-30 01:35 am (UTC)The post-2012, Tumblr-centric Les Mis fandom was (is?) A Lot.
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Date: 2021-04-29 03:37 pm (UTC)And you're right, of course, MurderBot is utterly and completely an iron woobie. Which is a trope I love when it's well-written, so no complaints here, but "iron woobie with anxiety who binge-watches media" is just an INCREDIBLY concentrated payload of fandom catnip, lol. Kudos to Martha Wells!
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Date: 2021-04-29 10:35 pm (UTC)Murderbot is the IRONEST of woobies. Really the apotheosis of the character type tbh.
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Date: 2021-04-30 09:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-04-30 08:59 pm (UTC)I am weird so I think my very fave thing about this series was Murderbot getting a lot more comfortable with humans joking. It's always had its own black humour jokes, but now it seems to be like "okay some of the humans that don't suck joke too, all right."
I did miss ART. ART + Murderbot = my absolute fave BROTP.
Murderbot is very concerned with names. “Its name is not JollyBaby.” Tell me its name is not JollyBaby.
My second very fave thing was the giant rescue bag. I dunno if it was an actual nod to Le Guin's Carrier Bag Theory of fiction, but Murderbot twigging that it couldn't use the thing that would ID it and actually using a piece of history in a very pragmatic way was just awesome. Murderbot will rescue you!....IN A BAG.
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