A Certain Slant of Light

I 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 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.

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

I am deeply annoyed to inform you that I loved Martha Wells’ All Systems Red just as much as everyone told me I would. I’ve already finished Artificial Condition, I’m reading Rogue Protocol, and I’ve got Exit Strategy on deck. I hope you are all VERY proud of yourselves.

Murderbot ended up rather overshadowing the other space book I read this week, Becky Chambers’ To Be Taught, If Fortunate. This is not really fair, as they are such different types of space book that except for the fact that I read them back to back, I probably wouldn’t have compared them. Murderbot is a shot directly to the feels; To Be Taught, If Fortunate is a quiet, meditative book about space exploration, with professional and mostly emotionally balanced scientist protagonists who eagerly log the strange and lovely life forms of the solar system they are exploring.

Ever since chantefable posted a link to the Youtube channel “How to Cook the Victorian Way” I have been a devotee, so when I saw that there was a book version, How to Cook the Victorian Way with Mrs. Crocombe, I gobbled it right up. None of these recipes are ones I would cook myself (well, maybe some of the biscuits?), but the book is chock full of interesting tidbits about Victorian cookery, so well worth a read.

AND FINALLY (these are all pretty short books, so there are a lot of them) I zoomed through the latest Baby-sitters Club graphic novel, Claudia and the New Girl, which is based on my favorite Baby-sitters Club book and as such almost inevitably couldn’t quite live up to its source material… but I’m so glad that these graphic novel adaptations exist to introduce the Baby-sitters Club to a new generation.

What I’m Reading Now

As aforementioned, the third Murderbot novella, Rogue Protocol. I kind of love Miki, the world’s most enthusiastically perky robot, and even more I love watching Murderbot go OH GOD STOP.

Also continuing my Newbery Honor project with Walter Dean Myers’ Somewhere in the Darkness from 1993. Myers has a sort of Hemingwayvian telegraphic style that I don’t find very appealing, but the book is at least pretty short.

What I Plan to Read Next

If I can wrench myself away from Murderbot for a bit, I’d really like to read Kikuko Tsumura’s There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job, so the five people who have it on hold after me can get a crack at it.