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Murderbot, she wrote

wired.com

41–50 of 183 posts

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Murderbot doesn't have a gender, so it'll probably be a pretty androgynous look anyway. I listened to Kevin R Free's fantastic narration, so maybe I would have expected a male actor, except that I do the aphantasia thing and never visualize anything from books to begin with!

Murderbot frequently blends into the crowd as a dude though, that's a recurring theme in the series.

Yes, I was surprised by all the people here who had a female mental picture for this reason. While obviously it is genderless, my recollection was that there were plenty of times where the narrative had it passing as male.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#43

If you like Murderbot, you owe yourself to check out her other series, The Cloud Roads. Absolutely fantastic.

When I tried to answer the question, “what did you do with your time while you were laid off?” Part of that answer was “read about forty books” of which about twenty were Wells’

5 Ile Rien, 7 Cloud Roads, 2 Emilie, Witch King, plus rereading Murderbot

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#44
post #16

If you like Murderbot, you owe yourself to check out her other series, The Cloud Roads. Absolutely fantastic.

Another good one is Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky Also, I feel like if I am recommending something I have to recommend Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is my current obsession. I've read all the books multiple times in multiple formats, but it's not much like Murderbot.

See also Ann Leckie’s Ancillary books (5)

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#45
post #2

One of my favorite series in the last few years. The tech side of things are believable enough (at least compared to the usual handwavy nature of sci-fi books) and now I understand why, as it seems Wells has a history in IT! I'm struggling to not gush about this book and trying to avoid spoilers, but if you like a good sci-fi action/adventure book with a strong lean towards a journey of self discover it's really wort…

I echo this. If you liked murderbot, you might also like the Battleship Chronicles series by L. Claire (1), and ofcourse, the Imperial Radh series by Ann Leickie (2), and bobiverse, mentioned below, by Dennis Taylor (3), among others..

(1) https://www.goodreads.com/series/391892-the-battleship-chron...

(2) https://www.goodreads.com/series/113751-imperial-radch

(3) https://www.goodreads.com/series/192752-bobiverse

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#46
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, Murderbot's "Security Consultant Rin" human disguise is apparently female.

No it's not.

Why do you say that?

I don't have access to the books right now, but from what I remember, Rin is referred to as she/her, and random Reddit comments (https://www.reddit.com/r/murderbot/comments/118s7on/comment/...) back that up.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#47
post #20

I'm a bit mystified by the hype for murderbot. I read it and thought it was OK but a lot of people rave about it. Still not every book is for every person, it didn't connect with me but it very obviously has its fans.

I enjoyed the novella but also didn't feel like it did anything particularly new or interesting. I think a lot of people just relate to a snarky unwilling protagonist who would rather be watching TV.

My thought when I was reading it was that Murderbot is a stand in for people on the autism spectrum. This is an unusual viewpoint in literature and probably resonated with a lot of people in a similar situation. I personally liked the stories and will read the next installment when it comes out, but found myself gravitating more towards ART than Murderbot. If I had any quibbles it would be how the living people are underdeveloped and sometimes no better than background furniture. This naturally arises from the viewpoint of the protagonist, but can be somewhat annoying to the reader.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed the novella but also didn't feel like it did anything particularly new or interesting. I think a lot of people just relate to a snarky unwilling protagonist who would rather be watching TV.

My thought when I was reading it was that Murderbot is a stand in for people on the autism spectrum. This is an unusual viewpoint in literature and probably resonated with a lot of people in a similar situation. I personally liked the stories and will read the next installment when it comes out, but found myself gravitating more towards ART than Murderbot. If I had any quibbles it would be how the living people are u…

It seems to have a lot of resonance with trans people too. I'm autistic but there's enough overlap between the two groups that I've noticed how people in both communities react to the series.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#49

If you like Murderbot, you owe yourself to check out her other series, The Cloud Roads. Absolutely fantastic.

I found the Il-Rien books more engaging than the Cloud Roads. Especially the Fall of Il-Rien trilogy. I'm currently reading the two-in-one book they released earlier this year in the Il-Rien universe.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#50
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Murderbot frequently blends into the crowd as a dude though, that's a recurring theme in the series.

Yes, I was surprised by all the people here who had a female mental picture for this reason. While obviously it is genderless, my recollection was that there were plenty of times where the narrative had it passing as male.

I'll say I've only read the first ... uh... three? four? novellas, and it's been many moons. I don't recall any point where having a female form would've been noteworthy. Not like a /Stomship Troopers/ shared shower moment or anything.

Mainly I think we came up with that mindset immediately upon reading the first novella and never updated it.

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