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Murderbot, she wrote

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Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#61
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.

Same. It was ok. Kind of ended before it got going. Definitely not good enough to make me want to read more.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#62
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Which were your favorites?

I’m curious if Witch King will be standalone or not. That might change my answer. The Ile Rien ones were good, the Emilie ones would make good YA fare. The Raksura books are told by a nonhuman culture, but things get very dark at some points. I’d say that one of the main characters in that series is a bit of a prototype for Murderbot, and another the prototype for Ship.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#63
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you read the later entries in the series?

Yes. I don't remember Murderbot using the Rin disguise / persona later on.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#64
post #11

Super fun popcorn sci-fi books. I enjoyed them all. Popcorn thrillers are books that are lighter in content, jam-packed with entertainment value, and not too dark, and meant to be read in one sitting.

They reminded me a lot of a sci-fi version of the classic action hero airport novel stuff like Jack Reacher or the Bourne books. Just a super competent hero who generally succeeds despite things being messy and chaotic.

Yeah, I think it's actually hard to write something that quick moving and action packed.

It's perhaps a different skill then character development or world building or prose polishing, but it's how you get these books people blaze through.

( Now sometimes I blaze thru something and hate it at the end, but thats a different problem ... )

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#65

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

absolutely! better than murderbot imo, especially the first two books.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#66

I haven't read the stories for many years now but for some reason both I and my wife assumed the bot would look female, and both of us were independently surprised to learn that the protagonist was cast as male in the upcoming series.

I assumed MurderBot would not look male or female but look androgynous. Additionally the merging of machine and meat would result in thin limbs, likely they are going to have to do a lot of CGI work in post. Casting a big name actor in the role, especially a male actor who tends to play tough guys, seems like a mistake. ~80% of the murderbot fans I've talked to, decided they weren't watching the series when they hear…

Really? My partner and I and some of our friends thought the opposite. Skarsgård can be tough but in many of his roles he exhibits a fairly unconventional form of masculinity.

My expectation is that he's going to be able to play an ungendered character quite well.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#67

I haven't read the stories for many years now but for some reason both I and my wife assumed the bot would look female, and both of us were independently surprised to learn that the protagonist was cast as male in the upcoming series.

That's interesting! My wife and I both pictured him as masculine. In my case, as a cis, bi man who's honestly evaluated how I play my gender, it was because a lot of the way Murderbot feels about being amidst humans is IMO just dead-on how a lot of men feel being amidst women?

Like "everyone here is a little wary of me, and I can't even really blame them for it, because I just categorically am a more threatening presence."

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#68
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

I read the first three books of the Imperial Radh (Ancillary Justice) series and for all of the love they get online I found them rather dull. There's this fairly dramatic collapse of a galaxy spanning empire happening in the background while the protagonist frets over the level of offense she might cause at the tea party if she chooses to wear the more scandalous gloves. The last book gets a bit more into the fractured psyche of the ruler, but even that gets shoved in the background far more than you would expect so the protagonist can worry about how she might hurt the feelings of the local planetary governor if she doesn't show up for his garden party.

The protagonist is basically a disconnected Borg drone, although in their universe the drones are left with a bit more autonomy than the Star Trek equivalents, but because the protagonist is disconnected it doesn't matter nearly as much as you would expect.

If you're interested in a big space opera about an empire falling apart I found the Collapsing Empire series by John Scalzi to be much more engaging.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#69
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.

Murderbot is indeed somewhere between OK and good—personally I’m leaning towards good, but I wouldn’t compare it to a masterclass in short-form writing (like anything by Sheckley) or a longer piece you could debate for hours afterwards (like A Memory Called Empire, to give a recent example). It doesn’t try to be mind-numbingly flashy, it doesn’t proselytize, it just brings you to alien vistas to meditate on the nature of universal human experience. That is to say, it belongs to a good, storied strain of SF that’s quite rare amongst its modern specimens.

I’d rave about that.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I read the first three books of the Imperial Radh (Ancillary Justice) series and for all of the love they get online I found them rather dull. There's this fairly dramatic collapse of a galaxy spanning empire happening in the background while the protagonist frets over the level of offense she might cause at the tea party if she chooses to wear the more scandalous gloves. The last book gets a bit more into the fractu…

I quite liked the focus on minutiae while the bigger events were happening in the background. The third book even discussed it - we live or die today after this battle, but if we live then we still need to do the staff rota. It gave a little sense of realism that made the larger events more relatable.
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