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Murderbot, she wrote

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Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#131

Post by derwiki »

jandrese wrote: post #68
moh_maya wrote: post #45

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 have a nagging feeling that Collapsing Empire isn’t “good” literature (the swearing and sex?) but really enjoyed it, along with the other Scalzi books I’ve read. As others have pointed out, the reason for collapse are unique compared to other collapsing empire stories.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#132

Post by noch »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #96
mananaysiempre wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 natu…

A Memory Called Empire is probably the best book I’ve ever read

> A Memory Called Empire is probably the best book I’ve ever read

For context, how many books have you read? (I don't intend to sound confrontational, I just want an idea of what level of reader you are so I know how much stock to place in your praise of the novel.)

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#133

Post by jillesvangurp »

gcanyon wrote: post #123

My wife and I happened to be in Iceland when Alexander Skarsgård was filming something. We saw him standing idly by while something was being set up, so my wife walked up and asked if she could get a photo with him. So I have a picture of my wife hugging Alexander Skarsgård, and I get to tell people my wife left Alexander Skarsgård to be with me :-) re: Murderbot -- I read the first novella when it was on sale for $1…

Turned me off as well. I bought part one. And then I realized it was very short. And then I saw the prices for the rest of the series. I might read it if it was bundled up and heavily discounted (like 70-80%). But this is just too much for way too little.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#134

Post by pizlonator »

the_af wrote: post #85

I really enjoyed Murderbot, and seeing people here (completely within their rights!) saying it's "just ok", let me say why I think it's more than merely "ok". By the way, long scifi fan here, so I'm aware of the conventions of the genre. - Murderbot is neither a "he" nor a "she". This isn't immediately obvious on a first read, and I initially assumed it was a "he", but there's absolutely zero indication of its gender…

Yeah.

Also, the fact that murderbot is genderless is so ambiguous that if you want to you can read the books as if he was male or she was female, or as if they were genderless, or really anything that floats your boat. Murderbot is a perfect blank slate. I think that’s really innovative; I can’t think of another book I have read that achieves that to the point that the gender is just fill-in-the-blank (pls give me examples if you know). It’s quite cool and didn’t feel like woke overload to me.

Another thing: there is a huge amount of exploration of what makes us human in how Murderbot is portrayed. I found some of it to be quite deep. The fact that it’s combined with super fun action strengthens the depth, I think.

Super cool series, glad Wells is seeing a lot of success from this. I’ll definitely watch the TV show and can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#135

Post by shepherdjerred »

noch wrote: post #132
shepherdjerred wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Memory Called Empire is probably the best book I’ve ever read

> A Memory Called Empire is probably the best book I’ve ever read For context, how many books have you read? (I don't intend to sound confrontational, I just want an idea of what level of reader you are so I know how much stock to place in your praise of the novel.)

I wouldn't consider myself a huge reader, though recently I've discovered that might be because I just haven't consistently found books I like.

Since graduating high school ~5 years ago I've probably read ~50 fiction books. I'm a big fan of Dune, Three-Body Problem, The Martian, and other similar sci-fi books.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#136

Post by shepherdjerred »

awithrow wrote: post #126
shepherdjerred wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Memory Called Empire is probably the best book I’ve ever read

What resonated so much for you to like it so much? I remember reading it and thought it was fine but I don't think any of it was particularly memorable.

I don't really have the time to write a thoughtful comment right now.

I loved the world-building and how the author weaved poetry into the narrative. I liked how the world felt unfamiliar at first and gradually the author helped make sense of how politics and individuals fit together.

A big part of it might be that I've only read a handful of good sci-fi books so I have less to compare to.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#137

Post by human_person »

HelloMcFly wrote: post #90
finnh wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Definitely don't read the most recent one, Translation Space. It's some very bad "I like you but I don't know how to say it!" YA-vein tropes and the climactic scene is, essentially, people walking around a circular hallway a couple times. It was so bad it caused me to re-read the original three, and I realized that only the first was one was any good.

> the climactic scene is, essentially, people walking around a circular hallway a couple times I feel like once you decide you don't like something, it's very easy to get reductionist about it in a way that makes it sound stupid or trite even if the reductionist statement is true. This summary to me is a quintessential example. I liked the book alright, but certainly not enough to get into a debate about it. If you l…

Its probably my least favorite of all of her books but I liked the approach to describing an additional dimension. And the idea of the alien translators grown in human bodies and the development of a species/culture

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#138

Post by cyrnel »

HelloMcFly wrote: post #93
dartharva wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'm willing to believe you are right, but not without someone finding the text to indicate as such. I do not recall this being the case, but I've only read the first two.

I checked and I don't think so. Artificial Condition includes "blending in" as someone of "indeterminate" gender named "Eden" with longer-than-short hair and longer-than-normal eyebrows, which seems to be a careful non-gendered description.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#139

Post by noch »

shepherdjerred wrote: post #135
noch wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A Memory Called Empire is probably the best book I’ve ever read For context, how many books have you read? (I don't intend to sound confrontational, I just want an idea of what level of reader you are so I know how much stock to place in your praise of the novel.)

I wouldn't consider myself a huge reader, though recently I've discovered that might be because I just haven't consistently found books I like. Since graduating high school ~5 years ago I've probably read ~50 fiction books. I'm a big fan of Dune, Three-Body Problem, The Martian, and other similar sci-fi books.

> I just haven't consistently found books I like.

I can relate. A lot of people, myself included, seem to be having this problem. The past 20 years of publishing has been weird.

Thanks for your response. I enjoy the same kind of sci-fi that you do, so I've got myself a copy of A Memory Called Empire. :-) Thanks again.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#140

Post by whaaaaat »

mercutio2 wrote: post #104
acdha wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do they have any male authors you describe that way?

[not the original person you asked the question of] I cannot stand Becky Chambers. I've tried to read her three times, and after about 20 pages I give up. Of the thousand or so novels I've read in the last 20 years, I've done that with about 5 books. One of my friends asked my why I was so vituperative about Becky Chambers. I said it was just so bad. They pointed out that I really, really sounded like I was channelin…

I absolutely adore Becky Chambers (and Murderbot, incidentally), but I also love low stakes sci-fi.

I want more stories about people just... living unremarkable lives in remarkable places. Like, I don't need to read about Batman, but reading about the guy who runs the bodega in Gotham City? Yum yum yum, that's absolutely food for me.

I describe Chambers to others as "cozy" sci-fi.

That said, I think her different works hit differently. The Monk and Robot series is a really poignant pair of novellas about what it means to be human in a solarpunk world.

The Wayfarer series (Long Way to a Small Angry Planet) is slice of life stories of people caught in awkward situations around space. It's like, "What are people on the fringes doing in Star Trek -- not Picard types, but like, construction crews or black market dealers or space communists or people who get stuck at a motel because the highway shuts down. What if Firefly was a little less high energy.

I disagree with your assessments a little, but not enough to make a fuss. I think it's absolutely fair to say, "This wasn't to my taste".

That said, I'm also queer, poly, and use neopronouns, so I think I may be primed for science fiction that takes the transhumanism language and explores those topics in ways that doesn't treat those topics are scandalous or shocking.

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