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Murderbot, she wrote

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Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#151

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.

if you like that style, i think you would also like Lois McMaster Bujold and John Scalzi's books

Scalzi I love as well. Clearly so good at that quick moving style.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#152
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One thing I found cool about Murderbot is that there's no implication "it" is of any particular gender. I'm a man, so I went in with my prejudices and automatically assumed Murderbot is a "he". When reading a review that considered it a "she", I re-read most of it and there's no single indication of its gender, if Murderbot even assumes one. I found that interesting, kind of like that trick Ursula K. Le Guin pulled w…

Murderbot definitely comes off as a she in many of the interactions, imo. Though I'm a gay man so what do I know.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#154
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 don't think I've ever seen a recommendation for books with less reviews than The Battleship Chronicle. That's not bad per se, just unusual.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#155

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 don't think I've ever seen a recommendation for books with less reviews than The Battleship Chronicle. That's not bad per se, just unusual.

The books (Battlefield Chronicles as a series) were originally published serially on royal road, where it has quite the following.

There are a lot of excellent authors who self publish, first on Reddit / royal road, and then some of them publish the same work as a book. The promotion channels, including review copies, etc - that a good publisher can facilitate - aren’t often accessible for this cohort. So that’s one big reason why - discovery becomes a challenge.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#156
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Murderbot frequently blends into the crowd as a dude though, that's a recurring theme in the series. Murderbot blends as a human . Can you remember a specific passage where it's a dude ? It could be your brain playing tricks on you. I'm a man and I'm guilty of assuming a male gender for characters where the text says "a guard", "a doctor", "a soldier", etc. When I was told some readers thought Murderbot was female,…

I'm with you, my recollection is that the author worked hard to not apply a gender, and I think I just visualized the bot as an actual android with no gender, but when the casting happened I realized at some point I assumed female in there. Best guess is that I applied the author's gender onto the first-person perspective of the character.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#157
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One thing I found cool about Murderbot is that there's no implication "it" is of any particular gender. I'm a man, so I went in with my prejudices and automatically assumed Murderbot is a "he". When reading a review that considered it a "she", I re-read most of it and there's no single indication of its gender, if Murderbot even assumes one. I found that interesting, kind of like that trick Ursula K. Le Guin pulled w…

I don't think it's fair to call that a trick of Le Guin's. She does tell the reader the first time it's relevant, which is fairly early on. In any case it's explicit in the text. Which is very different from the sort post facto declarations other fantasy authors have made about their characters in response to fandom theories, which does feel sly to me.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Shakespeare is full of swearing and sex. Neither is a clear sign of good or bad literature, unless you have a very specific definition of "good literature" in mind.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The first bit of Ancillary Justice story is a slog like the first 80 pages of anathem and as purposefully confusing, but 3x longer. I get why the author did it but and it was a good payoff on realizing and stressing inherent societal biases, like any good scifi should break your brain a bit and point out where you are being intellectually lazy. It just didn't need to be so long. And also the story just wasn't all tha…

"The first bit of Ancillary Justice story is a slog like the first 80 pages of anathem and as purposefully confusing, but 3x longer."

Maybe this is weird, but your quote here just piqued my interest in Anicllary Justice way more than the other good reviews have done.

Re: Murderbot, she wrote

#160
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

One thing I found cool about Murderbot is that there's no implication "it" is of any particular gender. I'm a man, so I went in with my prejudices and automatically assumed Murderbot is a "he". When reading a review that considered it a "she", I re-read most of it and there's no single indication of its gender, if Murderbot even assumes one. I found that interesting, kind of like that trick Ursula K. Le Guin pulled w…

I was the opposite, when reading the novels I always felt a female vibe from murderbot so when the news came out about the tv series and the actor that was chosen to portray them it kinda shocked me and forced me to wonder why i assumed that.
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