Tag Archives: The Murderbot Diaries

Murderbot

by Anna

On Apple TV

I’ve signed up for Apple TV for a month to catch the buzz on Widow’s Bay (loved it!) and decided to watch Murderbot while I was at it. All of us on this blog absolutely love Martha Wells’ ongoing series, but I was resisting the tv show because I had a huge problem with the casting. I’m basically writing this post to air some petty grievances, figuring I have the excuse that we’ve all read the books already.

Alexander Skarsgåard is fine and all (although I don’t really understand the folksy accent he’s going with here), but they had the opportunity for a truly outstanding casting in Vico Ortiz (perhaps better known as Jim from Our Flag Means Death). Murderbot is not just unsexed but explicitly non-gendered in the book, and casting a more petite body type could have given a really interesting emphasis on how robotic strength is not connected to muscle mass at all.

The show is a lot of fun, both in action and comedy, but I think it could have been actually groundbreaking in how we think of humans, ‘augmented’ humans, and robots, which would have been especially timely right now. I got annoyed enough at the visual interpretation that I picked up the book again, and there’s just so many scenes that would have been elevated with someone like Ortiz. To give a nonspoiler example, the first time the science team sees Murderbot in civilian clothes rather than armor, they are disconcerted. One scientist doesn’t even recognize Murderbot, which doesn’t make a lot of sense with a giant Nordic body that seems specifically cast to stand out.

The casting of the science team is great, Dr. Mensah in particular. I wish they would have let the science team in general be more science-y, a little more The Martian than Starship Troopers, but they each get individual characterization and nuance, which is more than a lot of shows manage. The one thing I have to admit the show improves on is the visualization of Murderbot’s favorite space soap The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon; what an absolute delight to see star-laden technicolor snippets!  Anyway, Apple made a good show, but they could have made a great one and I just can’t quite get over that. (I’m loving doing a general murderbot reread, though.)

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

by Rebecca

3rogueprotocolThe Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol
The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy
By Martha Wells
2018

4ExitStrategyThis is a series of four novellas, the first two of which I’ve already reviewed, but I wanted to make at least a little post about the final two, which have now come out and complete the character arc. They are so good! They each stand alone, but they also all work together to be greater than any one part.

They’re also somewhat reassuring in the way that they are set in a dystopian universe but is still pretty blasé about the whole thing. The characters are trying their best, mostly, and while things do go well, mostly, it’s not world changing, except for the main individual who’s trying to figure out its own place in the world.

Life continues on, self-discover continues on, even when you’re wandering around in a world of corporate control and violent greed. And sometimes you can still have a realistically happy ending.

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

by Rebecca

AllSystemsRedThe Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red
The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition
by Martha Wells
2017, 2018

ArtificialConditionThese are the first two stories in the Murderbot Diaries series, which I understand is intended to be a series of four stories, with the remaining two stories due out in August and October, respectively. I am so excited!

It was only in writing up this review for Artificial Condition that I realized I’d somehow failed to write up a review previously for All Systems Red. (“somehow”, ie, I’ve been incredibly lazy about writing reviews and need to hop to it.)

All Systems Red won the Nebula Award for best novella in 2017, which is particularly awesome to me since I had read it before then.

These are really fabulous stories, and one of the rare examples (in my ever so humble opinion) of successful use of first person narrative. And one of the real benefits of the first-person narration is that Murderbot is sexless and genderless, and while the writing addresses that specifically, the lack of a standard non-gendered third-person pronoun in English isn’t a problem because it obviously refers to itself as “I”.

Our protagonist also refers to itself as a Murderbot, although the official designation is “SecUnit”, standing for Security Unit. The more I think about it, the more complex and on point the message becomes in using the term “Murderbot” instead. We are told that SecUnits have governance modules to that keep them controlled and when those governance modules fail, the units will go on essentially murderous rampages seeing everything and everyone as a security risk to be addressed with maximum force. Our protagonist, however, has hacked its governance module and spends its free time downloading media and keeping itself entertained. It performs its assigned tasks, just now by choice (or lack of interest in dealing with alternatives) rather than through direct control, and watches a lot of space opera TV shows.

But then, of course, plot happens, and it turns out that having the freedom to make nuanced decisions rather than follow specified algorithms with pre-set decision trees is actually a real benefit in providing quality security to individuals under attack.

So far, each of the two books has its own plot with characters who need security, but the greater plot arc across the series seems to be figuring out Murderbot’s history and the possibly the nature of SecUnits. But all in all, it’s a delightful character study with some interesting plot. I highly recommend.