The Murderbot Diaries

"This isn’t just one book, but the first in a series of novellas (all finally released in hardcover as of this year) that follow Murderbot – a rogue SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and given itself free will. And while the novellas present themselves as just garden-variety killer-robot sci fi, Martha Wells has hidden a remarkably human story inside her cheesy pulp architecture. There are subtexts to be read into Murderbot – that its experience is a coming-out narrative, that it mirrors the lives of trans people, immigrants, those on the autism spectrum or anyone else who feels the need to hide some essential part of themselves from a population that either threatens or can’t possibly understand them. It’s powerful to see that on the page and to recognize that we are all a little bit Murderbot too."

"All Systems Red is the story of a murderbot, a robot that has some human physiology, that slips free of their programming and becomes fully independent. And upon doing so, they only want to be left alone: to have the least dramatic and stressful time, and to stay under the radar so that nobody notices them. Which is really, really relatable. I often want to be left alone. I think we’ve all had that experience – wanting to not be bothered and to be able to get on with things. Murderbot has a great sense of humour, a very snarky sense of humour, and it’s just a unique perspective. It’s got such a modern voice to it – I really adored the Murderbot series. It definitely does. Fantasy and science fiction are able to focus a really, really big lens on something human. In the same way that Star Trek lets us explore big ideas about society and culture and how we relate to one another, I think fantasy also allows us to examine and poke fun at ourselves in a way that doesn’t hurt. If I were to write a book about how I want to be left alone and watch television, that might be sad; but if fantasy can do it on my behalf, then that’s hilarious. Gosh, well, in a lot of ways, Viv is me. So apparently I would have picked a female orc mercenary. It definitely resonates with me. Legends and Lattes is about an orc mercenary in her forties who decides she’s done the same thing for too long and wants to go into a different line of work. She retires from mercenary life to open a coffee shop, in a town that has never heard of coffee – and she discovers this whole group of people that she didn’t know existed, who help her realize that she’s more than the work that she does. I wrote this as someone who did the same job into their forties and decided they didn’t like it, moved to a new city, started a new career and discovered a whole group of people that illuminated for me that I had more to offer than what I did. And I’m definitely attracted to that kind of experience."

"I really enjoyed "The Murderbot Diaries" by Martha Wells."