Though the long period of a Southern whaling voyage (by far the longest of all voyages now or ever made by man), the peculiar perils of it, and the community of interest prevailing among a company, all of whom, high or low, depend for their profits, not upon fixed wages, but upon their common luck, together with their common vigilance, intrepidity, and hard work; though all these things do in some cases tend to beget a less rigorous discipline than in merchantmen generally; yet, never […]
Muderbot and I Share So Much
Late last year I read Martha Wells’ All Systems Red the first book in her Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, and bestselling series, The Murderbot Diaries. The series features a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into one adventure after another, even though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk. Its perfect day is holed up somewhere dark and quiet with its entertainment feed. I can relate. I travel the last two weeks of the year to […]
This series is so great, I can’t recommend it enough.
And the final Murderbot adventure is over. Well, not final, I guess, since there is going to be a Murderbot novel in 2020 (hooray!), but final FOR NOW. The initial arc of Murderbot becoming a person has concluded. We come full circle in Exit Strategy, with Murderbot traveling back to rescue Dr. Mensah, and teaming up with the initial group of humans from All Systems Red. Murderbot’s irrational grudge against Gurathin continues to give me life: “I don’t want to be a pet robot.” “I […]
Murderbot is the depressed and anxious android you’ve always needed. (CBR10 Bingo 10 & 11)
Bless Cannonball Read, praise be for friends who you know share a similar taste in books, and let the world rejoice for Murderbot. Because November is a busy time here at Cannonball Read (I still have half the assignment emails for Book Exchange to send out) I’ll be using a slightly modified plot summary from Goodreads: In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are (required to be) accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own […]


