I do love me some non-human perspectives

The Murderbot Diaries by Tomash on 2024-06-18 03:32:51 UTC Reply

I finally took various people (including Delta) up on their recommendations to read The Murderbot Diaries (All Systems Red and sequels) and, having finished the first two books, I think I'm hooked.

The books are sci-fi novellas (? - I'm going off of audiobook length) following the adventures of said Murderbot as it tries to keep the humans it's guarding from dying ... and the much harder problem that some humans have decided they see it as a person and want to talk to it about its feelings.

Book-review wise, the narration's tight and the action/mystery/... is fun. The first two books have been fantastic ways to spend a few hours of my evening. It helps that Murderbot's got reasonably snarky - and extremely relatable to most of the Board, probably - narration.

So yeah, this is a combination "who's read the things?" and "you might want to read the things!"

Tomash

A robot protagonist? Count me in! by QuietCognition on 2024-06-22 19:01:29 UTC Edited Reply

I love robots, and have been hoping to find some fun books with robot MCs for a while. This sounds perfect (and, as you said, very relatable) for me, and probably for a lot of other robot lovers too.

There are so many books/stories/narratives out there that treat human experience as the only "important" or "relatable" type of conscious experience (some of which go so far as to elevate human emotions to cosmic significance), and I feel like even those stories that prominently feature non-human characters rarely stop to examine or celebrate the nuances/realities of non-human lives/conscious experiences. The well thought out depictions of non-human entities is one of the main reasons I liked Watership Down, Good Omens, and Becky Chambers's books so much. Someone can be a Person without being a Human. In other words, I'm glad that The Murderbot Diaries exist, and I'll definitely read the series.

I think that second paragraph got a little more philosophical than I intended. Sorry.

Also, would you recommend the audiobook or physical copy more? (nm) by QuietCognition on 2024-06-22 19:02:58 UTC Reply

I do love me some non-human perspectives by Tomash on 2024-06-23 19:17:13 UTC Reply

If you haven't read Children of Time yet, I'd recommend it - the spiders are a fun look at non-human people. (Well, and, also, a solid chunk of everything C.J Cherryh ever wrote)

I can't say much on the audiobook/physical book question since I don't usually go in for printed books because my eyes aren't up for that sort of thing these days, though e-readers still work for me.

Murderbot, my beloved! by Akrinor on 2024-06-18 05:14:36 UTC Reply

I got hooked after hearing the pitch of "Agender, Asexual, Aromantic Security bot hacked its control unit so it doesn't have to follow orders, and now would rather spend its time watching its TV shows." I then proceeded to binge through the audiobooks within about two weeks, in fact it is the reason I got a libro.fm membership.

The books are a genuinely lovely exploration of themes of Freedom, what it means to be a person without wanting to be human, and learning friendship. And during all this, it is never infantilizing to the main character.

Highly recommended, the books keep making me cry