[LMB] OT: Tea Party - books discussed - Murderbot

[Elizabeth Holden]

On Sep 11, 2021, at 9:10 PM, brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote:
>
> I read “All Systems Red” and had no desire to read another.   But I
> see "Network Effect" won a Hugo.

I loved "All Systems Red" and couldn't stop reading till I got to the end.

> Maybe it is just him calling himself a Murderbot that turned me off.

This isn't really a spoiler - it's established near the beginning that
there has been erasure of Murderbot's memory of events,  and Murderbot was
said to have killed people. Hence using the self-designation "Murderbot",
possibly in a sense of misguided guilt, possibly in ironic protest.
Murderbot is very protective of people, as we see early on and throughout
the series.

>  But
> I really don’t remember the plot all that well.

I remember the plot and theme of the series as a whole, but since I read
them one after another, I don't recall where each one began and ended.

Katherine said:

>  I liked other Martha Wells books,

I wanted to like them, but really didn't much like "the Cloud Roads". Could
you suggest a better starting place? Something without the Raksura?

> But Murderbot itself (never referred to as “he” or “she” — easier than
you might think, since it > is the narrator) turns out to be so _kind_.
Well, maybe kind is the wrong word.

Thoughtful?  Compassionate? I used "protective" above - it's sort of a mix
of these things.

>  It is wrestling with what being human means, even though it denies being
human.

Such wonderful books, in my opinion.

Katherine
namaste,
Elizabeth

Elizabeth Holden <azurite at azurite.ca>