Maximum Occupancy

In a group book chat, that never went anywhere and had me slipping out of when I realized that book clubs may just be a front for other interests (we weren’t reading books fast enough and it was turning political real quick), I learned about the Murderbot Diaries. I cannot claim credit for finding the author out on my own, and although I am not sure who said they liked it, it is (another) thing that we can both agree on.

The first four novellas are the perfect type of futuristic space style science fiction. Like the Alien franchise, it seems modern to imagine a future in which corporations instead of countries subjugate people via underhanded colonist tactics. There are robots and AI tech, used to maintain control and used as weapons by the corporations. If there is a bad guy in this story, it is the business organizations that control people and manipulate scientists and resources, it is a believable progression and downside to advancements in technology, this is the future of colonialism.

The stories are told from the perspective and internal dialogue of self proclaimed Murderbot, a security cyborg robot who hacked their own governor module after a job in which they inexplicably took out a mass amount of people. A logical response to a nonsensical event, that allowed them to develop an anxious personality and a taste for serial soap operas.

The length of each story is so quick, and yet easy for most people to understand the future and characters that the author has imagined. Of the first four stories in the series the only real dud is the third one, but I could see it as somewhat needed to drive the action and drama of the series.

With the start of the story All Systems Red, we get a feel for the personality and humanity of the main character. Set up as a space thriller, there are mysterious events and a lot of action. Up to this contract that they took, no one was aware that Murderbot was doing their own thing (mostly watching the tv via feeds).

This first novella in the series also introduces the interactions that Murderbot has with their clients, of the humans that we get to know this group plays a role later on in the story so there is flavor and dynamic to their interactions that makes you want to see Dr. Mensah creep up again.

But so far, it is their interactions with other bots and the characters introduced that are not human that I have grown attached to, and is probably the real reason why I keep on with the series. In the second novella, Artificial Condition, Murderbot has separated from Dr Mensah, as they are still unsure of the doctors intentions and if humans can be trusted. In their escape they come across ART, in the research transport ship they have stowed away on, and this tech is giving me series side kick sass that makes me want to demand a full series on ART cause they have main character energy! ART is here with the quips and the first hand observational knowledge to call out that Murderbot is not fooling anyone. I may have been remiss to see this part of their journey end, and maybe that is why I was not so into the next batch of humans and tech that is Rogue Protocol.

Rogue Protocol is not badly written and it is needed to get us to the events that is in book three/was mentioned in the first book, it just did not have the character interactions I have come to expect with the other novels. This is a new group of humans, a different AI personality and maybe like Murderbot I didn’t get the whole “Miki is happy being pet style slave bot” story that was going on. While this may have been better wrapped into the other books that I loved, I did finish it and kept up with the series. My last read being novella four.

Exit Strategy brings the story back to Dr. Mensah and the question of whether they can be trusted, and I was pleased. Murderbot is a relatable character in their anxiety, response to human interactions, and self doubt, but as an intelligent and logical character: even when they make the wrong assumption or misread the interactions their internal dialogue make sense of their missteps in a way that I wish I had in my life.

From this point in the story, the novellas become full fledge novels, but I am invested and have high hopes for the rest of the series. I do wonder how it will end, since I feel that with this type of character and universe, it could be ongoing. Something that I would not be averse to, give us more ART!