the personal journal of Brent Stewart
Remember what it’s like to be excited to see a new book, hardly being able to wait to read it, and then devouring it? Doesn’t happen often, but when I saw that Martha Wells had published a new Murderbot novel I had that feeling.
“Murderbot” is a provactive name and it deserves some explanation. This series is set in a distant future where humanity has populated a big section of the galaxy. Sometimes people are incorporated into robots to form a kind of sentient servant. I don’t think the stories every make it clear how this happened to the protaganist - was he reanimated, or involuntarily changed? Memory wiped, he remembers nothing of that time. In his present form he is a SecUnit. He’s hacked his own software to free himself from the programming, but he’s previously been forced to do things he regrets and calls himself “Murderbot” out of guilt.
These stories are told in the opinionated first person, and part of the charm of the series is the unique voice of Murderbot. The books are entertaining very friendly reads, but they incorporate some heavy themes about otherness, free will, and guilt (for instance) that are subtly slipped into the story.
Oh, yeah.
I recommend the whole series. They’re a lot of fun. For pure entertainment, Murderbot and the Bobiverse are my go-tos. Looks like Wells has a seventh installment coming in November!