Reading – The Murderbot Diaries

I started reading Martha Wells years ago with Death of the Necromancer, a tale echoing The Count Of Monte Cristo with Sherlock Holmes and Arsene Lupin mixed into a fantasy world of magic and political intrigue. Then years went by until I stumbled upon All Systems Red, the first book in the Murderbot Diaries. It’s a very different voice and it’s that voice you will either love or despise. Told from the first person narrative of the titular Murderbot, a heavily augmented cyborg intended for use as an expendable security unit, who spends a lot of time complaining about many things – stupid humans, risk assessment modules, and charging into risky situations to rescue those stupid humans. The text is quick, punchy, and easy to digest in relatively short novels but it’s going to be that neurotic inner monologue that will make or break it for the reader.

The expression of technology is everywhere but it’s detail is light and non-crunchy. It’s ever present with augmented humans of varying degrees, robotic drones, and AI operated spacecraft. There’s galaxy spanning worm hole engines and a number of lost colony worlds being rediscovered but the action is mostly on planet or space station. There’s some exposition to explain it all but it it doesn’t get into hardcore technical details.

Then there’s the corporations. Almost all of those encountered are villainous, out for profit over people, but there are a few positive forces out there looking out for colonists and scientific expeditions. Over the series, the tension between the colonies and the corporations and access to alien remnant technology drive several of the plots.

Minor plot point – Murderbot is a fugitive, not for being a murder machine (they’re not) but for having hacked their own programming, namely their governor module that controls cyborg security and combat units. given the choice of freedom, Murderbot would rather watch soap operas – they certainly make more sense than the humans Murderbot has to deal with.

For the Gamer Eye

I’m taking inspiration from The Murderbot Diaries for setting details in a game of Scum & Villainy I’m running, but there’s plenty of fodder for some Mothership world building like hazardous alien relics and rogue AIs. I suspect that if I were to ever run a game of Traveller, I might lift more than a few ideas from this series. It has a good mix of mystery, action, and exploration.

Finally, in many ways I could totally see this as a Young Adult series (themes of alienation, search for identity, dealing with overwhelming crises) except for a fair number of F-bombs dropped by Murderbot. Apparently there is a television adaptation in the works, so depending on how that goes, it might be between PG 13 and R for language and violence. The book doesn’t go gory in it’s violence, even though more than once Murderbot gets shot and pummeled and even loses parts (and there’s a fair number of others adding to the body count over the series). It’s certainly not as dark as many cyberpunk series (Altered Carbon, Neuromancer) though it has similar themes to a few in terms of exploitive corporations and cyber enhancements.