Murderbot not thinking “whatever” every time it pretends not to care about something challenge (impossible)

I think one reason Goncharov worked so well is that on tumblr you’re regularly being subjected to fandoms you’re not in and media you’ve never seen. I assumed the people i followed all just got really into some movie that I had no interest in and scrolled right past for a solid week before realizing.

me too, buddy. me fucking too

The Locked Tomb Series Summary:

The “Lesbian Necromancers in Space” book series

The Murderbot Diaries Summary:

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern. On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid--a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

Murderbot is MurderBACK in the next installment of Martha Wells’s NYT bestselling Murderbot Diaries series System Collapse 🤖🚀

WHAT’S IT ABOUT

Following the events of Network Effect, our favorite lethally cybernetic television fiend has done the previously unthinkable: agreed to accompany the sentient spaceship Perihelion (dubbed ART by Murderbot, short for Asshole Research Transport) and crew on its next mission. 

Unfortunately, they’re not going to get too far. 

Having failed to harvest dangerous artifacts from their target planet by way of Murderbot misadventure, the Barish-Estranza corporation is much angered and determined to recoup their considerable losses. And when you’re a lethally opportunistic space corp, blood and muscle are valuable currency. 

Murderbot, ART’s crew, and the Preservation humans have planetside work to do as Barish-Estranza seeks to claim the planet’s beleaguered colony as a conscripted workforce. 

But for Murderbot, the challenge is as internal as it is external. Something is deeply, deeply wrong with it. Normal operational parameters are unmet, but with the corp’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams en route, Murderbot needs to resolve its issues, and fast!

so ive been getting into a new book series

Me watching tv: it’s what murderbot would have wanted

For those of us who cannot comprehend big numbers (me) I have done the math. FOUR FUCKING YEARS. SECUNIT WHAT THE FUCK.

So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. Also, if I’m not in the armor then it’s because I’m wounded and one of my organic parts may fall off and plop on the floor at any moment and no one wants to see that.

one last fancomic to finish off the year, from asr this time!!

Do you know this queer character?

Murderbot is Agender, Aromantic, and Asexual and uses it/its pronouns!

actually i think one of my favorite things about murderbot is how it is CONSTANTLY like "i lie so much i'm such a liar all i do is lie to everyone" and then the moment it's confronted with a situation where it has the choice between lying and telling the truth, it usually either (a) panics and tells the truth or (b) tells the truth because it doesn't know a lie good enough to assist in the situation.

at some point in one of the books it's like "so i told the truth. (i know, that surprised me too)" and i was just sitting there like murderbot, love, you're the only one surprised by this. you are a proven and chronic truth-teller. the only reason why it's convinced that it lies more than it tells the truth is because it spent 35k hours pretending its governor module was still active, and that was a survival tactic for a person who had no idea what to do after a lifetime of being told what to do, and with a high likelihood of being killed if it isn't smart about what it does. when it's for survival, does it actually count as lying??? that's a discussion for another day. what i'm saying is that murderbot is bad at lying and i think that's really funny.

New commission!

I had started this in good time, then impulsively peeled off my screen protector because it got too dirty, not realising that I’m now so used to drawing with one on that I was incapable of continuing without ordering another, so I just got finished in time to retain my coveted Etsy perfect shipping record. Stressful!

Which of these have you read?

The new Martha Wells book-- Witch King-- is fucking delightful if you like slightly complex fantasy that doesn't hold your hand. This is a book that never ever commits the sin of explaining stuff to a character that should already know about it for the sake of the audience. Exposition only happens in ways that are natural and logical, which sometimes means stuff just isn't explained.

It's not as obviously accessible as The Murderbot Dairies is-- it's plot is a little more opaque, there's more moving pieces, it's less directly comedic-- but man I like it and Kai is in someways a similar protagonist to Murderbot. Powerful but vulnerable and often just a little out of his element. Lonely in the face of a lot of people who are afraid of him.

Its very much a found family story. Like, literally. The book goes back and forth between the past and the present. The parts of the narrative that are set in the past are about Kai meeting the people who become his family, and the parts of the narrative set in the present are about him going to find members of that family that have gone missing. Family is a theme that's always there.

In spite of the swap in narratives there was never a moment where I was listening to one half of these stories wishing I could get back to the other one-- they were woven together very well and I found them equally compelling.

Anyway I am very certain there are people who saw there was a new Martha Wells book, then saw it wasn't Murderbot and decided to peace out. Some people probably won't but I think it's worth trying. Tor released enough excerpts that you can get a feel for what it's like and decide if you'll like it or not. The mystery is fascinating and, like Murderbot, it's casually queer in a really good way. Martha Wells clearly loves her a lesbian power couple.

relatable murderbot moment

I think it's very telling that as of right now (System Collapse), every single Rogue Secunit we've met has not only not attacked anyone, but has immediately gone "yes, I'm going to help, actually." No matter how much even Murderbot itself frets about the dangers of Rogue units to its humans, the only place that danger seems to come from is corporate propaganda.

but it also knows stories are a tool and can therefore be misused - just like itself 😭😭😭