How Murderbot will deal with these different choices free SecUnits can make is an interesting question and could lead to much growth.
(I think this can be read as a "masked vs. unmasked autism" metaphor, but I don't want to, because metaphors like that make me uncomfortable.)
All in all: enjoyable, exactly as advertised.
(5/n, n=5)
Murderbot has tried hard to blend in with (augmented) humans, running codes to alter its body language, but also checking in with its emotions and staying focused on security work; at one point it asks itself "If you don’t actually want to do anything, are you still capable of being manipulated into doing things?". Three, on the other hand, is interested in nature and engineering and goes on tangents while not trying to blend in so hard.
(4/n)
The story feels tight and closed because of this setting, but also because we mostly get Murderbot's thoughts and little interaction, even if the violent kind, with others. Murderbot has installed a module to check on its emotions, and thinks about moral choices like not killing because it upsets the small humans.
Plus there are other SecUnits running around now using the governor module hack, and this continues to be on Murderbot's mind.
(3/n)
The plot focuses on the logistics of getting *off* the torus, which involves travelling around it by various uncomfortable modes of transportation. These parts reminded me a lot of Charlie Stross's "Neptune's Brood", where characters often remark that "space travel is shit". The torus is an engineering masterpiece, same as "Ringworld", but Murderbot isn't interested in that, it just wants off it.
(2/n)
So, "Platform Decay" by Martha Wells, eighth (how can it be eight already?!) volume in the Murderbot series. Where the last one was all about going out, traveling, setting others free, this has a claustrophobic feel. It's set on a giant toroidal spaceport surrounding a dead planet, where our SecUnit is on a mission to extract three kidnapped members of Mensah's family.
(1/n)
"(It was actually nice to see it. Do I have to do an emotion check for that? Floating river = not terrible to see.)"
Organic tissue likes water 💙
"I recognized the tags and heading. It was my own (Murderbot 2.0’s own) hack-your-governor-module annotated code bundle. One or more of the B-E units I had given the code to on Hell Plague Planet must have passed it on. (Except this wasn’t a B-E unit. The code must be spreading, I guess. At least on this stupid torus.)"
Fuck yes.
RE: https://mstdn.ca/@Pentapod/116525038714117793
It me 😅
(Okay, I did work at work, but I totally wasn't sad I had to take the slow train home because MORE READING TIME)
Mark
Jules
Big Blu Gnu