Dragons & Jetpacks discussion

Discussion for your Sci-Fi Book of the Month

It was kind of refreshing reading a standalone story, and a short one at that, for a change. Not everything needs to be a trilogy or an epic series so, I enjoyed starting a story and finishing it in just about one sitting. I would have liked some more delving into our MC, maybe some more about SecUnits but I enjoyed the story. A little bit of mystery and intrigue and some light science-fiction. I was entertained and there's nothing wrong with a book that does that.

...turns out it is a series, with a deeper dive to into Murderbot's history, but it is a standalone book that came to a conclusion so I'm counting it!

...I was just going to say it is the first book of a series.

It was a delightful, engaging short read. The world and character building were both good. I enjoyed it a lot. Especially the ending.

I thought it was OK. The story was nothing special and had some plot holes but I liked how the author slowly introduced the conflict as a series of seemingly unrelated malfunctions and incidents.

The self-aware 'bot who has hacked itself just to watch Netflix? Uh, well, that's a new one I guess. I thought it was just an excuse to inject a bunch of snarkiness into the narration, which would have been kind of dull otherwise. Snarkiness sells books! Hey, if it works for Scalzi and Weir....

Roger wrote: "It was kind of refreshing reading a standalone story, and a short one at that, for a change. Not everything needs to be a trilogy or an epic series so..."

Ha ha! We got played!

I was also happy to see a short stand-alone story. Tor has been publishing quite a few of those. But, like Binti, this turns out to be a series. Sigh.... But, also, it seems to be OK to read it alone. It does have an ending, unlike, say Blackout, where you read 600 pages and then realize it doesn't have an ending until book 2.

It appears to me that most of the books picked in the polls in this group are multi-part series, which is something I tend to avoid.

Randy wrote: "I thought it was just an excuse to inject a bunch of snarkiness into the narration, which would have been kind of dull otherwise..."

I like the narration and don't see it as snarky. Snarky is sarcastic, and I don't think our murderbot is sarcastic, just nihilistic and antisocial and mass-murdery.

Ed wrote: "Roger wrote: "It was kind of refreshing reading a standalone story, and a short one at that, for a change. Not everything needs to be a trilogy or an epic series so..."

Ha ha! We got played!

I wa..."

I really enjoyed it. And was quite excited when saw it was a series. Excitement quelled slightly at the 7.99 price for the sequel, which I would have happily paid if it wasn't another short story. A little overpriced in my opinion but maybe I'm just tight. :-)

Although I really liked the main character, I didn't fully enjoy the story. Partly my fault because I was reading it at times when I wasn't fully able to pay attention, so it was hard to keep track of who was fighting against whom and why. But I always have trouble with that anyway when there are multiple groups with hidden motivations.

Anyhow, I may very well read the next book because I like the character of murderbot and it looks like he/she/it will be having a different sort of adventure next time.

I thought of murderbot as male, but I've seen some reviewers assuming it was female. I don't think it was explicitly stated whether it even had a gender. So which did you assume, if any?

Also, apparently partly inspired by The Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee. Any of you read that?

Ed wrote: "Although I really liked the main character, I didn't fully enjoy the story. Partly my fault because I was reading it at times when I wasn't fully able to pay attention, so it was hard to keep track..."

I kept thinking murderbot was a she.

Actually thought it was weird they all kept referring to her(?) as 'it' , since the android had been given a human likeness presumably for humans to be more accepting of them in the team? Especially since we seem to so readily give personalities/gender to other more soulless things, like my car for example - Nigel.

In reality I think all the humans would have referred to the units as he or she. I don't think they'd be able to stop themselves.

I really liked Murderbot -- I thought that the TV watching was an interesting potential consequence of artificial intelligence developing a personality, but then following a more ordinary human path: I know a lot of people who would rather hide in their cubby with their shows rather than take on the Radch from within (apologies to Ann Leckie).

I guess I never really thought of MB as anything but "it" throughout the book? I probably lean towards "she", but that might be because I recently re-listened to the Imperial Radch series, where the sentient AI is a "she".

That's funny - it never occurred to me that the murderbot was a he. The comment all human sexual organs having been not available - if they had been there it would have been a sexbot or some such thing. Interesting filter for people...

I was pleasantly surprised by this, I had hesitations about taking a book seriously with Murderbot in the title. But as others said, it was fun and short and refreshing, while also being unique. I kind of wish the ending had gone the other way and murderbot had given the nice humans more of a chance, then ran away later if she needed to, but I get it.

And yes, I think I had murderbot as a "she" in my head the whole time, but now I'm not sure why...

I liked this one. It didn't blow my mind but it was a fun read.
I didn't like the audiobook that much, wasn't that good in my opinion.
I thought of "it" as a "he", maybe because i'm a he too (despite what my profile picture says).

I liked this one a lot. It was great, short scifi thriller. At first I was wondering if we were going to end up in Aliens territory when the second camp went "missing" but turned into a good, old fashioned human greed story. I like the world the author has built. It works great as a standalone story.

I never assigned a gender to Murderbot. The character did not particularly feel distinctly either gender to me.

It was ok but not great for me. I found all the emotional angst the MC had a little hard going. It raised some good questions about the use of AI and their rights and treatment but overall I found the story a bit bland and boring really.

I agree with most people, I found it refreshing to have a nice short, simple book picked for a change. Due to the ending I dont feel like I now have to read the rest of the books in the series. Im ok if my dip into Murderbots stops here.

I assumed the MC was female for some reason, but its interesting to hear what everyone else thought. I think because 'she' seemed to want to hide away a lot and had a lot of internal emotional angst I assumed female. Who knew I had an emotional stereotypical side???

Amy wrote: " Especially since we seem to so readily give personalities/gender to other more soulless things, like my car for example - Nigel. ."

I love the fact your car is called Nigel!!! Thats made my day.

I unconsciously assumed that MurderBot was a she too, but don't know why. From reading all our comments, it seems we've mostly assign it our own gender? Maybe that's just because we are identifying ourselves with it as the MC? Don't know, but interesting stuff.

Oh, and my car is called Wesley...

I really liked the book. I found myself assuming he because I'm a he. At some point I noticed that all the characters were saying it, and the book avoided gender pronouns for MB. After that, I started thinking of it as a very possible She. It seemed to be important that it was NOT a sexbot. It also seemed to love soap operas. Sure, those aren't exclusive to females, just like security isn't exclusive to males. I think the gender ambiguity was intentional and done well.

And while I like so many of the books this group has exposed me to, it was nice to get a break from the 600 page tomes and #1 of a series :-)

Started last night. Enjoying it so far, narration style is quite good

Well, I listened to the book, and it was read by a he, so there was no way for me to think of MB as a she. But, when I think back to what I pictured in my mind... MB had broad shoulders and masculine features (except down under). So kind of like a Gelding?
I loved this book. One thing I really loved was how MB had a unique set of feelings and emotions. It dreaded interacting with humans, just wanted its serials, was more or less ambivalent about going into an insane gunfight. MB was so human-but-not-human.

Finished last night and really enjoyed it. Nothing complex, but a good story with an interestingly different main character

Just finished my 2nd read through and I still consider it a 5 star. I love MB's cringing at human interaction, and the addiction to serials. I enjoyed MB's humor and personality starting to come out more. I found I didn't assign a gender, and this worked really well for me. I'm really looking forward to the next book.

I think the gender aspect is quite interesting. MB is most definitely genderless but I would say a lot of readers assign a gender in their own head before its clarified. I had assumed female, no idea why, but I'm sure some little prejudice buried deep in my brain made me do it.

I'm not sure why either way, male or female, but I. remember a couple times MB mentioned someting like, "I'm not cleaning that up." Hiding in or the constant need to watch serials. Would these be similar to the US's soap operas? LOL

Paul wrote: "I think the gender aspect is quite interesting. MB is most definitely genderless but I would say a lot of readers assign a gender in their own head before its clarified. I had assumed female, no id..."

I just assumed male, never really thought about it at all while reading though. I'm guessing my mind went ot a male because males are normally physically larger and stronger than woman.

It's a nice little story. I sort of leaned female just because that's what the author is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBsDv...

Audrey wrote: "It's a nice little story. I sort of leaned female just because that's what the author is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBsDv..."

Thanks for sharing, Audrey. We love Red Dwarf.

Just finished this. Enjoyed it a lot. Was nice to have something I could just read in a single sitting. I often have a problem with novellas that it feels too short for me, like the story the author wants to tell is much bigger and therefore I feel like I’m missing information or things are rushed. I didn’t have that problem here at all.
And I hadn’t really assigned a gender to MB, but when I told my fiancé about the story I found myself calling it both a he and a she at times.

@ Milou
I agree; it seemed just the right length even though I read it in one "sitting." (I actually listened to the male audio and did house chores throughout)

I can't believe I didn't post this earlier when it came out, but check out this free short story from the Murderbot saga.
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of...

Melanie wrote: "I can't believe I didn't post this earlier when it came out, but check out this free short story from the Murderbot saga.
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of..."
Thanks for that, Melanie! I saw your update and read it right away. I love that series, and the short was fun.

Somehow I missed this and am just reading it now in preparation for the sequel. So far, I'm finding it massively entertaining with some great interpersonal humor interspersed with the action. I love when the murderbot jumps in to aggressively defend a character from the serial it has been watching . . . the interactions between the "murderbot" and the crew have a nearly perfect comic touch!

Quite looking forward to jumping right into the sequel later this month!

I do not remember much of what happens in this book but I don't want to re-read it. I'll look for a synopsis.

Audrey wrote: "I do not remember much of what happens in this book but I don't want to re-read it. I'll look for a synopsis."

I'll post a mini summary when I finish if I have time. It's such a short book! I started yesterday and I'm almost done.

I liked this one better than I thought I would, but the second one not quite as much. This is what I thought right after I read it https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just re-read this is preparation for the second one. I listened to the GraphicAudio version and enjoyed it more on the re-read. Maybe because the multi-voice narration was fantastic.

Though I did get confused as to what Evil Corp's goal was? Maybe they explained it and I missed it; sometimes in audiobooks I can get distracted and miss things since I'm usually multitasking.

Hope wrote: "I just re-read this is preparation for the second one. I listened to the GraphicAudio version and enjoyed it more on the re-read. Maybe because the multi-voice narration was fantastic.

Though I d..."

It sounded like EvilCorp's goal was to sell archaelogical artifacts. They discovered artifacts there that no one was aware of, and they would have been illegal to sell if reported because of regulations.

Kind of like the cosmic equivalent of discovering an ancient Egyptian tomb and trying to smuggle out the artifacts without the Egyptian government being aware since the government would claim the historic treasures for museums.

It was only mentioned in passing and the book was so suspenseful in that part that it would've been easy to move fast and miss it. :)

Hope, I got home and have access to my book. If you're curious where that is talked about, it's 2/3 of the way into Chapter 7:

"Bharadwaj had figured that out last night. The unmapped sections . . . were an error, caused by the remnants that were buried under the dirt and rock. This planet had been inhabited at some point in its past, which meant it would be placed under interdict, open only to archeological surveys. Even the company would abide by that.
You could make big, illegal money off of excavating and mining those remnants, and that was obviously what GrayCris wanted."

Greg wrote: "Hope, I got home and have access to my book. If you're curious where that is talked about, it's 2/3 of the way into Chapter 7:

"Bharadwaj had figured that out last night. The unmapped sections . ...."
Ah ok. That makes sense. Thank you for looking that up for me! That's the downside of audio; it's harder to go back and double check stuff.

This was a helpful reminder, thanks, Greg!