/r/Fantasy Discussion Group discussion

The poll has ended and All Systems Red by Martha Wells was voted to be our April Book of the Month.
We could really use a volunteer to lead the discussions for this one! I might read this one, but am not sure if I'll find the time. There's no real kickbacks, just the pleasure of reading and discussing the book, plus some extra good karma for stepping up.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Nominated by leftoverbrine

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. 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 are 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, all it really 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 their Murderbot to get to the truth.

Bingo Squares:

* Space Opera ??? (not 100% sure here, if anyone who has read it can verify, that would be great.)

* Novel published in 2018

* Previous Square (as a replacement for any): Science Fiction

(let me know if I missed any and I can update the list)

I will link to each of these discussion in the sidebar so if you read the book later in the month, or you miss the day we post the topics, you can find them easily.

If someone would like to lead discussions, please volunteer.

If you are not a member of our r/fantasy Goodreads Group, you will need to join. Added advantage of joining? You can connect with more r/fantasy members and check out what they are reading! (Stop by the Introduce yourselfpost to see who is who)

So, who's planning on joining in?

Have any questions about it? Ask here!

Have you read it already and want to convince others to read it? Leave a comment to help sway those undecideds!

Happy Reading!

See announcement on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...

OK, I don't usually read much SF, but I picked it up this morning and am going to give it a read.

All together now "For Bingo!" Have already completed three squares on hard; this should make it four.

It says there are two comments in this discussion, but I can’t see them. Is this normal?

Edit: the posts are not visible in Safari on my iPad, but ARE visible in Safari on my laptop and in the goodreads app on my iPad. Odd.

I presume the working assumption is that people who come to discuss the story have already read it and therefore we can freely discuss spoilers here?

Looks great! Even if this doesn't fill a lot of squares it's likely a step away from most people's comfort zones.

This novella is free to download @ Tor.com website. I guess it's only for US residents, so too bad for me. But I'll be joining the readalong.

This novella was published last year, I don't think it'll fit the square of novel published in 2018. I'll use it to fill the square of the Goodreads group of the month. 😄

Olga wrote: "This novella is free to download @ Tor.com website. I guess it's only for US residents, so too bad for me. But I'll be joining the readalong."

Olga: The “word around town” is that the Tor.com website isn’t really checking where you are. You probably still have a chance to download the novella for free.

It's a super quick read- I think just under 100 pages and very fast paced. I'm looking forward to what other people have to say about it!

Spoiler Warning

OK, I’ll start.

I think Murderbot is not an entirely reliable narrator.

[Gurathin] finally said, “You don’t blame humans for what you were forced to do? For what happened to you?”

This is why I’m glad I’m not human. They come up with stuff like this. I said, “No. That’s a human thing to do. Constructs aren’t that stupid.”

What was I supposed to do, kill all humans because the ones in charge of constructs in the company were callous? Granted, I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can’t have one without the other.

And yet, he calls himself “Murderbot.” He even refers to all his fellow SecUnits as “Murderbots.” It’s a bitter, self-deprecating, even self-loathing epithet. So I don’t think he’s being honest with the reader about how he feels. I would also argue that Martha Wells is following the old adage, “show, don’t tell.” It’s more subtle and powerful to bring the audience to the realization of something such as Murderbot’s anger and bitterness than to simply tell the audience as much. Having Murderbot deny and deflect about the subject helps. His flinching whenever a fully-human character tries to talk to him personally reinforces this.

Murderbot also as much admits to his nature as an unreliable narrator in another passage:

I didn’t want to explain. I had to explain. I said, “I did not hack my governor module to kill my clients. My governor module malfunctioned because the stupid company only buys the cheapest possible components. It malfunctioned and I lost control of my systems and I killed them. The company retrieved me and installed a new governor module. I hacked it so it wouldn’t happen again.”

I think that’s what happened. The only thing I know for certain is that it didn’t happen after I hacked the module. And it makes a better story that way. I watch enough serials to know how a story like that should go.

In that passage, Murderbot admits he’s crafting a story to reassure his human clients. It’s a hint that he is also crafting a story for the reader.

Just finished it. It was an interesting and quick read but parts of it that I would have liked to have been fleshed out more were rather rushed, especially the climax. I’m not sure how much I can say in the introductory thread so I’ll save my more in depth spoiler-y thoughts for when everyone’s caught up.

Okay, I just got to the part where the bot is contemplating the survey map, and says, "Confession time: I don't actually know where we are... I hadn't looked at the maps yet and I'd barely looked at the survey package. In my defense, we'd been here twenty-two planetary days and I hadn't had to do anything but stand around watching humans make scans or take samples of dirt, rocks, water, and leaves. The sense of urgency just wasn't there. Also, you may have noticed, I don't care."

I turned around and described this book to a friend as, "a novella about an android who's hacked its governor module and literally doesn't give a shit, just wants to go back home and watch TV and read and not talk to anyone."

I IDENTIFY WITH THIS BOT SO HARD, Y'ALL.

@Amanda, yes! I had to do a spit take and wonder if somebody hacked into my diary or something. I absolutely GET Murderbot

I found Murderbot so freaking relatable, too. Martha knows what's up.

I didn't like the book too much at first but it really picked up. Wells is really good at characterization. I appreciated that there were no endless descriptions of characters outfits, hair, etc. (which really annoys me in other books) yet I still got a strong sense of who each person was.

The further I read into this story, the more I suspected that Murderbot is a highly unreliable witness. It's all good fun though and Murderbot's attitude is wonderful.