wrong train, right time

Talking about the Murderbot Diaries is difficult because they are so consistent in being excellent. Did you like "All Systems Red"? Then you'll like the rest of the novellas. Everything good about those stories continues in the rest, with the added bonus of watching Murderbot grow and change as a person. Half the fun of these novellas is how much of Murderbot’s anxiety and struggle to come to terms with his own personhood is #mood.

"Rogue Protocol" (Murderbot Diaries #3) - If "Artificial Condition" is Murderbot seeing security work recontextualized by its own freedom, then "Rogue Protocol" is Murderbot confronting two mechanical mirrors of who it could be. The combat bots are the extreme distillation of what Murderbot was made to do, being programmed weapons. And the flip side is Miki, a bot as well, naive and sheltered, but truly loved and cherished. Neither the combat bots nor Miki are a good fit for Murderbot and what it wants, though both illuminate possibilities.

"Exit Strategy" (Murderbot Diaries #4) - In light of "Rogue Protocol", the fact that "Exit Strategy" ends with heroic hacking is pitch perfect. Hacking is a skill unrelated to what Murderbot was created to do and be. It's the skill that Murderbot used to give itself autonomy and the skill it has developed to keep it throughout the series. It's fitting that hacking--not security work, not combat--is what Murderbot uses to save the day, and it's fitting that Murderbot still saves the day by recklessly throwing itself into danger as an independent agent. The combat bots and Miki both illuminated possibilities, but in the end, Murderbot is forging its own path. As it should.

I was really excited to hear that Wells is working on a novel continuing Murderbot Diaries, and look forward to reading it.

I knew of Zen Cho from reading some of her previous short fiction (most notably "The House of Aunts") via buzz around her novel Sorcerer to the Crown. The novel itself didn’t sound like my thing, but I was interested enough to pick up this novella, which kept floating around my algorithmically generated recommendations with a very intriguing cover.

It was a good choice: I enjoyed this novella very much. I liked the little undercurrent of tension between Siew Tsin being stuck in Chinese hell versus her very Western, Christian, education. Siew Tsin was an interesting choice of protagonist, quiet and sad, resigned to her circumstances. Her frustration leaks out around the edges of the apathy she has pulled around herself, like a snail withdraws into a shell. The arrival of Yonghua, the titular terracotta bride, upsets everything, but not in the way I expected.

In the end, it’s not Siew Tsin who gets to make the spectacular escape, who gets to run away with a love into the next life. But she is the one who gets to be inspired by that. Who, having lived around the edges of Yonghua’s story, follows in Yonghua's wake, and winds up concluding her own story. And I think that's an interesting choice, to write from the perspective of the one who is inspired, rather than the inspiring one. But it works wonderfully.

Still not sure that Sorcerer to the Crown is my cup of tea, but I'd like to read more of Zen Cho's short fiction.

I felt like more T. Kingfisher, so I (re)read some more T. Kingfisher.

Kingfisher, T. "Bryony and Roses." Self-published, 2015. eBook.

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Kingfisher, T. "The Seventh Bride." Self-published, 2014. eBook.

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de Bodard, Aliette. "On a Red Station, Drifting." Smashwords, 2013. eBook. Finished Jan. 2017.

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