Network Effect by Martha Wells

Network Effect by Martha Wells is the first novel about the adventures of Murderbot, who previously appeared in four novellas that I read, enjoyed and reviewed: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy. Network Effect follows on from these novellas in a similar vein but in a longer format, meaning there’s even more Muderbot to enjoy in one convenient package. It also has a rather unusual format for its blurb:

You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.

―

I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

If you've read any of the Murderbot novellas, you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect from this book. The biggest difference I found between novel and novellas is the length of the novel. It felt different — in a good way — to have the story just keep going longer than the novellas had trained me to expect. It also made for a meatier story, with a more complex plot and more substantial room for character development. We also got more of a chance to better get to know characters other than Murderbot. In particular, we see a lot more of a subset of the humans from Preservation, where Murderbot went to live at the end of Exit Strategy, and a few others I don't want to spoil. Hearing the humans have all sorts of benign opinions regarding Murderbot was excellent.

I remember reading, around the time that this novel was announced, that it would be continuing the story of Murderbot but would also tie everything up in a conclusive way. It certainly follows on from the novellas — I don't recommend starting with Network Effect, rather go start with All Systems Red — but aside from containing a complete story arc, I didn't really feel like this was a conclusive end to the tales of Murderbot. If anything, it seemed that the end was left nicely open for a sequel featuring Murderbot and some of its new friends. So I hope that happens.

It wouldn't be a Tsana-review if I didn't mention my one physics objection in the book. A lot of the technology and computer/AI stuff is bordering on the fantastical in an expected far-future way, and that stuff doesn't bother me. But there was one "WTF, no, that's not how space elevators work" moment which annoyed me for about five minutes before I was able to move on and pay attention to the story again. At least it was comparatively minor in the scheme of the book.

Network Effect was an excellent book in which Murderbot kicked a lot of arse and got to form/build on meaningful relationships with multiple people. If this sounds like your sort of thing, and if you've read the Murderbot novellas, then I highly recommend picking up this book. If this sounds like your sort of thing and you haven't read the novellas, I suggest starting with All Systems Red. I really hope there will be more Murderbot in the future. I am also planning to reread all the novellas at some point, because reading them as they came out resulted in a lot of memory gaps, though nothing I couldn't work out easily enough in the context of the novel. I'd still like to experience the whole early story in a more continuous way.

5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2020, Tor.com
Series: Yes. Fifth instalment of the Murderbot Diaries, and let's hope there are many more to come.
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Hugo Novella Roundup

I was in the fortunate position of having read almost all of the Hugo shortlisted novellas before the list of nominees on the ballot was announced. This meant that I didn't have much reading to do before writing this round-up, but on the other hand, some of the shortlisted books have faded a bit in my memory, since I read most of them very close to the release dates. So ranking these novellas, all of which I enjoyed, is going to be a bit tricky.

Before I get to the novellas, if this is the first of my Hugo round-ups that you're seeing, you might be interested in my round-up of Hugo shortlisted short stories, which I prepared earlier. Discussions of (some of) the other categories to come!

The full Hugo shortlist with links to my review of each novella is below, if you want to quickly scroll down to have a look at it. The list is in no particular order — I think I grabbed it from Tor.com — because it's quite tricky to rank these novellas, for a few reasons. Artificial Condition and Binti: The Night Masquerade are, respectively, a middle and final part of larger stories. Even though I very much like those stories (Murderbot 5eva), I'm not sure they work very well as standalone novellas, which they should for this award, in my opinion. In contrast, Beneath the Sugar Sky and The Tea Master and the Detective are both parts of ongoing series but stand alone perfectly well. Beneath the Sugar Sky has some characters recur from earlier novellas in the series, but is a fully self-contained story. The Tea Master and the Detective may have direct sequels or companion novellas in the future, but for the moment it is merely set in the same universe as many of the author's other stories (the overall series is also nominated for a Best Series Hugo Award). That leaves Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach and The Black God's Drums as completely independent and self-contained stories (or at worst, self-contained first books in series, but I'm not sure on that last point).

But which book did I like best? It's currently a three-way tie between Beneath the Sugar Sky, Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach, and The Tea Master and the Detective. Right now I'm leaning towards putting Beneath the Sugar Sky first, then tossing a coin for second and third, and for the remaining places. Once again, this is a very strong ballot and I wouldn't be disappointed by any of these novellas taking home the rocket trophy.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark (Tor.com Publishing)

Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach by Kelly Robson (Tor.com Publishing)

The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard (Subterranean Press / JABberwocky Literary Agency)

#ReadShortStories (up to 205)

A bit of a different configuration in this batch, since I read through most of Resist Fascism before getting a chance to post incremental updates about the stories. To be less repetitive, I'm skipping those stories and jumping straight to the next ones I read, rounding them off to a multiple of five to keep things neat.

As you will soon see, I fell into a bit of a hole reading some stories published in Wired, after being linked to a Murderbot prequel. Wired's paywall only lets you read 4 stories a month, which is exactly why I stopped reading after four of their stories by authors that caught my eye. 🤷‍♀️

Then I went back to reading the issue of Uncanny I had put down a while ago. I originally put that one down because I was partway through a story that just wasn't doing it for me. Once I realised that no one was forcing me to read anything, I skipped the rest of that story and carried on with the issue. Huzzah.

~

Compulsory by Martha Wells — A short story about our beloved Murderbot, set before the main series. Contains no spoilers, so it’s also a good place for prospective readers to get a taste of the series. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-compulsory-martha-wells/

Trustless by Ken Liu — An interesting take on legal contracts: in the future they are coded (like computer code that needs to be compiled) and fully binding with regards to payment. As expected, a good read. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-trustless-ken-liu/

Farm by Charlie Jane Anders — A super depressing take on the future state of journalism that I hope never comes to pass. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-farm-charlie-jane-anders/

Real Girls by Laurie Penny — A nice little story about fake AI girlfriends and feelings. I quite liked it. It got the tone exactly right for what it was. Source: https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-real-girls-laurie-penny/

The Cook by C.L. Clark — A flash story about the romance between a soldier and a cook, both female. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/the-cook/

In Blue Lily’s Wake by Aliette de Bodard — A story set in the Mindship/Dai Viet universe. It’s about a plague that killed a lot of humans and one Mindship. The nature of the disease, involving strange hallucinations, made this a slightly surreal read and a little difficult to follow in my jetlagged state. But I mostly enjoyed it. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/in-blue-lilys-wake/

Persephone in Hades by Theodora Goss — A fairly narrative poem on the subject matter, examine motives. Source: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/persephone-in-hades/

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells is the fourth and semi-concluding Murderbot Diaries novella. I say semi-concluding because it ties up the story in the Murderbot Diaries so far, but we have been promised a novel in the future, so this is not the last we'll be seeing of Murderbot. I have previously reviewed all three earlier novellas: All Systems Red, Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol.

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?

Another Murderbot diary, another night staying up too late reading it.

What struck me most about this concluding novella was how much it tied the earlier three novellas together. My feeling with those first three was that they were self-contained stories within the same overarching framework. They made more sense to read together, but were very episodic. In contrast, Exit Strategy binds all those stories together and concludes the overarching story started in the first book. I don't recommend reading it without having read the earlier books. I also look forward to rereading the whole series in a row, which I am currently planning to do in the lead-up to the upcoming Murderbot novel (tentatively slated for early 2020, so no rush).

Exit Strategy continues with the sarcastic tone we've come to know and love from Murderbot, and gives us the opportunity to see how far Murderbot has come since the first book and the freshly-hacked governor module. The reprise of several characters that we haven't seen since book 1 emphasised this contrast. This was a satisfying and slightly violent read and satisfactorily concluded an arc of character growth, while leaving the stage open for a follow up.

In conclusion, Exit Strategy is another excellent Murderbot read. If you've read the earlier books in the series, what are you waiting for? If you haven't, I suggest starting with All Systems Red and reading all four novellas in a row. If you're a fan of science fiction and sarcasm, you won't regret it.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: October 2018, Tor.com
Series: Murderbot Diaries book 4 of 4 (of the novella series)
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased (pre-ordered) from Apple Books

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells is the third novella in the Murderbot Diaries series, which started with All Systems Red last year and was followed by Artificial Condition earlier this year. Although each novella tells a self-contained story, they're more like chapter's in Muderbot's life and the bulk of the characterisation work was done earlier on in the first book and I think there's less recapping of backstory in Rogue Protocol. All of which is to say that if you haven't read this series before, I recommend starting with book 1. In any case, this review will contain some spoilers for the earlier books.

SciFi’s favorite crabby A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

I really like the Muderbot books and this one continued the series nicely. It continued to make me laugh and progressed the story set up in the earlier books. There was danger, action and snark, and maybe a little less watching of TV shows and more having confusing emotions. As I said before, it wouldn't work as a standalone, in my opinion. But it is quite episodic, since in Rogue Protocol we have Murderbot meeting new people in a new location but also continuing the overarching story about the dodgy GrayCris Corporation.

In this story Murderbot encounters a different set of characters. Where previously we've watched its interactions with various humans and (separately) an artificial intelligence more advanced than Murderbot, this time we get a story with humans of various stripes and a less advanced AI robot. My favourite part of the story was the feelings the robot caused Murderbot to feel. I won't spoil the story by going into details, but they were many and varied.

The end of this novella seems to set up a final chapter in Murderbot's current story arc. I will be interested to see how it ends (of course) and also the direction of the recently announced novel which will follow the novellas. I highly recommend Rogue Protocol to fans of Murderbot and the whole series to fans of snark and science fiction, who are not averse to a bit of (non-gratuitous) violence.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: August 2018, Tor.com
Series: Murderbot Diaries book 3 of 4 (though a novel set after the novella series has been announced
Format read: ePub eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells is the second novella in the Murderbot Diaries series. I previously read, reviewed and loved the first novella, All Systems Red. I do generally recommend reading the first book before starting Artificial Condition, although Artificial Condition does a good job of reminding the reader what happened in the previous book.

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”.

But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

In this instalment, we follow Murderbot as it makes its way to the site of a severe malfunction that caused it to kill a bunch of people and after which its memory was wiped. On the way it makes a friend — who is also awesome and I hope we get to read about again — and finds some humans to temporarily guard. Also, the overarching plot thickens (but no spoilers).

I loved this book! After a stressful few weeks, getting back into Muderbot's head was exactly what I needed to relax and make me laugh. I love Murderbot. I love the voice and the sarcasm and the way it understands humans better by watching endless entertainment dramas than interacting with them directly. I also liked the different perspective on humans that we got from ART and Muderbot's take on ART's different taste in dramas. Everything I loved from the first book appears again in this one, including the exasperation at humans doing stupid things likely to get them killed.

This series is gold and if you don't hate non-human sentients they why aren't you reading it already? Hands down this is one of my favourite series ever and I foresee myself rereading it several times. (But for now I'm going to wait until all four novellas are out before I start re-reading — that way lies sadness at having to wait for future books.) I cannot wait until the next book, Rogue Protocol, comes out (due August).

5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2018, Tor.com
Series: The Murderbot Diaries book 2 of 4
Format read: ePub
Source: ARC from publisher via NetGalley with my official iBooks preorder hot on its heals. I read the purchased copy since it had the cover.

Hugo Ballot Discussion: Novellas

Since the Hugo ballot was announced over the weekend, I'm going to run a few blog posts discussing the works in the fiction categories. This is the first post in that series, in which I will talk a bit about the shortlisted novellas (and link to my earlier more detailed reviews of them). Why am I starting with novellas? Because I happen to have read the entire shortlist already.

In the meantime, if you haven't yet, you can check out the full Hugo ballot at Tor.com. Below I have reproduced the novella shortlist with links to my reviews of each novella. Each got a full standalone review except for "And Then There Were (N-One)" by Sarah Pinsker, in large part because I read that one in Uncanny and didn't realise it was a novella at the time.


Best Novella

All Systems Red, by Martha Wells (Tor.com Publishing)
“And Then There Were (N-One),” by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny, March/April 2017)
Binti: Home, by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com Publishing)
The Black Tides of Heaven, by JY Yang (Tor.com Publishing)
Down Among the Sticks and Bones, by Seanan McGuire (Tor.com Publishing)
River of Teeth, by Sarah Gailey (Tor.com Publishing)

This is a really strong category and, for me, ranking these novellas comes down more to personal preference than any sort of objective writing quality. Some of these just resonated more with me than others. All of them tell interesting stories from interesting and relatively uncommon points of view, and there's quite a bit of diversity on display. The struggle to rank them is real.

That said, my favourite, long after reading them all, is All Systems Red. But I wouldn't put any of the others out of the running (not even River of Teeth, which made me sad with its hippo violence). This is a category that could swing in any direction.

(What exciting times we live in that there aren't any Puppy nominees to discount. Hopefully, we're passed all that now.)

Have you read these novellas? Which was your favourite?

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells is a novella I have heard a lot of people saying a lot of good things about. The only other book I've read by Martha Wells was kind of meh, so I'm glad the critical mass of people praising this book was well and truely exceeded for me to pick it up. It was an excellent read.

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.

All Systems Red had me from the opening paragraph which, as I immediately tweeted, was a delight. It's told in first person from the point of view of a cyborg. A bored cyborg who has gained free will and really just wants to watch TV between half-arsing its contractual duties enough to hide its illegal free will. Unfortunately, the survey mission that should have been straightforward and relatively dull — from Murderbot's point of view, if not the scientists it's protecting — turns out to be anything but.

This novella was brief but excellent. It had mystery, danger, adventure, a compelling voice and made me laugh many times. It was also an interesting look at humanity and where the lines are drawn. Murderbot counts as machinery rather than as human because of how it was constructed. But it still feels emotions and has independent thoughts and we get the impression that even if it hadn't given itself free will it would still be having these thoughts and feelings, it just wouldn't be able to act on them. On the one hand considered non-human, on the other sentient and enslaved. And we see augmented humans who have some similarities with Murderbots in terms of data processing and telemetry (for lack of a better word) but are definitely human. I assume these are themes that will be explored further in the sequel novellas.

All Systems Red was an excellent read and I recommend it to all fans of speculative fiction. It's a quick read and you don't even have to like robots or military SF to enjoy it. I cannot wait until the next novella comes out. I was sad when All Systems Red ended, not because it was a bad ending but because there was no more Murderbot to read and now I have to wait until next January for more.

5 / 5 stars

First published: May 2017, Tor.com
Series: The Murderbot Diaries 1 of a planned 4 so far
Format read: ePub
Source: Purchased on iBooks

Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells

Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells is the latest offering out from Strange Chemistry, the YA branch of Angry Robot. Those of you who have been paying attention will be aware that I've loved almost everything Strange Chemistry have put out, and Emilie and the Hollow World is no exception. A blurb excerpt:

While running away from home for reasons that are eminently defensible, Emilie’s plans to stow away on the steamship Merry Bell and reach her cousin in the big city go awry, landing her on the wrong ship and at the beginning of a fantastic adventure.

This is a first and foremost an adventure novel with a large dose of exploration thrown in. It's maybe the sort of thing Jules Verne would have written if he'd written YA in modern language and had a tendency to include subtle feminist commentary (so, OK, not that similar to Jules Verne except for the exploration and adventure part). It's also a more steampunkish setting, with magic and aether currents powering the vessels which travel to the inner world — the one on the inside surface of the planet's sphere.

Emilie was a great character. She constantly compares her current situation with books (always nice to have something in common with the main character) and she takes the dangerous and outlandish situations in which she finds herself in stride. I also appreciated that she didn't have a particularly morbid and depressing reason for running away from her aunt and uncle, but also that her reason wasn't too trivial. She had a proper plan when she set out that could have worked if things hadn't gone awry.

This is above all a fun read. If tales of adventure and exploration of exotic and completely unknown lands appeal to you, give it a shot. Equally, if you're looking for lady adventuresses and some of the opposition they might face (mild sexism, nothing too hideous although a few of the male characters said and did punch-worthy things, in my opinion), definitely give this a shot. As well as Emilie, there's also Miss Marlende, the adult daughter of a scientist-explorer who takes Emilie under her wing, and Rani one of the inner-world people, who seem to have different ideas about women and their place (whereas the outer-world people's opinions are similar to real-world Victorian times, more or less).

I'm rather excited to discover that there's another Emilie book in the works, Emilie and the Sky World, due out next year. I did feel the first book set things up nicely for an indefinitely long series of adventures with Emilie. That said, it stands alone perfectly well if series aren't your thing (but I'm usually a fan of getting more of a good thing).

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: April 2013, Strange Chemistry
Series: Yes! Book 1 with more to come, but reads as a standalone.
Format read: eARC on my iThings
Source: The publisher via NetGalley