If you’ve glanced at some of my recent posts lately you would have noticed me trying to slip Murderbot into just about anything!
What can I say??? I’m a woman in love.
Genuinely.
The Murderbot series has given me a new zest for life.
A new love for adventure and discovery.
…
She says that but this is her because she has to wait for the next book and next season of the tv show:
But nobody panic!
I’m planning on rereading and rewatching until some new Murderbot content appears for me to consume!
Did I post a review for the first Murderbot book a hot second ago?? Yeah.
BUT I MADE YOU ANOTHER ONE!!!
FOR FREE!
I love a freebie.
THE BOOKS!
These links will take you to the page for the first book, All Systems Red, so there will be no spoilers!
I read all of these BEAUTIES back to back, can I separate what happened in each book?? Maybe, maybe not.
I don’t think that matters when the whole glorious plot lives in my juicy brain.
No need to separate it!
Where do I begin? How do I start expressing such a profound love??
I think a good place to start is the strength of this novel.
Character.
Now, I, as a reader am very character focused. I fall in love with worlds and plots and themes. But characters?? That’s where I get hooked.
And, oh boy!
Murderbot got me from the first sentence.
I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.
It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed.
As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.
– All Systems Red (Book #1 The Murderbot Diaries) by Martha Wells
Here is a character that would rather be away from humans so they can consume endless amounts of stories.
It’s no wonder that I, and countless other readers, feel a strong kinship with Murderbot.
Our narrator for this book.
Because Murderbot is a construct, a cyborg, and has a highly advanced piece of tech for a brain, it produces one of my favourite thingsd about these books.
It adds a whole other layer to the storytelling.
Murderbot processes things faster than the human mind so when you’re reading, it does feel like you’re trying to catch up with him.
Not in a bad way!
But in a “Oh my goodness, how is Murderbot going to get out of thi- OH THEY’VE DONE IT AGAIN!!!”
Imagine you’re on a perilous quest and one of your squad members can harvest data from your surroundings and come up with a million possible plans and identify the most likely to succeed all within a few seconds??
Absolute relief, is the first thing that comes to my mind.
Even though from Murderbot’s perspective it is one big panic fest. A big old “All of these humans are going to die! OH NO! OH NO! OH NO!”
I was a bit of a mother when reading, just had all the confidence in my fully grown, cyborg, murder capable child. I was like “NAAAAAH! You got this Murderbot! You never lose!!”
Which then got me thinking about the character archetype!
A character who is programmed to come up with the best plans, who was in enslavement since they were created, and had the knowledge that if they failed they would be melted down to scrap.
OF COURSE THEY’RE ANXIOUS!
I’M ANXIOUS FOR THEM!
I love Murderbot as a character because they are sassy, snappy and honestly just epic. Every time an adversary turned up on page, I almost felt sorry for them.
Because even when they loses a fight (which was rare) Murderbot still wins!
I will say, I loved the characters all so much that I would have given 5 stars to a book about them walking around doing nothing.
The plot, I felt was amazing. I know some people felt like there was no plot at all. There is a plot! It’s not built like plots in most books, which I think is why most people don’t vibe with it.
Me personally, I loved it. The universe that Martha Wells has created is so vast and complicated, I’m not sure I would have loved these books as much as I do if all 8 had taken place on the same space station.
I like that we go from one end of the universe to the other. Through wormholes and past junctions.
I loved that every book was fresh. Murderbot was always going somewhere new or being put in new situations.
Things were connected though!
No plot point was abandoned!
I can’t recommend them enough. If you love Sci-Fi or are on the fence about it, just dive into these! You won’t regret it!
Every single one of these books was a 5 star read for me! Though I’ll admit that book 2 was a 5+ star read, only because we meet ART in this book and the interactions between ART and Murderbot are my absolute favourite! Had me like this constantly:
I highly recommend the audiobooks narrated by Kevin R. Free, they are phenomenal!
TV SHOW!
In the words of Murderbot himself!
This is one of those times when the book to tv show pipeline is done right! When I tell you they just put the book on the screen I mean it.
They added a couple of bits, a couple of scenes and new bits and bobs. BUT! They were freebies. Free, fresh and new Murderbot content that doesn’t change the overall story.
Have I told you how much I love freebies??
SO many adaptations just try to rewrite the story and it just doesn’t work.
This is an adaptation done right! Even the new, fresh freebies all fit in. Like dialogue, for example!
Obviously it won’t be copy and paste because of flow. Things flow differently on the screen than they do on a page. But everything that was put into the show was in character. They didn’t alter the characters to be different archetypes. They didn’t decide to just take Martha Well’s hard work and then use it as a creative project that they could do what they want with (like some adaptations sadly have done in the past).
This is so clearly a passion project to those involved.
It shows.
I love this show just as much as I love the books.
It has the same witty and lovable characters from the book, except I’m LOOKING at them!
Sorry Murderbot…
I wanted to watch this series as soon as it came out but was determined to read the books first.
And honestly. Both book and show are so good.
When I went to watch this show I was on book 6, and it felt like I was stepping back into the first one again. I had this warm feeling in my chest the whole way through. Like being reunited with old friends.
The cast was excellent! Completely read their characters on the page and just became them on the screen.
Murderbot was one of those characters for me, where I strongly believed there was NO ACTOR EVER that could play them on screen and do them justice.
Then I watched approximately 5 mins of Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot and my mind changed immediately to “NOBODY BUT HIM CAN PLAY MURDERBOT!”
He’s got the “awkward cyborg anxiously trying to pretend he’s still mindless and under the control of humans” act DOWN!
Just like with the books. I HIGHLY recommend the show too!
The second season is in production and is due to come out next year!!! I’m hoping the beginning of next year?? PLEASE!!! I’M BEGGING YOOOOOOOUUUUUU!
If it isn’t….
Have you read or watched Murderbot yet?? YOU MUST!!!!! *looks over your shoulder to make sure you’re adding it to your TBR*
What did you think??? Please share your thoughts! We can spiral down the Murderbot love spiral together while we wait for some more content to devour!
