[CW for underage sex work in the 2nd book review]
I finally decided to get All Systems Red from the library and have the next two on hold. I enjoyed it and think it pretty much lived up to the hype. Murderbot is a SecUnit on an uninhabited planet. It’s assigned to a group of scientists who are exploring the planet, but it doesn’t particularly enjoy its job. It hacked its governor module and spends as much time as it can streaming various entertainment media, until one day things go wrong and it has to protect its humans – and also interact with them, which causes a lot of anxiety.
I love that Murderbot (which it doesn’t call itself out loud to its humans) has anxiety, has feelings in general. I do find it confusing, too. Because this is a novella, there’s only so much fleshing out of the science fiction setting. The world-building is limited, and I understand why, but it was sometimes hard to put aside the questions I had, like how do you have a half human (organic) and half artificial SecUnit? How does that work? They do have feelings, and a couple of the human characters overtly liken the situation to slavery. I’m curious about whether Wells will do anything with that later in the series.
The other novel I read recently is Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls. I vaguely recall reading that in middle school or high school, and I could never remember the title but kept periodically thinking about it and finally put a description of the book in a Reddit thread – and voila! Got the title! The reason it stood out to me is that the main character, Sarah, can talk to inanimate objects. It’s a unique concept that I don’t think I’ve come across before or since, and it’s really interesting.
Sarah is considered to be on the autism spectrum and can only speak in quotes. She was released from a mental institution, but a group of people want her back because of her abilities. Sarah is the narrator, and the book is set in what was probably considered the near-ish future (considering the book was published in the 90s). I did enjoy re-reading this but struggled with some elements. Sarah joins a group of people who live underground and have created their own community with their own set of laws. Each person has to financially contribute, and some of them do this by engaging in sex work. I like that Lindskold doesn’t stigmatize sex workers, but it’s pretty clear that some of them are underage (although she doesn’t actually give anyone’s age), which was disturbing. It wasn’t a main part of the book, but it bothered me enough that I doubt a second re-read will be in the cards in the future.
