Subtle Blood (2021) KJ Charles (The Will Darling Adventures #3) Set in England in 1924 “I might have to buy one, actually, it was such fun. Shall we, Maisie? We can call her Suzy.” “Su— A Hispano-Suiza?” Kim demanded. “Do you know how fast those beasts go?” “We do now,” Maisie said. “I’d like a […]

The Shadow Pavilion (2008) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #4) Mhara is about to be coronated as Emperor of Heaven, but his changes are making people unhappy. Mhara went on, “What is the essence of our relationship to the human world?” “Compassion?” someone ventured after a moment. “Sanctuary, after the spirit’s travails upon Earth?” “Love?” […]

Precious Dragon (2007) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #3) Detective Inspector Chen and Zhu Irzh are taken from their current cases and sent to Hell to escort the Celestial, Miss Qi. “Miss Qi will be coming with us, then?” Chen asked, more to stave off yet another difficult discussion than out of any real attempt […]

The Demon and the City (2006) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #2) “I’m here about an irregularity in your feng shui dowsing license,” the demon said. “My name’s Seneschal Zhu Irzh. Want to see my badge?” At this point he had produced a piece of paper which, to Paravang’s horrified gaze, had proclaimed him to […]

Snake Agent (2005) Liz Williams (Detective Inspector Chen #1) It’s been more than half a decade since I last read this series, and I’d forgotten how much SF and horror it has. Probably because both are far less important than the fantasy and mystery, and neither the SF or the horror is written in a […]

System Collapse (2023) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #7) (According to Martyn, ART is of course capable of doing its own accounting, but it always ends up with extra numbers that no one can trace. So now Turi does it and has to keep a hardcopy ledger because otherwise ART would alter their data. No […]

Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #6) “What controlled circumstances?” I said, “Isolated work installations.” Her expression turned even more grim. “Corporate slave labor camps.” I said, “Yes, but if we call them that, Marketing and Branding gets angry and we get a power surge through our brains that fries little pieces of […]

Network Effect (2020) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5) “What is that thing?” Target Leader demanded. “What are you? You’re a bot?” Thiago said, “It’s a security unit. A bot/human construct.” Target Leader didn’t seem to believe him. “Why does it look like a person?” I said, “I ask myself that sometimes.” Over the comm […]

Exit Strategy (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #4) Listening to the SecSystem’s audio, I heard a crew member in the corridor say, “I’ve never seen one out of armor. They really do look human.” I made a gesture in that direction that I had only seen in the shows that were rated high on […]

Rogue Protocol (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #3) Pretending bad things aren’t happening is not a great survival strategy in the long run. I was getting an idea. It was probably a bad idea. (When most of your training in tactical thinking comes from adventure shows, that does tend to happen.) Or Miki was […]

Artificial Condition (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #2) I didn’t care what humans were doing to each other as long as I didn’t have to a) stop it or b) clean up after it. Constructs sometimes fall under the same category as bots, sometimes under the same category as deadly weapons. (FYI, that is […]

All Systems Red (2017) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1) This is why I prefer wearing the armor, even inside the habitat where it’s unnecessary and can just get in the way. Human clients usually like to pretend I’m a robot and that’s much easier in the armor. But the company would access all those […]

System Collapse, Audio Book (2023) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #5) “Thank you for your help,” Iris said, in a way that could be mistaken for politeness by a bot but a human would definitely know there was an undercurrent of fuck you. “Are you going to bill us later?” […]

Network Effect, Audio Book (2020) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #5) Thiago: “You trust it that much?” Mensah: “With my life, literally. I know what it will do to protect her, and you, and the rest of the team. Of course, it has its faults. In fact, it’s probably listening […]

Exit Strategy, Audio Book (2018) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #4) (Deleting memories like that doesn’t work. I can delete things from my data storage, but not from the organic parts of my head.) I “liked” these clothes. Maybe I actually liked them enough to remove the quotation marks around […]

Rogue Protocol, Audio Book (2018) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #3) (The good thing about pretending to be an augmented human security consultant instead of a construct SecUnit is that you can tell the humans to shut up.) (A)nybody who wanted to hang around and live on a deteriorating terraforming […]

Artificial Condition, Audio Book (2018) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #2) I didn’t care what humans were doing to each other as long as I didn’t have to a) stop it or b) clean up after it. Spending that much time with something that didn’t want you there, or that […]

All Systems Red, Audio Book (2017) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #1) I don’t know why, because it’s one of those things I’m not contractually obligated to care about. But the company would access all those recordings and data mine them for anything they could sell. No, they don’t tell […]

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy (2025) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #2.5) Did I read this online when it first came out? Yes I did. But I read it again once I downloaded the copy Tania gifted me to my ereader. Because even if there is no appearance of Murderbot, it’s still a Murderbot story. […]

System Collapse, Audiobook (2023) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R Free (Murderbot Diaries #7) I still felt radically off my game and I was hoping for reassurance rather than statistics that confirmed that I was correct in thinking that everything sucked right now. (According to Martyn, ART is of course capable of doing its own […]

Fugitive Telemetry, Audiobook (2021) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R Free (The Murderbot Diaries #6) I guess if you were really determined, you could find a way to get yourself killed by exposing the power connectors under the panels and shielding and, I don’t know, licking them or something, “What controlled circumstances?” I said, “Isolated […]

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (2015) Becky Chambers (Wayfarers #1) Truthfully, I feel a little bad. I know this series is a favorite of so many people, but as interesting as it was, I just didn’t love it the way everyone else does. Possibly it’s because SF is often hard for me […]

Fugitive Telemetry, Audiobook (2021) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R Free (The Murderbot Diaries #6) Characters: Dr. Mensah, Pin-Lee, Lutran, Dr. Ratthi, Gurathin, Senior Officer Indah, Tech Tural, Officer Doran, Officer Aylen, PA Supervisor Gamila, Officer Farid, Officer Tifany, Tellus, Balin, JollyBaby, Soire, Mish, Matif, Fenn, Miro Publisher: Recorded Books Rating: 9.5/10

Network Effect, Audiobook (2020) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R Free (The Murderbot Diaries #5) Characters: Dr. Arada, Overse, Dr. Thiago, Dr. Mensah, Dr. Ratthi, Dr. Bharadwaj, Amena, Pin-Lee, Farai, Tano, Copilot Mihail, Specialist Rajpreet, Pilot Roa, Adjat, Remy, Hanifa, Kanti, Perihelion/ART, Eletra, Ras, Officer Tifany, Senior Officer Indah, Supervisor Leonide, Martyn, Karime, Turi, Seth, […]

Exit Strategy, Audiobook (2018) Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #4) Ship’s drones gathered to watch me, confused as to why I was going out the wrong door and beeping sadly about it. (Humans never think to tell their bots things like, say, don’t respond to random individuals wandering the outside […]

Rogue Protocol, Audiobook (2018) Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #3) Or Miki was a bot who had never been abused or lied to or treated with anything but indulgent kindness. It really thought its humans were its friends, because that’s how they treated it. I signaled Miki I would be […]

Artificial Condition, Audiobook (2018) Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #2) (Constructs sometimes fall under the same category as bots, sometimes under the same category as deadly weapons. (FYI, that is not a good category to be in.)) How the hell was I supposed to know there were transports sentient enough […]

All Systems Red, Audiobook (2017) Martha Wells, narrated by Kevin R. Free (The Murderbot Diaries #1) The hostile that had just exploded up out of the ground had a really big mouth, so I felt I needed a really big gun. So we didn’t lose our ramp when the hostile came up under it, big […]

System Collapse (2023) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #7) (According to Martyn, ART is of course capable of doing its own accounting, but it always ends up with extra numbers that no one can trace. So now Turi does it and has to keep a hardcopy ledger because otherwise ART would alter their data. No […]

Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #6) The bag had lights but turning them on would just be stupid plus I didn’t really want to see what was happening. Farid came into the room, spotted me, and came over to say, “Uh, we’re making tea. Do you—” I paused my feed and told […]

Network Effect (2020) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5) Thiago: “You trust it that much?” Mensah: “With my life, literally. I know what it will do to protect her, and you, and the rest of the team. Of course, it has its faults. In fact, it’s probably listening to us right now. Are you listening, […]

Exit Strategy (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #4) Ship’s drones gathered to watch me, confused as to why I was going out the wrong door and beeping sadly about it. I “liked” these clothes. Maybe I actually liked them enough to remove the quotation marks around “liked.” I was having an emotion, and I […]

Rogue Protocol (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #3) (There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you.”) Or Miki was a bot who had never been abused or lied to or treated with anything but indulgent kindness. It really thought its humans were its friends, […]

Artificial Condition (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #2) Constructs sometimes fall under the same category as bots, sometimes under the same category as deadly weapons. (FYI, that is not a good category to be in. I could feel ART metaphorically clutch its function. I closed the story by reflex, like that would make it […]

All Systems Red (2017) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #1) I said, “It’s part of my job, not to listen to the System feeds when they . . . make mistakes.” That’s why you need constructs, SecUnits with organic components. But she should know that. Before she accepted delivery of me, she had logged about […]

System Collapse (2023) Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries) MURDERBOT! This story picks up immediately following the events of Network Effect–ART and Murderbot are trying to keep their humans safe from the Barish-Estranza corporation while forging a planetary charter and waiting for reinforcement from ART’s university. It’s going as it always does for Murderbot. So the next […]

Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) The bag had lights but turning them on would just be stupid plus I didn’t really want to see what was happening. Targets Two and Four had been giving very convincing descriptions of their cargo route. Clearly they had taken some effort to get their stories straight. […]

Network Effect (2020) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) There is a protocol for meeting humans who are not clients but who are associated with clients, and that protocol will apply here. Before I can speak, Ratthi waves and says, “Hello, hello. Perihelion says you’ve disabled your governor module. I’m Ratthi, and this is Amena. Please […]

Exit Strategy (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) In the shows, I saw humans comfort each other all the time at moments like this. I had never wanted that and I still didn’t. (Touching while rendering assistance, shielding humans from explosions, etc., is different.) But I was the only one here, so I braced myself […]

Rogue Protocol (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) The core cutter had powered up and accessed my feed to deliver a canned warning and a handy set of directions. Why yes, I did want to disengage the safety protocols, thanks for asking. In another twenty seconds, they were all my new drone friends. I had […]

Artificial Condition (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) Calm down, ART said, not helpfully. I closed the story by reflex, like that would make it not exist. After three seconds of shock, I made myself open it again. My human parts were experiencing a cold prickling that wasn’t comfortable. This place was creepy. I reminded […]

All Systems Red (2017) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) I was depressed this morning. I’d tried watching some new serials last night and even they couldn’t distract me; reality was too intrusive. Gurathin turned to me. “So you don’t have a governor module, but we could punish you by looking at you.” I looked at […]

The Hound of Justice (2019) Claire O’Dell (The Janet Watson Chronicles) When I read it, I was drawn into A Study in Honor despite the fact it was really not the kind of book I enjoy. The same is true this time. Janet Watson is settling into her position at Georgetown–although she isn’t yet cleared […]

Network Effect, Audio Edition (2020) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free MURDERBOT! “What is that thing?” Target Leader demanded. “What are you? You’re a bot?” Thiago said, “It’s a security unit. A bot/ human construct.” T arget Leader didn’t seem to believe him. “Why does it look like a person?” I said, “I ask […]

Exit Strategy (2018) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free MURDERBOT! Publisher: Recorded Books Rating: 9.5/10

Rogue Protocol (2018) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free MURDERBOT Publisher: Recorded Books Rating: 9.5/10

Artificial Condition (2018) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free MURDERBOT! ART! Publisher: Recorded Books Rating: 9.5/10

All Systems Red (2017) Martha Wells narrated by Kevin R. Free MURDERBOT Publisher: Recorded Books Rating: 9.5/10

Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) Murderbot solves a murder! The full station threat assessment for murder was sitting at a baseline 7 percent. (To make it drop lower than that we’d have to be on an uninhabited planet.) Why don’t you come to the hotel when you’re done and we’ll do something […]

Exit Strategy (2018) Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries) I love Murderbot, but I also love the other tech. Ship’s drones gathered to watch me, confused as to why I was going out the wrong door and beeping sadly about it. Ship’s feed and system codes were trashed, but bot pilot was already reasserting control. SecSystem […]