#like she was the one who convinced me to read the Murderbot Diaries and the next book comes out in the next couple months

[iviarellereads]

Exit Strategy, Chapter 4

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one!)

In which the plans get less and less desirable.

Returning to the station, Murderbot and Pin-Lee split up. Pin-Lee to get the others, and MB to book a fresh room to talk in. It scouts, and waits, and eventually the three humans enter. Ratthi is grinning, and MB interprets Gurathin's expression as "appalled."(1) Ratthi asks what it's been up to, but Pin-Lee says it can tell later, or not, but first they need to focus on getting Mensah out. MB is glad it's looking at the display wall and not the humans.(2)

Gurathin expresses skepticism about how MB can help them. Ratthi asks if they can just power in, but MB knows that's the stupidest possible idea. It sends them its assembled map in the private feed, and says the problem would be leaving neutral security zones and entering GrayCris's corporate jurisdiction.

Ratthi is dismayed, and asks, what about the company gunship? MB says GrayCris is probably raising money just to buy off the company, including asking the ransom from Preservation. Pin-Lee says that's what the Preservation diplomatic corps thought. Ratthi is hurt she didn't tell him, but Gurathin guessed it for himself too.(3)

The humans start drifting the conversation, so MB draws them back, saying GrayCris might not be able to afford the payoff. It thinks about how they'd be unable to sell off their alien remnants anymore, so they're probably getting desperate.

Pin-Lee asks if MB might be able to get her out without the ransom.

I had been running possible scenarios, partly to drown out the sound of humans making stupid suggestions. (Not that I don’t like that sound; it’s sort of comforting and familiar, in an annoying way.) “It would be tricky,” I said. By tricky I meant I was getting an average of an 85 percent chance of failure and death, and it was only that low because my last diagnostic said my risk assessment module was wonky. (I know, that explains a lot about me.) “We need to find a way to make them bring her outside the main station security barrier so that I can track her location via her company implant.”

Pin-Lee suggests offering a ransom exchange in one of the hotels. Ratthi wonders if they'll know about Preservation's finances, but Gurathin says he can assemble a very convincing list of Preservation's assets. MB decides this isn't in the top ten worst plans, and offers that they don't need to bring her all the way to the humans, just outside GrayCris's security barrier.

Gurathin asks MB directly if it can get Mensah away from them, even from a heavy guard. MB says the more guards the better, and thinks Gurathin's expression may be "some congenital condition he had no control over."(4) He asks if it's going to kill the guards, and MB decides no, he really is just an asshole. It thinks about lying, but answers, if it has to. Gurathin asks if it's qualified to make that decision, and MB says it's the security expert, they're the ones who get eaten by angry fauna when they walk in the wrong places.

MB says it's going to go wait in the lobby, until they make a decision. Pin-Lee says they already have, and the others agree. Well, then MB is going to the lobby anyway. It's a good strategic position to work from.

As the humans sort of the details of Operation Not Actually A Completely Terrible Plan, MB suggests they arrange to meet GrayCris here, since the old hotel was swarming with corporate agents. They agree, and since they're traveling light, they don't have anything to collect from the room anyway.

They make the call, and MB monitors them from the lobby. GrayCris argue for a whole two minutes until Pin-Lee convinces them to bring Mensah out, though they plan to send in a representative to check the funds authorization first. Gurathin goes down to the lobby to wait for them, looking more like a SecUnit than MB.

MB thinks about how, if this goes well, it will see Mensah again. Art had told it that the PreservationAux team were its crew, and it's waffled back and forth since then.

But sitting here in a hotel lobby, watching a biozone and running every not-a-SecUnit behavioral code I had, the fantasy fell apart. The hard reality was that I didn’t know what Mensah was to me. Even after Miki, I still didn’t want to be a pet robot.(5)

Gurathin contacts MB privately, and MB gets a little sarcastic back at him. Gurathin says he's not its enemy, just cautious. MB says it doesn't care about Gurathin's opinion, and immediately regrets it, wishing it had itself on a one-second delay so it could delete it.

 It made it sound like I did care. Which I didn’t.(6)

A couple of minutes later, Gurathin asks where it went. MB doesn't want to talk about it, but doesn't want to be so petty as to ignore him. It sends him a lightly edited video it took, on the trip to HaveRatton, with the intention of critiquing its performance. It throws the clips together, and sends them to Gurathin, titled "Murderbot Impersonates an Augmented Human Security Consultant".(7) He's still watching it when the GrayCris rep shows up.

The rep is likely carrying a weapon, with something to block it being detected. MB is more concerned that he's likely carrying a secure comm. He meets Gurathin, who leads him back to Pin-Lee and Ratthi. MB keeps an eye out for hostiles in the lobby, possibly spotting a few. But instead of staying in the lobby, MB follows a hunch, and takes a transport pod, telling the hotel's systems not to take action on maintenance requests, to stop the pod mid-transit without crashing the system or any other pods moving in that transit corridor.

The rep, Serrat, calls the team's bluff on the deal, and sends a secret signal that MB figures is likely an emergency abort mission on the hostage transfer, with a side serving of request for backup to come in shooting. MB kills the hotel's relay, and two backup relays that try to activate. Ratthi tells MB privately that Serrat has a small energy weapon. MB tells Pin-Lee to keep Serrat talking, and abandons the not so terrible plan for a more terrible one.

MB gets off the transit pod, and makes its way to the door. When it hears Serrat respond to the humans, it gets his relative position, and opens the door, and subdues him. Pin-Lee takes the comm device from him, and MB says it's blocked the device and his feed access. Serrat says they've threatened him with a deadly weapon and violated station law by bringing in a private SecUnit. Pin-Lee says SecUnit isn't a weapon, it's a person, and an angry one at that. Serrat says he sent a signal to call off the exchange, and no one will help them. Pin-Lee asks why they need to pay off the bond company so badly, or is all this about revenge?

Serrat’s face slipped into a skeptical sneer. He didn’t take them seriously, which, sure, I can see why. If you were GrayCris and regularly murdered humans as part of your job, the wrath of three research surveyors from a non-corporate backwater planet probably didn’t fill you with fear. And he was certain they were controlling me somehow. He said, “Revenge? You buy a SecUnit and send it to Milu to expose an essential GrayCris asset operation. You and your little planetary polity have the audacity to think you can compete with a corporation—what did you expect to happen?”

Pin-Lee says GrayCris started all this, while in the feed, Ratthi and Gurathin talk about Milu in the feed. MB is still working on restoring the hotel relays, but realizes that it still can't pick up Mensah's emergency implant.

They weren’t bringing her. This had all been for nothing. All of it, Milu, Miki’s death, the trip here, everything. I said, “Milu was my idea. I’m a rogue unit.”

Serrat says a truly rogue unit would have left a trail of bodies across the station.(8) MB says it wanted the trail to start here. It's deciding whether or not to crush his windpipe when Mensah's implant pings, so it pulls him away from the wall and chokes him unconscious. The humans try to stop it, but it says it knows what it's doing.

Pin-Lee points out Mensah's implant is pinging, and MB says she's on a transit pipe, and they need to go back to their shuttle. GrayCris will know what they're up to shortly. Before they can object, MB is already out the door, sprinting for the pod junction. In the feed, it tells them the group with Mensah is two minutes out, she will meet them at their shuttle, and do not try to contact MB on the feed. Ratthi says they're going, and to be careful, when MB cuts contact and gets in the pod, and shuts down its risk assessment module.(9)

=====

(1) You know, I don't half wonder, as Murderbot does later this chapter, if Gurathin just has resting stern face. He was the most skeptical of it up front, I'm not ignoring that, but after MB has proven itself, I wonder if it's just still interpreting Gurathin through its own suspicion, and if that perception is subject to change. (2) What do you think it's feeling here? I'm leaning toward gratitude to Pin-Lee that it doesn't know how to process. (3) Do you think Ratthi knows he's the himbo of the friend group? (4) That's a real asshole way of saying it, MB. LOL (5) I don't think it's in any real danger of becoming a Miki, but I can see why it's so worried, you know? It doesn't have any context for "reformed SecUnit, member of society" so it has to go on the only points of comparison it does have. (6) Yep, you don't-care so hard that you're flinching from your own words. (7) You don't-care so much you don't want to be rude to him. You anti-care so much you used your private name with him, when he respectfully used the one you asked him to use. Yep, no caring detected here. (8) Isn't it interesting how everyone assumes SecUnits can't be sapient and friendly? Or stealthy, or discreet. (9) Bah, that's nothing, it was faulty already anyway.

#the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries #exit strategy #murderbot #secunit #ratthi #pin-lee #gurathin #serrat (murderbot)

[zorilleerrant]

I’m back, having consumed very much media and become interested in several new fandoms (although I think Teen Wolf is the only one anyone much cares about here, and I haven’t written anything for that).

Anyway, here are some fics I’ve written, let me know if you want any of them in a separate post to share around or whatever.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/34837183 Batman. WIP, the Jason Todd fic, very long, nowhere near finished, but I’m planning on updating Wednesdays, so there’s that. apparently not what people want out of a Jason fic but it is what it is. gen, but it is queer fiction, and it does have sex scenes in it

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46891264 Spirit World. We all know about Xanthe Zhou by now, right? Anyway, they’re in love with Cass, I’ve decided it. A lot of the content of this (surprisingly) jossed by issue 1, but I think it’s still pretty good. Xanthe/Cass

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46803031 Batman. So, in World’s Finest, Dick asks if Talia has a sister. I wrote a story where he pursues that to its “logical” conclusion - so, yes, he is trying to get Nyssa to go out with him, but he is a child, so she very much declines. Ends up being a lot about his relationship with Bruce (who he unambiguously calls his father rather than his guardian in this fic). gen, humor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46240189 Monkey Prince. WIP again, and it’s not going to be that long but it’s probably going to take forever to finish it because the structure is giving me issues, but it’s a Monkey Prince platonic soulmate AU

https://archiveofourown.org/works/46239760 Batman. Cassandra Cain-centric story about, generally, lack of cultural identity and feelings of unbelonging. about race and family, mostly. this is an AU of Spirit World written as soon as the intro came out back in Lazarus Planet, so a lot of it goes down a different path and the magical structure is different. Xanthe bickers with Constantine in the odd chapters, though. (he’s Catholic here, sorry, I just like to write him that way.) gen, drama but not really angst

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36778261 Monkey Prince. my Monkey Business codas, which I’ve added to, but haven’t finished. I’ll get there, I even have most outlined, I just haven’t yet.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/45257911 Monkey Prince, but I guess Lazarus Planet technically. did anyone read the bit with Marcus and Lori interacting? I like her character a lot now, and I decided Marcus would be sad about her dying. gen, angst

https://archiveofourown.org/works/44473792 Monkey Prince. Monkey King gets time portalled to meet Monkey Prince. That’s it that’s the story. gen, humor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/44207464 Monkey Prince. sequel to Robin’s Egg Blue, Marcus is a Robin when Pigsy finds him and convinces him to be a Monkey instead. gen, humor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43807572 October Daye series. I was very concerned about where Julie went, so I decided she died in the angstiest way possible. gen, angst

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43761480 HP, for the FTH donation drive. trans woman Hermione, genderfluid Neville, series of vignettes. they’re starting a student union. (this is roughly set in the same AU as my other trans Hermione story, but that’s not necessary to reading it.) gen, mostly fluff

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43629217 Wayfarers series. Okay ngl that book really pissed me off so this might count as hatefic, but I just thought the author did Ohan dirty so I wrote angst about it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43566054 Murderbot Diaries. nonstandard format, but it’s a story about a murderbot (not our intrepid hero) dealing with idiot humans who get drunk and stab each other. gen, dark humor

https://archiveofourown.org/works/43520232 Batman. Coda to part of the Failsafe arc, character study.

#my writing #fanfic

[ladyherenya]

Books read in July

I had more time to read, but I also read a few novellas and rediscovered audiobooks.

It occurred to me a few years ago that an audiobook makes housework less tedious, but back then the library often didn’t have books I wanted as audiobooks, and there was inconvenience of lugging around a CD player or transferring umpteen CDs to my iPod. Now my library now has a good range on Overdrive, and being able to borrow audiobooks online and download them straight to my phone makes finding and listening to them so much easier. It’s amazing.

I’ve asterisked my favourites.

(My longer reviews and ratings are on LibraryThing.)

* The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red by Martha Wells: Told from the perspective of the Security bot assigned to a team surveying an uninhabited planet. The self-dubbed “Murderbot” avoids arousing suspicions about its hacked governor module and its binge-watching habits. But when things start going wrong, it has to work much more closely with its human clients than it would prefer. AI-with-feelings is one of my favourite things, and this particularly AI is delightfully grumpy and introverted. But this doesn’t just have an entertaining narrator, it also has a high-stakes mystery and some decent humans, and the combination is amazing. Well and truly exceeded my expectations.

Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor: After a year at university, Binti returns home. It’s a difficult homecoming, because not all of her family approve of her decision to go to university, and Binti’s plans of undertaking the pilgrimage that will mark her transition to becoming a Himba woman are disrupted by revelations about her heritage from her father’s side. An interesting, unusual story about culture, identity, prejudice and technology. It ends with a lot of things unresolved, in a cliff-hanger-y sort of way that strongly suggests the story isn’t over.

* The Hallowed Hunt by Lois McMaster Bujold (narrated by Marguerite Gavin): A gripping story with unusual worldbuilding, set in the world of the five gods. Lord Ingrey, sent to retrieve Prince Boleso murderer, becomes convinced that Lady Ijada was acting in self defence - and that no one else will accept that. Things quickly get much more complicated, and Ingrey and Ijada become tangled in mysteries about the past and the gods’ plans. I’m very glad I listened to the audiobook! The narrator highlighted the amusing moments, and I suspect I became much more attached to the characters as a result of experiencing their story more slowly. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did.

August Folly (1936) by Angela Thirkell: A summer of dinners, donkey rides, rehearsals, train journeys, cricket, secret worries, siblings and romance. When Richard Tebbin comes down from Oxford, he’s moody, awkward and self-absorbed - and becomes promptly besotted with the much older and married Mrs Dean. This is not a situation I’d consider delightful or charming, yet I was captivated. Thirkell astutely portrays family dynamics, with their various tensions, and many of the characters have complexities or contradictions, and show unexpected depth, strength or growth. I’m very glad I didn’t skip this one (in spite of the odd and unnecessary, but fortunately brief, references to prejudiced attitudes).

Dealings with Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (unabridged dramatisation): Cimorene has no interest in being a traditional princess. When her parents attempt to arrange a suitable marriage for her, she defies convention by running away and volunteering to becomes a dragon’s princess. This story combines dragons with the of subversion of fairytale tropes, so I’m surprised I didn’t become more invested. I don’t know if this was due to the dramatisation or the story itself - Cimorene is so capable and content with her circumstances it’s hard to connect with her. Or maybe this is simply one of those books I would have appreciated more fifteen years ago?

Black Dog series by Rachel Neumeier:

Black Dog Short Stories: A collection of short stories, mostly set just after the events of Black Dog. All of them involved more action than I was expecting. I enjoyed them, especially the backstory in “The Master of Dimilioc”.

Pure Magic: The black dog community of Dimilioc has dealt with one threat, but they have other enemies out there - and things really don’t go to plan. The result is very tense with very high stakes, and I couldn’t put it down.  Dimilioc’s reluctant new member, Justin, grew up unaware of his magic and knowing little of black dogs. I appreciated the different perspective he brings. Unlike Justin, Natividad’s very certain she wants to be part of Dimilioc - but is still getting her hand around what that actually means. I liked how the story ultimately deal with her agency and her disobedience.

Unconventional by Maggie Harcourt: Lexie’s father runs six fan conventions every year, and Lexie is right in the thick of it. As a look at the friendships and chaos behind the scenes at conventions, Unconventional is engaging and reasonably lighthearted. However, because the focus isn’t limited to convention shenanigans, the story loses something by never properly showing Lexie’s life beyond convention weekends. A couple of issues feel resolved too easily and some of the conclusions Lexie reaches feel a bit... artificial. I was disappointed that it was almost-but-not-quite something with more depth. Still, it’s fun and fannish.

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss: A mystery set in the late 19th century, in which most of the characters are borrowed from, or are the offspring of characters from, 19th century Gothic and mystery fiction. I’d read most of those stories and was delighted to see them all woven together like this. It’s all very meta in a way I really appreciated. After her mother dies, Mary Jekyll tries to find her father’s murderer. Instead she becomes involved in Holmes’ investigation into murders in Whitechapel and meets several highly unusual women with connections to the Société de Alchimistes. And together they write their own story.

Court of Fives trilogy by Kate Elliot: In postcolonial Efea the Saroese Patron class are forbidden from marrying Efean commoners.  As the daughters of a Saroese army captain and his Efean lover, Jessamy and her sisters, occur a precarious place in society. But that hasn’t prevented Jessamy from sneaking out and training to compete in the Fives. When her family’s circumstances change, she has to use all the skills to protect those she loves.

* Court of Fives (narrated by Georgia Dolenz): I loved this. The narrator is excellent - Jessamy and her sisters are so lively and believable - and the story’s absolutely gripping. I stayed up much later than I should because I was so worried for the characters! Jessamy’s impulsive high spirits and interactions with her sisters reminded me of Jo March from Little Women. I love that Jes’s relationships with her family are the heart of the story, and that she develops a more nuanced understanding of her parents’ choices. She also realises how they’ve sheltered her from challenges others face.

* Poisoned Blade (narrated by Georgia Dolenz): Jessamy has always dreamed of competing as an adversary in the Fives - but not when her victories are ordered and used to advantage by the man who tore her family apart. As Efea’s political situation crumbles, Jes becomes more aware of its complexities and of her unique position with loyalties to people from both classes. Frustratingly yet understandably, she takes a lot of risks - she’s learnt she’ll never win by playing it safe. I love how Jes’s relationships with her family remain central to the story, and how believably complex and strong-willed they all are. 

Night Flower (prequel novella): A cute story about how Jessamy’s parents met. It’s interesting seeing them as young people newly arrived in the city - moreover, seeing them as they see each other, not as their daughter perceives them twenty years later - but I was a little disappointed it didn’t show more of their relationship. I wanted to read about the point where, with a more thorough understanding of each other and of the sacrifices their relationship will involve, they chose to build a life together.

Jane and Prudence (1953) by Barbara Pym: Charming but it is also unromantic and sometimes uncomfortably astute. Jane and Prudence are friends who met years earlier at Oxford as a tutor and a student respectively. Jane is a vicar’s wife, adjusting to life in a new parish; Prudence is twenty-nine and unmarried, working in a London office. I appreciated that Jane is not particularly good at some things, like running an efficient household and yet is accepted as she is. Jane and Prudence’s friendship is also realistic and refreshing - they don’t always understand each other, but their friendship has persisted despite their differences.

The Wrong Side of Right by Jenn Marie Thorne: Kate is a teenager who has grown up knowing nothing about her father. After her mother dies her father’s identity is unexpectedly revealed. He’s a senator, with a family, and he’s running for president. As the campaign progresses, Kate has to decide how much is she prepared to pushed around, and what she will do when she doesn’t agree with her father’s politics.A few odd details initially struck me as a bit unrealistic - but I read the rest in one go. It satisfactorily addresses my quibbles, and finds the right balance between lighthearted and heartwarming.

#Herenya reviews books #Herenya recommends things #Angela Thirkell #Rachel Neumeier #Court of Fives #Barbara Pym #Kate Elliott #Theodora Goss #Lois McMaster Bujold #The World of the Five Gods #Martha Wells #Murderbot #Nnedi Okorafor #Patricia C. Wrede