this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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Science Fiction

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Lemmy World Rules

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What I felt after reading "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells (literature.cafe)
submitted 1 year ago by Bebo@literature.cafe to c/sciencefiction@lemmy.world
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What an enjoyable cozy scifi adventure! The story centers around a security bot with a self-hacked governor module, who refers to itself privately as "Murderbot" and likes to watch serials and movies surreptitiously in it's free time. The socially awkward bot repeatedly assures us that it definitely does not care about humans. When the team of scientists which have hired Murderbot are confronted by life threatening situations, it goes out of it's way to save their lives if only just so it is not labelled as an incompetent. Over the course of the story we observe how it's relationship with the humans in the group develops and changes. Murderbot's at times hilarious internal monologues concerning "her humans" were my favourite parts of the book. So those of you who have read the book, how did you like it? How are the rest of the books in the series?

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[–] chewiedies@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I thought of muderbot as a "her" as well. I think at some point it's described as having a female appearance without its armor on.

[–] Veraticus@lib.lgbt 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s never explicitly stated what Murderbot’s gender presentation is. I do visualize it as feminine presenting personally, but I just finished a reread and it is never stated anywhere. A character calls it “third mom” at one point but it’s unclear if this is because it looks feminine or because it was smothering her as her extant mothers do.

[–] Bebo@literature.cafe 2 points 1 year ago

Coming to think of it, I am not absolutely sure that "her" is specifically mentioned. I probably thought of Murderbot as "her" in my head. But what I found funny was the slight possessive sense with which they/it referred to their "humans".

[–] Eq0@literature.cafe 1 points 1 year ago

I never noticed that I also thought of “her”. I read the book a while ago, so I don’t remember your reference, but I remember finding it refreshing to find a robot that was “obviously female” instead of undefined therefore male.