Erik's Reviews > All Systems Red

A Snickers candy-bar has three things going for it: it’s sweet, it’s crunchy, and it’s only 1.86 oz. Cause you know that saying, too much of a good thing is a bad thing? With Snickers, it’s more like too much of a bad thing is, uh, still a bad thing… but in small quantities, eh, not so bad, takes the edge off at least.

That more or less summarizes how I feel about these murder-bot diaries: the protagonist (self-named “Murderbot”) is a bit crunchy and a bit sweet, and it’s good that these are novellas and not full length novels. Just like a Snickers bar, they’re real easy to consume, and I don’t want to undervalue that. Reading each in one sitting is a great way to spend the afternoon.

And to give more substantive praise, probably the best part of these novellas is the way they extend corporate dystopia into the realm of space exploration. The Murderbot begins its life as a “SecBot,” a security/protection android that its company REQUIRES for exploration/survey groups to qualify for insurance (and also lets the company steal data…). While corporate dystopia is nothing new to sci-fi, this more intimate boots-on-the-ground perspective feels fresh within the context of space exploration.

However, these are otherwise absolute junk food. These are books heavily featuring robots and AI and hacking, written by someone who KNOWS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT ANY OF THAT. You know that amazingly absurd 1995 film, Hackers? That’s about the level of accuracy of hacking/robotics/AI in this book.

In writing, we have this phrase “write what you know.” I hate that phrase. I despise it utterly. Please, writers, don’t restrict yourself to “what you know.” Please use your empathy to write from perspectives not your own. Please depict worlds beyond what we currently know.

But do your research. I’m not asking for a textbook on encryption or cyber-sec. But if you’ve written a quarter of a million words in which “hacking” is the primary method by which your protagonist resolves conflicts and you never use basic terminology like “firewall” or “encryption” (much less sophisticated jargon like “sanitizing input” or “air-gap”) then your story is probably bullshit, isn’t it?

In that respect, I find it a bit disturbing that people nominated and then awarded these books for not just one Hugo but FOUR. MORE ACTUALLY! They wanted to give MORE! AND two Nebulas. That's like giving the story equivalent of a MCDONALD’S the “best restaurant award.” For better or worse, the field of science fiction literature is now dominated by people who have only the most tenuous grasp of actual science, technology, mathematics, and philosophy.

Also, as a final and related note, each of these books is like $20. I’m sorry but what? You’re charging steak-dinner prices for a candy bar. Ironic, considering this is a book set against a backdrop of corporate greed.