I had forgotten that Fugitive Telemetry from Martha Wells was coming out in April, so when I started seeing it in my social media, I immediately ordered it from the library and I was the third person in line, so the wait wasn't very long.
Wells is back with another novella with our favorite Murderbot character. I found myself once again whisked away inside of Murderbot's thoughts, which range from a hatred of all mankind and itself to a surprising clarity about human behavior.
Have you ever watched Taskmaster? It's a British comedy podcast in which five contestants do silly tasks and the Taskmaster then judges their performances. It's absolutely ridiculous and hilarious and I highly recommend you go to YouTube, type in "Taskmaster Series 1, Episode 1" and start watching from the beginning. The thing that I love about the show is that it's a representation of life. If you think about it, life is a just a series of thankless menial jobs that you do while other people judge you. Oh, you only wash your towels once a week? Heathen. Oh, you don't mow your lawn down to 1.5 inches every other day? You're making the rest of the neighborhood look bad? You responded to that email in three days instead of two? Your bonus is in serious danger. Anyway, the way the Taskmaster is sort of arbitrary in his point assessments is like life.
And there's a contestant in the most recent series who has repeatedly talked about how her own inner monologue is relentlessly negative. She'll come up with a plan for how to do a task and her own thoughts will be giving her all the problems with it. But outwardly she's always cheering herself on.
I feel like that contestant could be Murderbot.
Anyway, there's a murder on Preservation Station. That's really weird since it's safe as houses there at the station. Murderbot starts, reluctantly of course, helping Station Security solve the murder. There's slave refugees, rogue bots, and lots of drones. And Murderbot's quips. Wells delivers another fun, frothy entry into the series and I'm delighted that she's been contracted to another three novellas in this series.
Notable lines:
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, but this dead human clearly hadn't. (page 2-3)
I told her, I don't have enough data to make an assessment yet.
Understood. Then she added, I want you to work on this with Station Security. Even if isn't anything to do with our corporate problems, it's a good opportunity for you.
Double ugh. I told her, They don't want me. (Hey, I don't want me, either, but I'm stuck with me.) (page 7)
There was a lot of stray DNA in the junction, caused by so many humans coming through here and touching stuff. (Humans touch stuff all the time, I wish they wouldn't.) (page 20)
Gurathin sighed and rubbed his face and looked off into the distance, like he regretted all his life choices that had led to him standing here right now. (page 62)
Farid, Tifany, and three other officers stood back in the doorway to watch. (I will never figure out how humans decide who gets to sit where and do what, it's never the same.) (page 86)
I love Murderbot so much.
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