Murderbot

You probably all know that the new Murderbot novel, Network Effect, comes out in a week or so. I will probably drop everything and read it the moment it appears on my kindle, though you never know, I may be in Mad Gardening Mode or for that matter I could conceivably be in Obsessive Writing Mode.

It’s certainly the release I’m most looking forward to this year, though.

And here at tor.com is a Murderbot post: Feelings [redacted], which is an Instagram interview with both Murderbot itself and everybody’s favorite totally unarmed research ship, ART.

I particularly enjoy the questions about Sanctuary Moon:

What is their favorite episode of Sanctuary Moon about?
MB: The one where they found out the Terraforming Supervisor was still alive, and behind the whole plot to deregulate the colony’s mining franchise which had been blamed on the Colony Solicitor, so she and her bodyguard and the Mech Transport Crewmember and the Mystery Person from the level 7 airshaft and the Food Service Staffing Manager fake her death, and she comes to her own memorial service.
ART: I didn’t like that one.

Which is your favorite episode of Sanctuary Moon to recommend as a gateway to the show?
MB: The first one. It’s the only one that gives all the detail about the Colony Solicitor’s secret backstory as a corporate espionage agent/opera production manager and you need that to understand the rest of the story.

What really happened on episode 231 of Sanctuary Moon?

MB: It was clearly a dream.

ART: You’re wrong.

MB: So when the Mech Pilot was attacked by his evil duplicate who tried to hit him with a giant hammer and then disappeared, you think that was supposed to be real?

ART: It was an artistic choice.

Perhaps it’s forgivable at this time to wonder whether Martha Wells might someday write the novelization of a Sanctuary Moon episode. Hey, she’s written novelizations of TV shows before, right? It would sort of the same as Rainbow Rowell writing a novel which was presented as fanfic in a different one of her novels.

Either way, even though I haven’t read it, I’m already hoping Network Effect won’t be the only Murderbot novel.