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lunabee34I finally got around to finishing Murderbot!
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Murderbot is awesome. How could I not love a story about a robot who just wants to be left alone to watch TV in peace?
I love Murderbot's humans, especially Dr. Mensah. I love the thorny ethics of its sentience. I love all the issues of embodiment the books explores.
The only thing I do not adore is how short it is. :( I need more than just a novella about these characters. Also, my copy has two typos which is super jarring for something so short.
Eagerly looking forward to the next books.
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Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely love Murderbot's interactions with ART, the sentient space exploration who ultimately becomes a friend. I'm also really intrigued by the world building here and what Murderbot learns about the incident in which it lost control and killed humans. Same great mix of humor, pathos, and wry observation on what it means to be human.
View all my reviews
Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, man. This just gets better and better. Murderbot investigates the company that targeted its clients in the first book; it's not clear what it finds, and I can't wait to see how that shakes out in the final book. More excellent world building. More Murderbot bonding with humans and bots despite itself. Absolutely can't wait for the reunion in the final book.
View all my reviews
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is so satisfying. I absolutely love Murderbot's rescue mission to save its crew, and I absolutely love the interactions it has with them once they're together again.
This series reminds me of Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards in that there is this sublimated other world (alien artifacts and strange synthetics) that is never explained; I kept waiting for the big reveal with GrayCris to be that they had a live alien or something. I know that Murderbot doesn't care about aliens and therefore we don't get to know anything about them, but I am so intrigued. This universe seems to consist entirely of humans and bots. So what happened to the aliens? What did they look like? Why isn't there a bunch of media involving them? I am so intensely curious!!
View all my reviews
Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing by Robert Boice
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Boice knows his stuff. He has thoroughly researched writing blocks and writing anxiety and offers solutions from a clinical angle as a mental health clinician. He also has done significant research on automatic writing and free writing and their usefulness to the blocked writer.
This is an older book, but I think this book would be really helpful for anyone who is trying to develop good writing habits. It's geared toward academics, but I honestly think it could be helpful to anyone who's trying to do any kind of writing. It's very much process-oriented: lots of worksheets to fill out to figure out where you fall on the spectrum of X issue, lots of checklists for making writing productive, etc.
Boice's basic thesis is that in order to be a productive writer, you go through four stages. The first couple of stages are just focused on generating writing; so stage one is about automatic and generative writing (essentially a kind of targeted freewriting and outlining and note taking). The second stage is about stimulus control, creating external motivators to ensure that you write on a regular basis. The third is about cutting out the negative self-talk that inhibits writing, and the fourth is about making your writing public (in a support group, to a select reader, etc). I've read a lot of writing manuals at this point, and I think what Boice's has going for it that a lot of others don't is that number one, he credits Dorothea Brande instead of ripping her off (looking at you, Julia Cameron!); also despite being a psychologist or psychiatrist, he does not insist that writing blocks or writing anxiety come from trauma. Trauma can certainly be a factor, but it's not the only or even main reason that people have trouble writing, and The Artist's Way is off-puttingly full of that insistence. Finally, it's very pragmatic and concrete; nothing in this book is vague. Everything is broken down into a process with steps, and all the steps are evidence-based in Boice's research or the research of others.
This guy wrote tons of articles and books about writing (specifically anxiety and blocks), and I think his arguments are sound.
View all my reviews
All Systems Red by Martha WellsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Murderbot is awesome. How could I not love a story about a robot who just wants to be left alone to watch TV in peace?
I love Murderbot's humans, especially Dr. Mensah. I love the thorny ethics of its sentience. I love all the issues of embodiment the books explores.
The only thing I do not adore is how short it is. :( I need more than just a novella about these characters. Also, my copy has two typos which is super jarring for something so short.
Eagerly looking forward to the next books.
View all my reviews
Artificial Condition by Martha WellsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I absolutely love Murderbot's interactions with ART, the sentient space exploration who ultimately becomes a friend. I'm also really intrigued by the world building here and what Murderbot learns about the incident in which it lost control and killed humans. Same great mix of humor, pathos, and wry observation on what it means to be human.
View all my reviews
Rogue Protocol by Martha WellsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Oh, man. This just gets better and better. Murderbot investigates the company that targeted its clients in the first book; it's not clear what it finds, and I can't wait to see how that shakes out in the final book. More excellent world building. More Murderbot bonding with humans and bots despite itself. Absolutely can't wait for the reunion in the final book.
View all my reviews
Exit Strategy by Martha WellsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is so satisfying. I absolutely love Murderbot's rescue mission to save its crew, and I absolutely love the interactions it has with them once they're together again.
This series reminds me of Scott Lynch's Gentleman Bastards in that there is this sublimated other world (alien artifacts and strange synthetics) that is never explained; I kept waiting for the big reveal with GrayCris to be that they had a live alien or something. I know that Murderbot doesn't care about aliens and therefore we don't get to know anything about them, but I am so intrigued. This universe seems to consist entirely of humans and bots. So what happened to the aliens? What did they look like? Why isn't there a bunch of media involving them? I am so intensely curious!!
View all my reviews
Professors as Writers: A Self-Help Guide to Productive Writing by Robert BoiceMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Boice knows his stuff. He has thoroughly researched writing blocks and writing anxiety and offers solutions from a clinical angle as a mental health clinician. He also has done significant research on automatic writing and free writing and their usefulness to the blocked writer.
This is an older book, but I think this book would be really helpful for anyone who is trying to develop good writing habits. It's geared toward academics, but I honestly think it could be helpful to anyone who's trying to do any kind of writing. It's very much process-oriented: lots of worksheets to fill out to figure out where you fall on the spectrum of X issue, lots of checklists for making writing productive, etc.
Boice's basic thesis is that in order to be a productive writer, you go through four stages. The first couple of stages are just focused on generating writing; so stage one is about automatic and generative writing (essentially a kind of targeted freewriting and outlining and note taking). The second stage is about stimulus control, creating external motivators to ensure that you write on a regular basis. The third is about cutting out the negative self-talk that inhibits writing, and the fourth is about making your writing public (in a support group, to a select reader, etc). I've read a lot of writing manuals at this point, and I think what Boice's has going for it that a lot of others don't is that number one, he credits Dorothea Brande instead of ripping her off (looking at you, Julia Cameron!); also despite being a psychologist or psychiatrist, he does not insist that writing blocks or writing anxiety come from trauma. Trauma can certainly be a factor, but it's not the only or even main reason that people have trouble writing, and The Artist's Way is off-puttingly full of that insistence. Finally, it's very pragmatic and concrete; nothing in this book is vague. Everything is broken down into a process with steps, and all the steps are evidence-based in Boice's research or the research of others.
This guy wrote tons of articles and books about writing (specifically anxiety and blocks), and I think his arguments are sound.
View all my reviews
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Date: 2020-01-10 06:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-10 07:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-10 11:04 pm (UTC)