I REALLY WAS. In retrospect it was just a complete meh of a reading experience. I wish it had been more liminal and strange because what a setup for weirdness! But in retrospect, the whole very alien situation felt as if it were executed mundanely.
Interesting to hear that about Murderbot because I had osmosed it as a sort of corporate dystopia all about like, how the characters were disposable per company interests and the fundamental conflict was between the little guys and the personal caring that grew between them and the soulless, fundamentally evil interests of BigCorp looming above it all. Also, is Murderbot just straight up a robot? I had ALSO osmosed that it was like, a cyborg or something, that a human being had been processed into Murderbot's whole thing. If this is not the case I am disappointed lol
Also Chambers is very much allergic to meaningful conflict yeah, but I think the real poison pill for me is friends who have read more of her books describing some actually pretty toxic relationship dynamics that go pretty unquestioned or called out in the soft uwu of it all... while I have not read the book myself it did sound like something that would drive me up the wall. If it's pure fluff at least it would be what it says on the tin, if it has toxic relationships and conflict at least the narrative could address that in an interesting way, if it has bad relationships but it's presented as pure fluff and light then that's untenable as a read to me.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2023-12-19 07:05 pm (UTC)Interesting to hear that about Murderbot because I had osmosed it as a sort of corporate dystopia all about like, how the characters were disposable per company interests and the fundamental conflict was between the little guys and the personal caring that grew between them and the soulless, fundamentally evil interests of BigCorp looming above it all. Also, is Murderbot just straight up a robot? I had ALSO osmosed that it was like, a cyborg or something, that a human being had been processed into Murderbot's whole thing. If this is not the case I am disappointed lol
Also Chambers is very much allergic to meaningful conflict yeah, but I think the real poison pill for me is friends who have read more of her books describing some actually pretty toxic relationship dynamics that go pretty unquestioned or called out in the soft uwu of it all... while I have not read the book myself it did sound like something that would drive me up the wall. If it's pure fluff at least it would be what it says on the tin, if it has toxic relationships and conflict at least the narrative could address that in an interesting way, if it has bad relationships but it's presented as pure fluff and light then that's untenable as a read to me.