Mission Murderbot is a GO!

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“As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

It's not wrong... We're doing it, folks! The next series we're reading and discussing for the WSK Bookclub is The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. This is a very popular sci-fi series with a popular television adaptation on Apple TV, so heads up on placing inter-library loans early if you want to get them from the library. I also have some links under the cut to help you out with resourcing.

Now on to the main purpose of this post, a reading list and schedule! Per the last chat, we decided to cover the starting four novellas--this is one complete story arc--by reading two books over the course of two weeks and discussing both. (Don't panic, these are three to four hours long as audiobooks. You can finish them in less time than it takes to beat Portal.) After the first four novellas, we will revert to a normal one book per two weeks schedule as two out of the remaining three books are novel length. 

Reading order is a little tricky as Martha Wells is one of those authors who likes to publish out of chronological order. I decided to stick with publishing order for the novellas and novels as they are chronological with only one exception. However, I've slipped in the short stories where they fit best in the timeline. All chats will be on Sunday at 2pm CT in the Conspiracy Room.

January 26th through February 7th — Read All Systems Red & Artificial Condition plus the short story, Compulsory

February 8th — Chat to discuss 

February 9th through February 21st — Read Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy plus the short story, Home

February 22nd — Chat to Discuss

February 23rd through March 7th — Read Network Effect

March 8th — Chat to Discuss

March 9th through March 21st — Read Fugitive Telemetry

March 22nd — Chat to Discuss

March 23rd through April 11th (three weeks due to Easter) — Read System Collapse and the short story, Rapport 

April 12th — Chat to Discuss

A new book, Platform Decay, is set to be published on May 5th of this year. We can coordinate reading and discussing that one closer to the release date.

Reminders will be posted periodically to help keep everyone on track. If this is your first time reading this series, you are in for a treat. (; Happy reading!

Now, for those resources I promised!

The Mary Sue has a detailed list of the books with summaries and pictures of the covers HERE. I know how easy it is to get the titles mixed up when you're new to the series.

The audiobooks read by Kevin R. Free (yes, Kevin from Welcome to Nightvale) are available on Spotify Premium and Audible if you already have subscriptions to those. If you don't, HERE is an incomplete playlist of the audiobooks on Youtube, which could help you out with some of the books if your loan doesn't come in on time. 

For the short stories, I can provide direct linkage. 

The Future of Work: Compulsory 

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy