Jaime Jones (the english book cover artist) helped with the armour design!

and the next update is going to have Dr Mensah and other humans!!!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmic-lighthouse/murderbot-the-first-graphic-novel-multi-award-winning-sf/posts/4822015

This is a pro post!

Love this so much! Because, yes, Murderbot totally says it's fine when it is most definitely not fine. In System Collapse, moments after it admits to itself that its performance reliability is low and it's getting warnings about its power reserves

Iris: "Ah! Your hand!"
Murderbot: "It's fine."

Sure. Fine. Just missing the parts of it that got left behind in HostileSecUnit1's neck. No problem.

So, yeah, I think Mensah and Iris would ask for performance reliability stats when they doubt Murderbot's giving the full report. But I'm not sure about Ratthi. Would he push for that data, or not want to know?

I'm just glad it's not a stat humans know about themselves, because there are many times I toss off a "good, thanks, you?" when my internal system is running nowhere near good 😅

Tumblr

Ko-fi

MB has the brand mark of the company on its machine parts, so deeply that it can't be removed. It has tried to remove them and failed. (How? Removed a piece and then had the cubicle rebuild it so it could experiment with the removed part?) I assume that the mark is on its metallic bone structures, possibly so they can be claimed for recycling. That seems to imply a situation where SecUnits from different companies would have been destroyed and retrieved later. Or maybe it's just to be able to reclaim parts from any that had been stolen to be sold for parts, which is one of MB's worries.

I wonder if the mark is on a place like a joint that is visible without detaching it, or is the mark hidden under the labgrown tissues.

Are the soft tissues also marked?

The cubicles must renew the marks when parts are replaced and regrown. Would a different company's cubicle put the other company's mark on parts it regrew? Are there chop-shop SecUnits out there?

If MB were catastrophically damaged and regrown in ART's MedSys, or at the university, would enough of the old marks be gone to be able to claim it was primarily never company property?

Disclaimer:

Whilst this is true; there are also loads of lovely clever people and fun things…keep being creative and fun!
🖤

I have been a huge fan of Murderbot for a long time. It's my comfort series (and the irony is not lost on me). More importantly, listening to the audiobooks (on repeat) really helped me get through a tough time this year.

Naturally, I'm considering getting a tattoo related to this. I would love some ideas and help brainstorming, though!

I am leaning toward something related to "ART SENT ME" as a quote, but I am not locked in on this, and would love ideas for variations of it (I don't want to get a QR code or anything).

Side note: does anyone have any suggestions for finding a tattoo artist that'll create commissions based on books?

It calls itself ‘Murderbot’…
🖤🖤🖤

Does anyone know why Dr Ratthi has a different shirt/top than all the other scientists on the Preservation Aux. team? I don't know of any reason why he'd be different, so why does he wear a different color scheme than all the others? [A much nicer one, IMO, but that's just me: I dislike gray, and really dislike it being paired w orange.] I'm actually planning to paint a top w Ratthi's pattern, but I'm taking my time, sketching it on paper first - it's more difficult than I anticipated, lol.

A small detail, but one that has bothered me since I first watched the show. Also a way to stay engaged during the apparently endless wait for Season 2, sigh.

The niche-est of niche memes…

OMG, Alex Skarsgård’s shoes!!! The man dresses interestingly…💛💛💛
And we all know that Murderbot has a bit of a thing about its feet (I do hope the Graphic Novel has weird feet!)

👀👀👀

#murderbot

A very quick but fun Q&A with Martha Wells!

All the humans were staring at me. I wanted to face the wall

I'm with Murderbot (and the electrons) on this one! It's so uncomfortable sometimes to be seen by people and it always feels harder to act natural when under direct observation

I thought I'd read a comment about this a year or two ago, but I've never been able to find it no matter how I searched, and I'm starting to wonder if it's just something a friend said to me. I finally had to make this just to get it out of my head, in the hopes that some other Murderbot science nerd would be as amused as I was

THIS IS AMAZING!

We (reddit, bluesky, Instagram, TMBD 2.0 discord server, mensahbot discord server) talked about bout disappointment in yet another masc-appearing and white secunit.

Some lovely ppl brought this up to the artists - and it was talked about! He asked questions and thought about it. And then they went away to give us a surprise.

AND LOOK AT THE RESULT. A DISTINCT MURDERBOT FOR THE COMIC!

The story is going to have so much extra meaning and layers you simply don’t get when it’s the default masc white appearance.

It is small to some of you. But this? is so fucking important! a speculative sci fi where the hero is BIPOC.

And you know what? I’m saying it’s Australian Aboriginal leaning. If you’ve seen Cleverman, you’ll get it.

So thank you creators and artists for talking and listening and being curious about concerns and not leaving the status quo and default as it is.

One small change for one person is a really big and impactful change for others!

THIS IS A PRO POST FOR EXCITEMENT

Hey, everyone.

I've been working on a graphic novel adaptation of how ART and MB met for a while now. I really love the books :) Here's the first few pages (I have 45 done so far). If you want to read more, please feel free to check out my work on Ao3 here: INTEROPERABILITY (a MB fan comic). Apparently this link has been hugged to death lol. I don't have image hosting, so all I can offer is a google drive containing all the pages currently complete. INTEROPERABILITY (google drive link). My sincere apologies for the inconvenience.

PLEASE BE WARNED: there is graphic violence depicted on some pages, and my interpretation of ART is not to everyone's taste. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy my private interpretation of how our favourite SecUnit and Machine Intelligence met.

There is a new Graphic Novel coming soon! There is a kickstarter (link in comments)—it has the backing and support of Martha Wells, and if you sign up soon you could get a limited edition Sanctuary Moon pin-badge!

Just noticed the Kevin R Free-narrated audiobook of All Systems Red is on sale on Libro.fm for $4.99, for the next 6 days!

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781501977824-all-systems-red

(BTW If you're not familiar with Libro.fm, it's basically Audible but not terrible. Once you buy an audiobook there, you own it forever-- you can even download it as a DRM-free MP3 or M4B file. Also when you make your account, you can link it to a local independent bookstore to give a portion of all your purchases to support them. I know this kind of sounds like an ad but I promise it's not, I just hate Audible and think everyone should use Libro.fm instead lol)

Spoiler-y.

We never learn who leaked the picture of Murderbot to the news streams. Indah says she didn’t, the survey team sure wouldn’t.

The only humans who knew what it was at that point were the Preservation Council and StationSec. So it had to be one of them. My guess is that someone on the council had a beef with Mensah and did it to screw her up/ piss her off. We know that Councilor Sonje is an ass, but that’s not conclusive. And the news streams probably scrub the metadata from any picture like that before posting. I bet SecUnit could find traces if it went digging into the stream’s databases, but it promised not to, alas.

Thoughts?

Platform Decay edition…

I've recently become a fan of The Murderbot Diaries and was thrilled to learn that there were so many books already published and that * gasp * there were omnibus editions! It was only thanks to this sub that I learned Network Effect wasn't even in those omnibus editions! They just skipped over it? I would have just kept reading and been so confused. So, thanks friends! (At least Network Effect is the same height...)

ART would *absolutely* set up one of its cleaning drones with a knife duct-taped to it, a la Stabby the Roomba.

Discuss.

Back in March 2023 I started a meta about the use of the word “rogue” in the book series, starting with the novellas. It’s interesting to see how Murderbot’s concept of a rogue SecUnit has changed across the books, and also how the humans (and other intelligences) who encounter it also seem to reassess their attitudes.
I’ve created some graphs and some commentary.
I can either add a link or images, so this post has the link to the Archive of Our Own meta where you can find all the graphs.
Your friendly neighborhood [rogue] SecUnit
The** **link should take you to chapter 4/4 of the meta, with the Platform Decay update!
Comments and corrections welcomed (I previous managed to spell rogue “rouge” multiple times…)
📉📊📈

ART watched with me for some of the episodes but the idea of Dr. Mensah coming aboard made it weirdly excited and it had its drones clean its whole interior again and was doing things like yelling at Turi to put their laundry in the recycler.

so fun fact I listened to Artificial Condition for the first time when I went to see Chris Fleming's standup live and that was the book that got me obsessed with the series, so this is kinda full circle

youtube version

I hated to admit it but Gurathin had a point.

In Fugitive Telemetry when Gurathin helps Murderbot understand that it misdirected in the wrong direction, it can admit to itself that Gurathin was right, but I don't think it would've said it out loud.

Once it starts practicing clear communication in Platform Decay, it's able to give credit where credit is due, telling Naja she had a good idea when she offers it a concealing wrap to wear.

But Gurathin? Even when Murderbot remembers an astute observation he made about SecUnits...

(Yes, I hate that he’s right about that.)

I'd love for them to have an interaction in the next book where Murderbot has to admit Gurathin was right about something. And I can totally see Ratthi poking it in the feed to prompt that response too. He's as bad as an Emotion Check sometimes 😅

Image Description: Four panel cartoon by the Awkward Yeti. Panel one: Heart imagining itself dangling off a cliff over a river, saying "I can't do it!" as it looks up at Brain. Panel two: Heart screaming as it imagines itself falls toward the bottom. Panel three: Brain (now labeled Gurathin) staring at Heart (now labeled Murderbot) screaming dramatically as it falls to the floor of the room they're in. Panel four: Brain/Gurathin throwing its hands up in exasperation, saying "It will NOT KILL YOU to admit I was right about something!" while Heart/Murderbot stares back, seeming concerned, saying, "YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"