‘m going to have to go with different tastes here.

My sister really liked Martha Wells The Murderbot Diaries. She even reviewed it HERE. So when I was in the used book store I saw one of the series, Artificial Condition, there on the shelf. So yes, I felt duty-bound to pick a copy up and peruse it.

It was okay, but it didn’t rock my world.

The rough idea is that is a security bot who was involved in a crime where the crew for an entire mine-site was murdered. Having seen some of it and having deactivated his own safeguards, he’s on the run, taking whatever jobs he needs to to keep moving. And in this one, he signs up to be a bodyguard to a strange collective of miners who feel that their critical data from a process they’ve been working on has been stolen by a corporation. And it turns out the corporation would rather play hardball than deal fairly with the miners.

Okay, first thing I wasn’t into – the character (the bot) was interesting and amusing, but he didn’t come up to some of the more classic scifi characters who established the futuristic criminal (such as the infamous Stainless Steel Rat). And second thing, the backgrounds were a bit bland. I’m reading an older scifi book right now, Fool’s War, and even though that takes place mostly on a starship (as does this), I had a greater visualization of the place. It feels more real.

So, okay, brother and sister have different tastes in books (and hers tend to be more literary than my grubby little view). So I guess you, dear blog reader, will have to break the tie. Pick up one of Ms. Wells’ books in the Murderbot series and let me know what you think.

>>>OR PICK UP ONE OF MY BOOKS AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK<<<