Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

enne📚 reviewed Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #4.5)

Home

4 stars

This is a short story that can be read online. The most notable part about this for me is that it was the first story not from Murderbot's point of view, but from Mensah's instead.

This viewpoint shift works for me because Mensah's trauma around being abducted on TranRollinHyfa comes through much more clearly in her own voice. It functions similarly to Rapport in that getting to see the other side of a relationship strengthens your understanding of both sides.

Her feed notifies her of a message packet, addressed to her and Bharadwaj. It’s a link to some sort of catalog weapons supply service. Ayda sighs, mostly amused. “It’s listening to us right now.” It must be hard to respect other people’s privacy when you’ve had to fight and scheme for every minute of your own. Hard not to be paranoid when you remember all the times your paranoia …

This is a short story that can be read online. The most notable part about this for me is that it was the first story not from Murderbot's point of view, but from Mensah's instead.

This viewpoint shift works for me because Mensah's trauma around being abducted on TranRollinHyfa comes through much more clearly in her own voice. It functions similarly to Rapport in that getting to see the other side of a relationship strengthens your understanding of both sides.

Her feed notifies her of a message packet, addressed to her and Bharadwaj. It’s a link to some sort of catalog weapons supply service. Ayda sighs, mostly amused. “It’s listening to us right now.” It must be hard to respect other people’s privacy when you’ve had to fight and scheme for every minute of your own. Hard not to be paranoid when you remember all the times your paranoia was justified.

But I also quite enjoy seeing how (and why) Murderbot is always compulsively invading everybody's privacy. Mensah clearly understands and (mostly) feels cared for by it. And also it's awkward and invasive too, and I don't think that we'd be able to get all of that without being in Mensah's head.

Soh Kam Yung reviewed Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory by Martha Wells

A Murderbot story told from a different point of view.

3 stars

Chronologically set between the Murderbot books "Exit Strategy" and "Network Effect", this short short story is told from the viewpoint of one of Murderbot's clients. After having being held hostage, Mensah is suffering from mental and emotional issues from that episode, yet is unwilling to admit to anybody; except perhaps Murderbot, who can see what is happening and encourages her to seek help. This is also a prelude to one of the story threads told in "Network Effect".