| Title | : | Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (The Murderbot Diaries, #4.5) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 125083886X |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781250838865 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 19 |
| Publication | : | First published May 5, 2020 |
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Martha’s Murderbot novel, Network Effect.
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (The Murderbot Diaries, #4.5) Reviews
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No. I'm not reviewing it one more effing freaking time so that some small-minded tool of a robot can delete it. Because my review has been deleted at least three times.
It's part of my short-story round-up at my blog:
https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2020/... -
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (The Murderbot Diaries #4.5)
by Martha Wells
This very short Murderbot story takes place between the four novellas that started its story and the full length novel that comes after it. With this interlude we get to see MB interacting with the humans that have welcomed it (or not welcomed it) as Dr. Mensah's...what? friend? thing that needs a guardian? whatever. MB can either stay here and assist Dr. Mensah with her work while also providing much needed protection from those who want to harm her or MB can accept one of the many job offers its gotten thanks to its awesome protection abilities becoming well known. For now, MB is staying close to Dr. Mensah because it knows that Dr. Mensah is secretly struggling with the near death experiences of herself and her team.
This short story can be read for free at
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-h...
Published April 19th 2021 by Tor Books (first published May 5th 2020) -
Ok, that’s weird. My review of this one disappeared, but comments and likes remained. GR is getting buggy in a strange way. And of course, I have no backup of this review, so let’s see what I recall.
————“It’s about being treated as a thing, isn’t it. Whether that thing is a hostage of conditional value, or a very expensively designed and equipped enslaved machine/organic intelligence. You’re a thing, and there is no safety.”
This is a short bonus story originally available to those who preordered
Network Effect, set on Preservation before the events of that novel. What different here is that we actually get to see Murderbot through a POV that’s not its own. We get to look through the eyes of Ayda Mensah, see her PTSD from the events of
Exit Strategy — kidnapping and real murder threat — and better understand her mental state by the time of the events of the novel.“Knowing what would happen, she wouldn’t choose a different planet, a different bond company. Because then SecUnit would still be someone’s property, would be waiting for the contract where the negligence or greed or indifference of its clients got it killed.”
We see her cloaking her inner turmoil into outward mental steel. We see her immense gratitude to Murderbot — and it’s nice to see that intense loyalty goes both ways for these two.“SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.”
If you know Murderbot, you know how much it must care to suggest something outrageous like *that*.
It can’t really be read as a standalone story, but it’s a nice addition to Murderbot story arc. Seeing Mensah’s thoughts on Corporation Rim dehumanization of sentient being because they are “tools” and not supposedly personsThe Corporation Rim has always been a slave state, though it calls its institutionalized slavery “contract labor.” The production of human/bot constructs is just a more horrific twist, a mental slavery as well as a physical one. At least victims of contract labor are free to think their own thoughts. But we tell ourselves that constructs aren’t aware of their predicament. What SecUnit makes us realize is that this is not true; they are all aware of what they are and what’s been done to them. But the only choice they are ever offered is obedience or pain and death.”
3.5 stars. Also saving a backup copy of this review because, you know, Goodreads.
—————
You can read it here:
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-h... -
There are few better literary thrills than unexpectedly stumbling across a Murderbot story! Especially if it's an online freebie.
This story is set after the first four novellas in this series (and yes, you really do need to read them first). Murderbot is now in the Preservation System with Dr. Ayda Mensah, the closest person to a friend it has, and Murderbot has come a long way to even consider being friends with someone. Mensah is struggling with PTSD in the aftermath of being kidnapped in
Exit Strategy, but she's assiduously hiding her personal trauma from everyone around her. The rest of Preservation is struggling with the problem of having a highly dangerous Security Unit on their peaceful planet (the words "killing machine" are thought, if not said).
This is a quieter story in the series, and not a lot happens, but it's always a pleasure being in this fascinating world. "Home: Habitat" is notable for being narrated by Mensah, and I liked being inside her head and seeing how she views Murderbot. They have such a unique relationship and respect for each other.SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.”
Read it
“No. No, that’s all right. I know you don’t care for it.” She wipes her face. There are tears in her eyes, because she’s an idiot.
“It’s not terrible.” She can hear the irony under its even tone.
here on Tor.com if you're already a Murderbot fan. If you're not, go find a copy of
All Systems Red immediately! -
A fantastic little nugget of information about the relationship between Murderbot and Mensah, from Mensah's point of view. Great writing by Martha Wells as always and fantastic insight into Mensah's post traumatic stress disorder after being kidnapped.
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It’s about being treated as a thing, isn’t it. Whether that thing is a hostage of conditional value, or a very expensively designed and equipped enslaved machine/organic intelligence. You’re a thing, and there is no safety.
murderbot? murderNOT!
this l'il shorty follows the events of book 4, and spins the POV away from murderbot's narrative voice into a close third POV of dr. mensah, recently rescued by murderbot and dealing (or not dealing) with the resulting PTSD of that situation.
what's great about this is seeing murderbot through a human's eyes and realizing that a lot of its self-assessments in terms of its awkwardness are inaccurate, and the way these two traumatized characters care for each other is such a balm in a world where terrible things keep happening.
i know murderbot is ace AF, but their requisition forms for "increasingly improbable armaments" seem flirty to me in a way that is very sweet, despite all the spikes and guns involved. i'm not sure what the platonic version of flirtation is called, but whatever their relationship is, it's mutual, and they certainly understand and respect each other in a very specific and lovely way.SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.”
“No. No, that’s all right. I know you don’t care for it.” She wipes her face. There are tears in her eyes, because she’s an idiot.
“It’s not terrible.” She can hear the irony under its even tone.
“Nevertheless.” She can’t do this. She can’t lean on a being that doesn’t want to be leaned on. Of all the things SecUnit needs, the only ones she can give it are room and time in a relatively safe space to make decisions for itself. Becoming a prop for her failing emotional stability won’t do either one of them any good.
i'm going to try to ration my remaining murderbot books because i'm blowing through them so quickly that i haven't even reviewed the last two yet. i hadn't meant to read book four so closely on the heels of book three, but i really wanted to read this story as my free tor shorty of the week, so i had to catch up to it, you know? if there's a murderbot version of the marshmallow test, i'm failing it, but of all my numerous failures, it's been the most enjoyable.
read it for yourself here (if you've read books 1-4):
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-h...
come to my blog! -
4.25 Stars. A great short story from Dr. Mensah's POV. It expands on Book 4, and should be read right after. This can be found for free on Tor's website.
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This is a short story, part of the Murderbot Diaries, which follows directly from
Exit Strategy.
Dr. Mensah is recovering from previous events and Murderbot is being protective in a rather human way. The story is short and light and really shows how much Murderbot has changed over the course of the series.
For those of us fans who can never get enough of Murderbot this is a delightful, although much too short, read. -
WINNER OF
THE HUGO FOR BEST SERIES, 2021 WORLDCON: DisCon III!
Real Rating: 4.75* of five, rounded up because MurderbotBecause they are all refugees in the Preservation Alliance, descended from people who were left to die because rescue was deemed not cost-effective.
Which is why I read the Murderbot series the instant I can get the books. This is a short freebie that's just a tick before
Network Effect, and it's deeply refreshing to read something from Dr. Mensah's PoV.
Not that I don't adore Murderbot! I do! But breaking out of the one PoV that we have on the Corporation Rim is a breath of fresh air.The Corporation Rim has always been a slave state, though it calls its institutionalized slavery “contract labor.”
It is through Dr. Mensah's clarity that I feel so seen in my hatred of this system's brutal, dehumanizing, and revoltingly deeply entrenched dominance of the hearts and minds I must live among, as Preservation is a fictional construct. It would be the work of but a moment for me to apply for asylum or whatever they call it to get to Preservation were it real.It’s about being treated as a thing, isn’t it. Whether that thing is a hostage of conditional value, or a very expensively designed and equipped enslaved machine/organic intelligence. You’re a thing, and there is no safety.
When you exist at the whim of the electorate, as people like me...disabled, unhomed, elderly, infirm...must do, you're a thing. A profit point. An expense center. Not yourself, not someone with a lifetime's issues and lessons. I'm fortunate that I live in a place that allows me to be as independent as possible, and that I did enough useful work for enough years that my (HUGELY reduced in value) investment in government debt affords me the relative safety of housing, medical care, and therapies that I need. Had I stayed in Texas, had I been darker of skin hue, had I not had the mind-bogglingly good fortune to have my breakdown while talking to the one person who could, and would, and did help me...well, I'd be dead, and that's just the facts.
It's why I identify so deeply with Murderbot: We had all the right things go exactly right at the right time or we'd simply have ceased to exist.And she tells herself: you’re being very foolish. Because you were a hostage for a period of days, and it was a minor inconvenience compared to what Murderbot— No, SecUnit; she’s never been given permission to use that private name. What SecUnit went through.
And if someone else was in her position, she would tell them how unhelpful comparisons like that are, that fear is fear.
But you're making one right now. You can't help it; it's human nature. One person with whom I am no longer friends said to me, "stop being so selfish and think of how much worse it is for my (Hispanic) people!"
Invalidation = abuse. Always, in all ways.
And that is what Author Wells does so eloquently by not doing it directly: She holds up your status as abuser while acknowledging your status as the abused. Murderbot...SecUnit to Dr. Mensah and the meatsacks inhabiting its spacetime...isn't kidding around with its self-granted yclepture. It was the more harmed, in my opinion, by its status as legally insentient property being thrust on it from birth (aka "chattel slavery") but it isn't innocent of abusive, life-denying behavior towards others.
Do moral dilemmas come more tightly coiled up on themselves than this? And breathes there an author whose exploration of these intense and weighty issues is so delightfully deft and assuredly airy than Author Wells?
No. -
This was a fairly short interlude told from Dr. Mensah's point of view, as she tries to get a hang on her post-
Exit Strategy PTSD, and her increasing dependence on Murderbot.
Click to watch the fanvideo on Youtube
In terms of reader immersion, it has a a bit of everything:
- heartbreak as Dr. Mensah refuses to explain her situation to other government officials
- comic relief wherein Murderbot spams Dr. Mensah with questionable security pamphlets
- ... and even a bit of action sequence that features the SecUnit performing a vaguely impressive acrobatic feat
Score: 3/5 stars
I prefer stories that feature bots and constructs more than their human companions from the Murderbot universe. Still, I can see this story being a nice little treat for fans while they waited for the publication of the next book in the series.
... there had been the dawning realization that they had fallen into thinking of their SecUnit as a faceless machine, a convenience, an interface with their security system. But it had taken a sentient being who understood fear and pain to talk its way through Volescu's blind terror.
===================
Review of book 1:
All Systems Red
Review of book 2:
Artificial Condition
Review of book 3:
Rogue Protocol
Review of book 4:
Exit Strategy
Review of book 5:
Network Effect
Review of book 6:
Fugitive Telemetry -
This is a short story set after the fourth book of a series. I strongly recommend reading this series and this is not a stand alone story. In this one, we get the point of view from Dr. Mensah and the problem of her dealing with the after effects of her ordeal in the fourth book.
There really isn't much here and if one didn't read this one they would miss nothing. This is one of my favorite ongoing series and my favorite aspect of this series is the point of view of Murderbot. This story differentiates itself from that point of view as Murderbot is mostly off screen for the story. With this change one can tell right away it just isn't as enjoyable as all the other entries in this series. As for the story it makes sense that Dr. Mensah would suffer from this. The only problem is that it is referenced in this story without any real depth and since this story takes place in between already written books we really never see it again.
Like I said nothing to see here and one can skip this story. That is a sentence that I thought I would have never said concerning a Murderbot offering. There isn't even enough material to stave off your hunger for the next story in this series. It is a quick read and that is the only thing going for it. -
I would die for Dr Mensah
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I am glad they finally made it available in the Short Short Club event and not just those who purchase hard covers of the recent book. It is a story from Dr Mensah's POV which gives us more perspective I guess about Murderbot from the people closest to them. A nice read for the bot fans.
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martha wells said you can have a sad little short story, as a treat
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It's Sunday and we are kicking back after a busy week. What better way to spend it than taking turns to read a short Murderbot story out loud to each other, while enjoying a nice hot cup of tea and a biscuit!
Later...........
Alas, we are done. We didn't want it to end. I was truly moved by the empathy that flowed between Ayda Mensah and SecUnit and the value placed on autonomy.
I am still thinking thinking about physical versus mental slavery, and how we communicate our physical and emotional needs at work versus at home, or with a trusted friend.
We tailor ourselves to the environment we are in. -
Speaking of “niche,” this is a bit of mind candy from Wells in the Murderbot series. Not profound or long enough to be essential. Told from Dr. Ayda Mensah’s point of view it provides some ancillary perspective on the controversy that surrounds this SecUnit’s “humanity.”
It is additional fuel for the coming fire that will envelop the Corporate Rim and the individuals we have come to know. -
Dr Mensah is the PoV, and she’s back at home, struggling mentally after being captive. SecUnit is watching, through cameras, of course, as Dr Mensah tries to fit back into her duties at Preservation, and SecUnit’s putting in purchase requests for armaments....of course.
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It drops the reader right in the middle of so much, but it is done perfectly. I was satisfied with what I had AND I also desired more.
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Unusually for the Murderbot series, this one really wouldn't stand up to a standalone read. As a bridge between novels/novella though, for people already familiar/in love with the series, it works (especially the bit where Murderbot jumps over Ratthi's head).
Free from Tor here:
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-h... -
If this had been an episode of one of Murderbot's beloved serials, its reaction would have been: 'Meh'. Also, it is a stickler for details: 3 typos in 17 pages, including a name spelt wrong? 'Fucking humans'.
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A short story that deals with the traumatic events on TranRollinHyfa from Dr. Mensah’s PoV, this is also about the questions raised as to what to do with a free SecUnit.
Should be read after
Exit Strategy and really only makes sense if you know the first four novellas.
Even though Murderbot’s PoV is far more entertaining, it was still nice to get a look at our favorite SecUnit from the outside and also to learn a little bit more about one person of its human crew. At this point we don’t know all that much about them, so this was appreciated.
Could do with some editing though.
You can read it for free here:
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-h... -
Takes place before Network Effect. I had to look that up, because I honestly remember little of the novellas or the novel. High time for a re-read, apparently.
It feels unfinished. Just a small plot bunny with some editing mistakes. But it was nice. I liked it. Told from Mensah‘s POV, seeing Murderbot from the outside, but really struggling with her internal landscape after the events of the last novella. Unusual! For fans...
Can be found here:
https://www.shortstory.club/assets/ma... -
Great short story
Home
By Martha Wells
This is a short story with Murderbot. Brings out it's snarky personality and protective skills. Short but good! -
A lovely little short, a vignette set between Exit Strategy and Network Effect. This contains the clearest statement about the Corporate Rim's slave state that we've gotten in any of the stories, though the basics have been obvious pretty much throughout. It also presents a very nice picture of the attachment between Mensah and Murderbot. And Wells does a great job of saying a lot with few words.
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Have I mentioned before that I love this series? Oh, I have? Well, I'll say it again. I love this series.
This is a short story set between Exit Strategy (#4) and Fugitive Telemetry (#6) (for those unaware, Fugitive Telemetry, out next week, takes place before Network Effect. It's from the POV of Mensah shortly after the events in Exit Strategy. There's still plenty of Murderbot charm and it gives the reader a clearer understanding of the relationship between Mensah and Murderbot. -
Vilina atpakaļ Slepkabota pasaulē
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Short story that addresses Ayda's PTSD. Too short to warrant higher rating, and reads like a section deleted during the editorial process. Fun for fans.
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This is a short story told from Dr. Mensah's perspective following the events in
Exit Strategy. It's an interesting read in that we get to know Mensah somewhat better and see Murderbot through her eyes. It's not as cold or awkward as it seems to think (or wants to project), and Mensah is able to see through that. It's a moment and then it's over because that's how short this story is.
Avaliable for free at
https://www.shortstory.club/assets/ma...
* * * * *
I'm surprised Goodreads has allowed the book page for this short story to stay up because I vaguely remember there had been a discussion re: what was and what wasn't a book. Something about ISBNs and according to the super librarians' mood on any given day, right? And if I remember correctly, the verdict for this short story was "not a book." And yet, it's still here. Something must have changed between then and now. -
This is a short story that takes place after the fourth book in the Murderbot series. It is told from the point of view of Dr. Mensah and can be read in
this link.
It is a nice addition to the story, I like the series and recommend it. -
#1)
All Systems Red ★★★★★
#2)
Artificial Condition ★★★★★
#3)
Rogue Protocol ★★★★☆
#4)
Exit Strategy ★★★★★
#5)
Network Effect ★★★★½
how dare martha wells tease us with such a short glimpse into dr mensah's pov, i need more
➸ Trigger warnings for PTSD, flashbacks, kidnapping recounted, and captivity recounted.
▷ Representation: Ayda (mc) WOC, queer, polyam & PTSD; BIPOC & queer scs.
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