robertrivasplata's Reviews (631)

A Murderbot murder mystery. Could be called “Murder on Preservation Station”. I kind of wish all the Murderbot books had cheesy descriptive titles. Kind of a utopian-noir, as if Darryl Zero were called to Anarres to solve a mystery. Also features a skeptical but less competent chief inspector character (as seen in Sherlock Holmes and Poirot mysteries). Like in Network Effect, forms of anti-corporate resistance form the background for the plot. Like any good mystery, leaves the door open for more mystery sequels. 

Probably the most heartwarming of the Murderbot Diaries so far. Murderbot's friends are all together in one place, which is a security nightmare. Gets to work on some deep lore of the Murderbot world. More abandoned space stations and bloody aftermaths, in addition to the new dim subterranean passages. The duplicate Murderbot killware/personality kind of reminded me of something that would happen in Futurama. I kind of thought it would turn out that ART was actually insane, and that its crew would be either long gone or imagined. When it turns out they're pretty much what ART has said about them, I was a little surprised, maybe even disappointed? I wasn't really disappointed though, because the plot with ART's crew really is the more heartwarming and optimistic choice. The lost colony kind of reminds me of the doomed city of Lud in the Dark Tower books. I'd like to see how Murderbot would get along with Blaine the Mono. 

Sequel to My Alcoholic Escape from Reality. Probably the grossest of these memoirs. In this one Nagata seems like she gets serious about quitting drinking. It's mostly about how Nagata decides to seek treatment for alcoholism and alcohol induced ailments. All of the memoirs by Nagata I've read end with me thinking she needs to find more help, and this one is no exception, but it's a little less worrying than the end of Alcoholic Escape from Reality. 

Action-packed future sci-fi espionage thriller future-noir sequel. Probably the most purely sequel of the Murderbot sequels, so far. The James Bond-esque cold opening picks up pretty much right where Rogue Protocol left off. The previous two feel kind of free-floating, but Exit Strategy would be a little hard to follow without having read the other books first. Has more of that Murderbot tradecraft and computer system wizardry we've come to love and expect. The battle where Murderbot uses a passel of randomly moving maintenance bots to create an obstacle course reminds me of a video game level. I like the descriptions of the tube transport people movers on TranRollinHyfa. Preservation is kind of set up to be kind of an Anarres. 

Short story collection with titular novella. Most of these stories (including My Monticello) are about their black protagonists proving to themselves and to the world that they belong to America, and America belongs to them. Protagonists finally releasing some bit of inwardly-directed rage feature in the twist endings of a few of these short stories. I did not see the twist coming in Control Negro, but I did in Something Sweet on Our Tongues. My Monticello is kind of like Dawn of the Dead where instead of zombies, history is reanimated. Or maybe it’s like Parable of the Sower meets Night at the Museum. It explores some of the questions and feelings I often have about historical sites and museums, such as: “how would I live here, if I had to?” and “is this position defensible with a small group of defenders?” Despite being a history guy, I’ve never had an urge to visit Monticello, but now I am kind of interested, if only so that I can picture the story better. I could see My Monticello being adapted into a movie or streaming series, but I feel like moviemakers of the present moment aren’t up to the task. I feel like Knox and Da’Naisha underrated their chances of beating the chuds; heavily armed as they are, those guys are only playing at being an army, and it’s not like they have artillery. It might not take more than a couple of the lost cause re-enactors getting domed for the rest to lose their nerve. Sun Tzu would probably say that the impossibility of either escape or surrender would give Da’Naisha and her band of survivors an additional advantage over the white supremacists. (Sun Tzu would probably next advise them to concentrate on being unknowable, or something). Really great dollar store find! 

Despite the best efforts of the translator's introductions, the appendices, and the ever-helpful and extensive endnotes, I feel like I would have gotten more out of these books if I had a better handle on ancient Chinese history and philosophies (such as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, & Mohism), so good thing I'm not studying to test into a position in the Emperor's army. I'd probably need to go back to the Art of War to get a handle on Shih, Ch'uan, and Hsing. I also feel like I would have gotten more out of this book if I had been looking for something in particular (kind of the opposite of Darryl Zero/Sherlock Holmes investigative approach), but instead I just read to see what I would find. I found many references to many types of fortification. 

The main message of all of these works is that the most important part of the battle is the preparation, and the most important part of an army is the government behind it. I found odd the suggestion from Sun Tzu, Wu Tzu, and others to choose battle on ground that your army can't escape from to make them fight harder. I guess you can read it as “only fight when you know you'll win.” Taigong's Six Secret Teachings (specifically, Martial Secret Teachings) instructions for how to subvert a state is a pretty good general description of the current politics of the United States. 

The marketing of Art of War in particular as some sort of business text strikes me as kind of perverse, seeing as Art of War is pretty explicit that the attitude and behavior appropriate for the military sphere is not appropriate outside of it. Also, now having read the Seven Military Classics, if I knew someone I was doing business was reading them, I would 100% not trust them. It would tell me that they potentially see the people they work with as either adversaries to be manipulated, or as minions to be awed into submission. This is just a job, I'm not buying your awesomeness, bro. I wonder what the corporate equivalent to the ancestral temple is. 

As a non-Chinese speaker, I think I prefer Pinyin to Wade-Giles, and I wish there was a Pinyin Romanization Glossary. 

Book of photos and the history of the Key System interurbans that ran from the East Bay to San Francisco's Transbay Terminal. Has a lot of interesting facts and great historical pictures of Oakland, Berkeley, Piedmont, and Albany. Great for someone who is familiar with the area and has an interest in local history and transit. I was surprised to read how much of the rolling stock was built in Key System's own shops, and also that some of their cars (along with some ex-Pacific Electric cars) were acquired and run by FGCU in Buenos Aires into the 70s. The Key System's story is pretty familiar: originally built as part of a suburban real estate scheme, it was then later run into the ground, before being scrapped, and finally re-built (as BART) from the ground up at immense expense. I wish this book had more about the competing Southern Pacific East Bay Interurban system, and also more about the Transbay Terminal, which outlasted the system it was built for by about 50 years. 

A love letter to nature (especially birds) and to Seattle. The Stand (or Cell) meets Watership Down meets John Dies at the End. Ace domesticated crow survives the zombie apocalypse and then goes on various quests to find meaning and to help others, along the way meeting various other animals, talking to trees, and eventually saving the day. The techno-zombie aspect reminds me a lot of Stalenhag's Electric State and Stephen King's Cell. Definitely one of those books that gets progressively zanier as it goes on. This and the lighthearted and foulmouthed approach to horror reminds me a lot of Jason Pargin books I've read. I could totally see this book being adapted into some sort of old-arcade-style video game, which would be kind of missing the point, and thus also ironically fitting. 

Depression, anxiety, isolation, and awkward sexual experiences. Has the feel of a diary kept by a very depressed person. I kept thinking about the Avalanches' “Frontier Psychiatry” sample repeating “that boy needs therapy”. Nagata definitely needed and (judging by the later memoir mangas) needs a good therapist. Has some rumination on the ways that porn influences sexuality. Depicts hiring a sex worker as being pretty much like booking any other sort of appointment (scary). I like how the agency Nagata found the sex worker through was pleased with the early webcomic version of this book. I wonder if Nagata has read any Sayaka Murata. There's a bit of overlap there, in that they both deal with the experience of being a 20-something woman who doesn't fit typical or traditional roles, but Murata has a more alien, anthropological perspective. Gender Queer is another imperfect comparison, with Kobabe's memoir more explicitly dealing with queer ideas and gender identity, and also feeling less like a diary. Might check out Nagata's latest memoir, which is being teased as more optimistic (I wonder though), but the Solo Exchange Diary feelings might be too much to handle. 

Kind of the spaghetti western of the Murderbot series, with Murderbot as the wandering hero, who ultraviolently saves some innocent townspeople from bandits, while overcoming some double crossings. Murderbot is kind of a space ronin: masterless, mysterious, wandering, antisocial, protects the weak and clueless, leaves with hardly a goodbye. Rogue Protocol probably has the highest ratio of battling action of the series so far. Quite a page turner. Not sure how any screen adaptation could depict Murderbot's manipulation of various computer systems that are the source of its power. I almost feel like a cheesy 90s cyberpunk hacking-in-the-mainframe depictions would be the best template to follow. Can't wait to read the next one!