System Collapse

System Collapse by Martha Wells is the latest entry in The Murderbot Diaries series. The series is made up of short stories, novellas, and novels, so I always feel awkward referring to the individual components.

Whenever I read the latest Murderbot installment, I am reminded of the story I told a long time ago about how I took offense to another customer at the bookstore describing the book in a series I liked a “popcorn” book. It would be easy to see how I could say the same thing now about the Murderbot books and similarly offend a fan, because calling it a “popcorn” book seems reductive and dismissive.

The series is sort of infamous for strongly connecting to a neurodivergent audience. The main character, whose inner monologue narrates the stories, is non-human but very directly inspired by the author’s own experiences with depression, anxiety and not being neurotypical.

I certainly feel that connection. I have a constant inner monologue that I am very much reminded of by the writing of Murderbot. I’ve never been diagnosed with ASD or ADHD, or even anxiety or depression, but I certainly have self-diagnosed to varying degrees with all of those. I look at information about monotropism and see myself in much the same way that I see myself in Murderbot. It’s not directly me, but has helped improve the context in which I understand myself.

This story, like most of the others, is compact. There is action, but if I think had to describe what it is about I would say it is mostly about Murderbot deciding how to open themselves up to others and connect their own story with theirs. It’s about post-capitalism up against a hyper-capitalist society. It’s about how media informs how we view ourselves.

It is a wonderful series of stories, and this one is no exception.

It will be really interesting to see how the Apple TV+ series based on the series will turn out.