System Collapse by Martha Wells

Introduction

System Collapse by Martha Wells is the seventh book in the The Murderbot Diaries Series. It’s the last published book so far. To learn more about the series see the author’s web site, Wikipedia and Goodreads.

The Murderbot Diaries

I read a lot of science fiction. I can’t remember when I had so much fun reading a science fiction series. I have listened to audiobooks of the first six books. I have read the seventh book, System Collapse, as an ebook. After reading one ebook I liked it so much that I plan to re-read the series. This time in ebook format.

Quick reviews for the first six books in the series.

1. All Systems Red - All the ingredients for a good science fiction book. A mystery in space plus a cranky bot specialized in destruction that would rather watch TV.
2. Artificial Condition - Murderbot finds a friend and discovers a secret from its past.
3. Rogue Protocol - Murderbot has another adventure. There’s fighting. Fun times.
4. Exit Strategy - Murderbot does it again. Very entertaining.
5. Network Effect - Another fun Murderbot story. Murderbot saves people, ships, SecUnits… It fights with all sorts of things, including, but not limited to aliens (kinda) and malware. It creates a copy of itself (kinda) and liberates a SecUnit. Murderbot is in turn saved by people, ships and SecUnits. Fun times.
6. Fugitive Telemetry - Murderbot goes into Sherlock Holmes mode and solves a mysterious murder.

(I don’t keep very good notes for nonfiction books.) (Obviously.)

System Collapse

Murderbot is on a planet. (It hates planets.) There are two groups of people living on the planet that have lost contact with each other. There are also two new groups on the planet. Murderbot’s group and another one. Groups have conflicting interests. There is fighting, of course. Murderbot’s group produces a documentary. (More fun than it sounds.) Murderbot is struggling with internal demons.

This was not the best book in the series, but I still liked it a lot.

Book Club

I have suggested reading System Collapse for book club at work as a joke. (We usually read serious books on software testing.)

As soon as we finish reading a book, we pick a new book to read. It usually takes us one to three months to finish reading a book. I pick a few books from a long list we curate. The team votes on the books. The book with the most votes is the next one we read.

From time to time I suggest a fiction book. This was the first time a fiction book had the same number of votes as a serious book. Since I organize the book club, in case of a tie I get to pick the book. Well, the next time the team will surely think more carefully about who organizes the book club. Or, make the rules on how to resolve ties more clear.

Unfortunately (for people that didn’t read the entire series), System Collapse (book 7) is the second part of Network Effect (book 5). I didn’t realize that until it was too late. I guess it was somewhat confusing for people new to the series to start with book 7, which continues the story from book 5. Another point to consider the next time the team decides who organizes the book club.

Conclusion

I just love the Murderbot series. There are so many good quotes in the books. I want to use them in everyday situations as much as possible. See the (unnecessary long) quotes section for examples.

Quotes

I was reading an ebook on a Kindle. It’s very helpful that Kindle will send you a pdf with all the highlights. It’s not so helpful that all highlights are connected to a “location” rather than a page. So, here are just quotes, without the useless locations.

So the next time I get optimistic about something, I want one of you to punch me in the face. Okay, not really, because let’s be real, that would end badly. Maybe remind me to punch myself in the face.

Me, on Friday afternoon, remembering how on Monday morning I was still optimistic about the week ahead.

I’m just saying that it would be nice for the humans to give me a realistic situation report for once.

My manager, during a team meeting.

ART had chosen the recall beacon out of its inventory as the tool most likely to be used in a way it had never been designed to…

Me, trying to use a new open source tool. Also me, picking a tool to fix something around the house.

I was hoping for reassurance rather than statistics that confirmed that I was correct in thinking that everything sucked…

I hate it when statistics confirm my opinion.

Yeah, this plan was … not going to work.

I’m printing a t-shirt and wearing it to a meeting.

…already had a new terrible plan.

When somebody agrees that the first plan is bad but already has another plan that’s even worse.

Okay, that was not the worst thing that could have happened, either, but it was high on the list.

Me, after I was in a long meeting that could have been an email.

…the level of paranoia about virus contamination on this planet was more than adequate, even by my standards.

Me, talking with a development team that is serious about testing.

I mean, I want to press my hands to my face and groan, too, but I pretty much always do.

I disagree. Not pretty much always. But close.

Because privacy is just a hypothetical concept to ART…

And most big software companies.

Ugh, I wish I felt like I was prepared for complication. Or prepared for anything.

Me, on most Mondays.

This process is unnecessarily dramatic.

Another t-shirt I need.

Everything about this job is weird…

Me, trying to explain to my parents what I do for a living.

It should be reassuring that humans don’t get what other humans are thinking, either…

It’s reassuring if you’re not human, like the murderbot. I would describe that feeling differently.

I knew from media that humans sometimes had the same problem with lack of control of their faces that I did.

That’s the advantage of remote work. You can turn off the camera during meetings. Then nobody can read your face.

She had large yelling capacity for a human her size. I had the feeling it came in handy.

This describes some people I know. I refuse to give more information.

…there shouldn’t be any large roaming alien-contaminated bots here. There really shouldn’t be. If there were … yeah, don’t think about that.

Me, trying to plan how to debug an automated test that works perfectly on my machine but fails in continuous integration.

Their systems colony-wide were completely shit-creeked and I don’t know who was going to fix it except it sure as hell wasn’t me.

Me, taking a look at somebody’s computer.

I can stand here and be useless without any ulterior motives, thanks.

Me, at a conference, with hundreds of people, feeling completely overwhelmed.

He hadn’t asked me what I was doing, probably because he was afraid I didn’t know.

My manager, at our quarterly review meeting.

…he is also great at finding dangerous shit.

That colleague that manages to crash every piece of software that they use. Or, that somebody uses when they are around. Or, if you think of that person while using a piece of software, it still crashes.

“Are you sure you’re going to be all right?” Well, no. Obviously.

Me, every time I have to speak in front of other humans.

I guess. I have no idea, don’t listen to me.

Me, reviewing other people’s code.

Let’s face it, actual solid physical or visual evidence will often not change human minds.

Painfully true.

…anything is possible and bad things may not be more statistically possible but it sure seems like they are.

Me, planning the next quarter.

I don’t know, not even humans know why humans do things.

No, most of the time we really don’t know why we do things.

Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.

Me, every time I try to debug a piece of code and the problems get worse and worse.

It wasn’t as if I could put the answer into words.

Me, at a meeting trying to say what I think but not get fired.

Something in me broke.

I’m sure we can all relate to this one.

I’m not talking to you anymore.

This should be one of the regular options of resolving problems.

The most important part of pretending to be a human is not standing out from other humans.

The most important thing of pretending to know what you’re doing is that nobody notices you really don’t know what you are doing.

No, it doesn’t read my mind, it just knows me really well.

This perfectly describes some people I know. I refuse to give more information.

…but I was actually really in the mood for a good long stare at a wall.

Me, looking at my todo list for the day.

I had fifty-seven unique sources of concern/anxiety…

Me, opening my inbox on Monday morning.

ScoutDrone1 watched him draw a hand down his face. In despair? Probably despair.

Me, opening my inbox on Monday morning.

Iris had trusted me to know what I was doing, despite all the evidence to the contrary that I had already given her.

Pretty good description of my manager.

Yeah, I’ll just code a patch to stop feeling anxiety, wow, why didn’t I think of that earlier.

If only it was that easy.

…something about this scenario was still pinging all the “shit is going down” stats.

We must have been at the same meeting.

Like it was weird to be upset when your coworkers shot you. Even before I hacked my governor module, I was upset when my coworkers shot me.

Early on in my career, I had that job.

I would be panicking more, but I didn’t have time.

Me on Friday afternoon, trying to figure out if it’s safe to shut down the computer and go home.

I can’t deal with that right now.

This describes me more than I care to admit.

It wasn’t dead, it was just catastrophically damaged. (I know, who isn’t?)

I refuse to copy/paste the previous comment.

It was an “oh shit” moment for all of us.

I was in that meeting too.

…some interfaces flashed red, but that seemed to be part of its normal operation.

Me, looking at our continuous integration server.

…it sounded like something that would happen a long time from now, and I was mainly worried about now.

Me, looking at a task with a deadline in a couple of weeks.

I was still processing whether this was a surprise, not a surprise, or a horrible shock.

Looks like I was in more meetings with Murderbot than I thought.

They wanted me to work on it, too, which I think they knew wasn’t going to happen.

Me, looking at an email from human resources about optional training.

I just didn’t want to help figure it out for anybody else when I was still figuring it out for myself.

Me, trying to give life advice to interns.

Reviewers

A big thank you to Elena Tonkovidova for great advice on how to make this post better.