[ SECRET POST #6768 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6768 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.



__________________________________________________



06.



__________________________________________________



07.




















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 09 secrets from Secret Submission Post #968.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/BhgCwGa.jpeg

[(Anonymous)]

This is a strange case where something that I know is an opinion just sounds like a bizarre incorrect statement. Even if you don't like the book, I don't know how you could get "driest narrative voice" from it. Annoying narrative voice? Sure, that's valid. Dry? I can't see it.

Veering in the direction of another secret here incidentally, this series is the only one where I like listening to the audiobooks more than reading the text version. The books aren't written specifically to be read aloud, but they feel like they are.

[(Anonymous)]

First person POV probably translates over a little better than the other types.

[(Anonymous)]

"This is a strange case where something that I know is an opinion just sounds like a bizarre incorrect statement."

Haha this was my gut reaction too. Like, I know it's an opinion and they're not wrong but it just felt so wrong reading that. Annoying or not to your liking, sure, but zero character depth and emotionless? I feel like OP and I are talking about two different books!

[inkdust]

I mean...SecUnit doesn't...care...about the supporting characters. And everything comes through its filter. The supporting case were fairly faceless to me when I first read ASR, but that changes over the course of the series as SecUnit develops as a person. It's...kind of the point.

[erinptah]

+1

[(Anonymous)]

Solid point. I wonder if this is a reading comprehension failure thing.

What autism thing?

[(Anonymous)]

That bit confused me. Do you have autism? Are you saying that impacted how you read the character?

Wild take

[(Anonymous)]

I mean, I think how we read and interpret books in our mind is all individual and nobody is really wrong per se, but wow are you and I having wildly different experiences. One of the reasons I love the first book is for all of the sly humor in the narrator. I just fell in love with that dry sarcastic damaged secunit.

In fact, one of the reasons I don't like the adaptation is because the narrator/actor just feels so wrong to me. He doesn't emote or speak at all the way I imagined while I was reading and it just changes so much of the experience. Glad you're enjoying the show though!

Re: Wild take

[tabaqui]

This, for me. The show isn't bad as a sci-fi show, it's just...not the books, or what I was expecting/hoping to see.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, it’s kind of refreshing to hear an opinion about these books that isn’t gushing praise. Especially with the way most book fans are hating on the adaptation. I hope you’re prepared for a bunch of comments disagreeing with your secret, but I’m glad you’re enjoying the adaptation OP!

[(Anonymous)]

Ugggh are many book fans hating on the show? Mostly I see people saying it isn't for them (because they prefer the books) but are happy for the people enjoying the show. I'm glad I'm not in the wider fandom spaces if the hate is big there. Gatekeeping book fans are annoying, and I say that as a Murderbot book fan!

[erinptah]

I haven't seen anyone hating on the show either. Unless you count the occasional person who's clearly wankbaiting (and just as happy to hate on the books too).

There are some particular changes in the show that I really wasn't into. There are also changes I really liked. Still leaning towards preferring the books, but I had a great time with the show overall, and I'm glad it's reaching new fans that the books didn't click with.

[(Anonymous)]

I haven't watched the TV series yet, but the consensus in my circle of book-fan friends is that it's a good show that's nothing like the books at all. Given that most of them were prepared to hate it and condemning it in advance for the sins it was sure to commit, I'm pretty impressed with their willingness to change their minds. It must be a really, exceptionally good unfaithful adaptation.

[(Anonymous)]

If nothing else it's got a whole lot more immersive experience of Sanctuary Moon, which is a big change from the books. (Albeit what sounds like a fun one! I've read the books but haven't seen the show yet, I don't have AppleTV.)

[tabaqui]

Will not give you malware or whatever. Just turn on your adblockers. I use this site A LOT.
https://supernova.to/eRz798

Agree...kinda.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm about halfway through the first book in audiobook format and everything I had been told was that Murderbot sees things so differently and detached and it's so unique and ...

It just sounds like Joss/Andy Weir-brand Snark to me? I don't get the vibe of detached and dry at all, I just get aloof dismissal which are not the same thing. I was expecting Data with a murderous bent and instead I get "Go away and let me watch my stories".

[(Anonymous)]

I love both the adaptation and the books for different reasons...but in neither case do I find MB unemotional. Dryly sarcastic, yes. But definitely an unreliable narrator of its own emotions in both cases: that's kinda the whole point. It doesn't understand and it's learning to ascribe words to its feelings, being dragged all along the way.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh I am going against the crowd here, but I agree. Tbf I've already made a secret about it. And since than I've gained even more ire towards book fans.

First narrator is really dry, because Murderbot isn't interested in a lot of emotions and people. It isn't human after all.
Audio narration makes it much better, but text-wise it can be plain boring if you don't connect with this view of reality.
And I like the books, but I find the show more engaging and fun.
Show characters are actually interesting and I am so done with book fans calling them "stupid hippies". No, they are not, they are just peaceful people. They don't supposed to be all collected and logical in life and death situation. It's ironic hearing about reading comprehension from people who can't distinguish between carbon cutout of the characters in the first book and their own imagination and expectations.

[(Anonymous)]

Finally, someone else who sees it!

I don’t know what it is about Martha Wells’s writing, but it’s incredibly bland and lacking personality. The characters are flat and read like ‘quippy and quirky’ characters from bad amateur webcomics of the 2000s, where the goal is not to write someone interesting and real, but instead to be ‘relatable’ and ‘snarky’ in a very Joss Whedon way. People keep saying it’s ‘intentional’ for the case of Murderbot, but her Raksura novels are the same, so I think she just doesn’t know how to write engaging prose or complex characters and hides it behind ‘oh they’re not human’ as an excuse (as if many other authors haven’t written vibrant and compelling nonhuman characters).