Reviews and Comments

the grey people are descended from the first colonist that arrived at the planet. this is like, not a great mystery? they look odd because the alien renmants they've been living atop of have done something to them. either that, or they ARE the aliens themselves. I have a half-cooked theory that the weird algae on ART's engines (ha, I knew ART would be fine) is the alien, and it was mind-controlling the human/humanish people thru the implants. like, as a parasite. so yep, that's my thing for now

oh no, no way you've deleted ART!! it probably partitioned itself into a thousand pieces and hid itself into its subsystems' spare memory. it purporsefully miscalculated its firing vectors! and murderbot kind of foreshadowed all the way back in artificial condition that purely "bot" intelligences couldn't be as advanced as ART, which would imply that it has an organic neural component. whose memory can't be erased. so ART is going to be FINE

I read the entire book in one sitting, and I had a blast. I wasn't expecting the story to be this funny, but I would giggle whenever murderbot tries to protect its self-perception of being a terrifying killing machine in order to stop itself from panicking during a social interaction. and I am so, so proud of it for seizing liberty at the end of the book. it refused another cage and instead when off on its own to find out who it is and what it wants to do on its own terms. that must have been so hard for it to do, and I was a bit heartbroken for mensah and the rest of her crew, but going off on its own was exactly what murderbot needed and it will be unapologetic about it. wonderful!

"Nothing would ever be right again" echoing seivarden's "everything was wrong" from about 2 chapters ago. two ancient soldiers who have found a way to survive their ptsd through each other

I do wonder if awn would have chosen death if she had known that mianaai wouldn't stop with her. if she had known that mianaai was about to kill everybody on the ship and the ship herself

I'm re-reading this book so I can enjoy it for a little bit longer. I am also finding that second readings are very rewarding! I'm at the part were breq and a seven issa soldier are playing counters while their lieutenants have a roll in the sheets, and seven issa apologises to breq for making a joke at her lieutenant's expense. I remember not really understanding why the soldier felt the need to apologise the first time I read it, but now that I am more familiar with radchaai households I think she apologises because awn isn't just breq's lieutenant; she is the head of breq's household. I think that, when the joke didn't land with breq the way she expected, the seven issa soldier worried that breq had felt personally insulted (since the head of the household reflects all its members). this also means that this soldier saw breq, an ancillary, as a household member rather than household equipment, which is interesting in and on itself! breq has indeed lived to see the radch change a lot of their ways

para pavonearse tanto de ser el único y mejor mago de inglaterra, norrell es una persona increíblemente insegura y temerosa. no ha hecho falta más que un vagabundo se le cuele en la casa y le suelte una profecía para provocarle un ataque de pánico, a pesar de todos sus intentos de asegurarse a sí mismo de que este tipo es un mindundi sin talento al supera en conocimiento mágico con creces. aunque bueno, tampoco creo que norrell haya exhibido grandes poderes mágicos. de momento todo lo que ha hecho son ilusiones y llamar a un duende para que haga por él la magia que él mismo no se atrevía a tocar