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After finishing the show (which has been renewed for a second season!) I thought I'd go back and check out the original to recall exactly what changes they made for the screen.

There weren't many — the show is pretty darn close to the novella. I guess having such tight clean source material means there isn't as much you need to cut. A lot of it was pretty streamlined — a couple of characters were merged, human thoughts and feelings get more screen time, making it more of an ensemble piece, and the addition of Leebeebee to make Murderbot more visually scary for us.

There's less detail to the tech/interface/hacking/hub system interactions. I don't think I've ever seen a hacking scene I really liked which both felt genuine and was visually interesting. (If you're wondering, the two best onscreen hacks are: 1. Trinity's use of nmap and the SSH1 CRC32 exploit in Matrix Reloaded, which is realistic but visually mundane and only appears on screen for a few moments, making it more of an easter egg than anything else, and 2. Hugh Jackman assembling a hacking cube from an ancient server in Swordfish, none of which has any relationship to reality, but which is very flashy on screen and includes Hugh Jackman.

The biggest thing which felt different to me was the absence of Murderbot's ubiquitous use of micro drones and remote cameras as extensions of its sensorium. In the novella, I really felt like Murderbot was deeply connected to the feed and that looking through a remote camera or accessing a database was was as natural for it as reaching out a hand or looking in a particular direction is for us. There were definitely nods to this — it wasn't exactly forgotten — but it was considerably less ubiquitous and visceral than in the novella.

And I think this contributed to making it more of an ensemble piece. In the novellas, the reader doesn't have any senses: we're not watching or listening. We are reading an account composed by someone whose sensorium & perception are comprehensible but alien to us — like reading a cuttlefish talk about light polarization and how it's using chromatophores. And in fact I think that this is one of the deep strengths of the series. Murderbot is a killing machine with guns in its arms who experiences the world through drones & feeds and minimal fear of pain or death. But also, it's an autistic nerd treated as less than a person in a corporate dystopia and just wants to be left alone to watch its shows, just like the reader.

Anyway, this novella continues to delight. If you enjoyed the show and like to read, check it out. The books are very short and easy to get into, which makes it very easy to start and equally disappointing when you run out.

I enjoyed the incredible world-building of The Tainted Cup and I was vaguely worried that the sequel would mostly want to roll around in the world as described rather than giving us more. My concerns could not have been more misplaced. A Drop of Corruption effortlessly recaptures the creativity of the first novel and manages to advance all three of (what I think of as) the main threads while seamlessly pulling off another mystery which is candidly more creative than most of Doyle's work.

The key elements I see progressing here are (1) our macro understanding of the world: this bioengineered Roman-æsthetic empire, how it works, how it got this way, and what surrounds it; (2) the relationship between Dolabra (Holmes) and Kol (Watson); and (3) Dolabra's schemes, larger identity, and role within the empire. Beautifully, A Drop of Corruption lets us explore all three!

The story locates us on the edge of the empire where an independent polity is negotiating its accession into the empire, with all the legal and logistical complexity that entails. We see this outside region — Yarrowdale, which has something of a high fantasy vibe — through the lens of an imperial perspective, allowing Bennet to articulate nuances about the world through the juxtaposition of the two societies. This locality is also home to a major imperial bioengineering lab, working with the dangerous but valuable biology of the Kaiju around which the entire empire is organized. This naturally creates the opportunity to learn more about this apparently-secretive imperial branch layered as the investigation demands more access to their secrets and projects.

The crime/plot/mystery they're sent to unravel is delightfully centered on this power triangle between the empire, Yarrowdale, and the imperial bioengineering corps, and gives us an adversary very precisely tuned to be an interesting challenge for Dolabra, while creating exciting set-pieces for us to enjoy along the way. I think the pacing was perfect and the payoff was satisfying. Overall, another excellent installment which leaves me eager for the next one.