#rogue protocol reread

[anonforlackofabettername]

It’s interesting how Martha Wells writes the Murderbot books with dual or paired heroes and villains.

All Systems Red has good survey (PreservationAux) and evil survey (GreyCris). It’s also got good SecUnit (Murderbot) and evil SecUnits (GreyCris’s contracted units).

Artificial Condition has the heroic ComfortUnits from Murderbot’s reconstruction of the events at Ganaka Pit and it’s got Tlacey’s villainous ComfortUnit. You could also argue that the actual good unit is ART.

Rogue Protocol has Miki the (good) human-form bot and the incredibly dangerous combat bots. It’s also got good security (Murderbot) and bad security (Gerth and Wilken).

Exit Strategy (though I am not there in my reread so I may misremember some things) has Murderbot itself vs the ever terrifying CombatSecUnit.

It’s all about dualities. Dualities and increasing stakes. Touching on the increasing stakes thing first because it’s simpler; we start with our villain being other SecUnits, and then ComfortUnits, then the dreaded CombatBot and finally the thing Murderbot has been terrified since day 1; a CombatSecUnit. Each threat is tangibly bigger than the last. Maybe not the ComfortUnit, but that was reseting stakes while also building out the world. Murderbot couldn’t fight another SecUnit its first fight as a free agent—the stakes wouldn’t have made sense—so it starts with humans and then the ComfortUnit and the stakes and villains increase from there.

Going back to dualities it really is all about contrasts. The villainous/evil SecUnits are a contrast to Murderbot. Freedom vs being controlled (literally with the Deltfall units). (Side note: that’s why I’m using evil interchangeably with villainous. Not everything is actively evil since a lot of them are following governor modules, but they are filling the role of villain in the story).

The ComfortUnits are about choice (saving or harming humans) but it’s also about the choice to love or hate humanity. Unlike Tlacey’s ComfortUnit who hates Tlacey and humanity, ART loves its purpose and its crew. It’s the two directions Murderbot can take in its journey to find itself. Becoming more jaded and hiding or finding humans that are *its.*

Now mind you, I’m still in the middle of my RP reread (I’ve got an hour twenty left in the novella and the human security specialists reveal hasn’t happened yet) and I haven’t even started ES yet so this argument is unfinished cause I’m still formulating my thoughts. Miki is everything Murderbot never wanted to be (a pet bot) but can’t help but be jealous of it (and its innocence). The CombatBots are more threat than they are foil but again, not a full coherent argument (yet). Mostly I’m just thinking aloud (in text form lol).

[laurenscozylibrary]

[unloneliest]

that murderbot sure can have ptsd

[graham--folger]

oh the other hand wolfwood would be exactly the kind of human security consultant murderbot hates because he’s literally come to backstab vash and shit ghdjdjdjdj

oh you know what. ive been thinking about it since that poll with your icon vs the protagonist from the last media you’ve consumed and oh. my god. wolfwood and murderbot would be such an unlikely duo but i do genuinely think they would get along. so much of their weird trauma mirrors each other idk man i think they would like each other or at least understand each other

[rockalillygirl]

Murderbot Holding Hands

(Minor spoilers alert for Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy pls check the tags)

First real post because I’m shy. Don’t know why it’s going to be a hyper-specific murderbot meta but here we go:

I’ve been rereading all the books after finishing System Collapse <3 and I want to talk about a small moment in Artificial Condition that I’d never noticed before. It’s near the end of the book when Tapan is in ART’s medsystem after nearly dying, and SecUnit says that when Tapan wakes up it’s holding her hand.

When Tapan woke, I was sitting on the MedSystem’s platform holding her hand. (Artificial Condition, p. 155 in my ebook)

I thought it was a really sweet moment, but it also kind of puzzled me because of SecUnit’s aversion to touch. Later when I was reading Exit Strategy, I noticed a similar moment when SecUnit holds hands with Mensah to help disguise them as they’re trying to escape TranRollinHyfa.

[Mensah] took a deep breath and looked up at me. “We can look calm. We’re good at that.” Yeah, we were. I did a quick review to make sure I was running all my not-a-SecUnit code, then I thought of one more thing I could do. As we stepped out of the pod, I took Mensah’s hand. (Exit Strategy, p. 87)

Reading these scenes felt different in a couple ways. In my opinion, SecUnit taking Mensah’s hand in Exit Strategy seemed like more of a big deal because it was a part of SecUnit’s reunion with Mensah, and we see its thoughts and emotions leading up to it. And it tracks that SecUnit might feel ok holding Mensah’s hand in that situation because of their close friendship. But the moment in Artificial Condition is more mysterious. We don’t get any of SecUnit’s internal monologue at the beginning because the scene opens when Tapan wakes up. And even though it’s clear in the book that SecUnit likes Tapan along with Rami and Maro, I wouldn’t say their relationship is anywhere near as close as its bond with Mensah. So why did it hold her hand?

I think it’s a neat moment that’s fun to ponder! And I have some vague ideas I’d like to share about it. (Some of this is based on the books and some is my speculation as an ace/aspec person dealing with touch aversion.) (Also none of these thoughts are mutually exclusive!)

Maybe SecUnit saw holding Tapan’s hand as a form of first aid after her traumatic experience and didn’t want her to panic waking up in a strange ship’s medsystem. This fits with SecUnit bracing itself to hug Mensah in Exit Strategy. (The memes of this moment are perfect lol)

But I was the only one here, so I braced myself and made the ultimate sacrifice. “Uh, you can hug me if you need to.” She started to laugh, then her face did something complicated and she hugged me. I upped the temperature in my chest and told myself it was like first aid. (Exit Strategy, pp. 82-3)

But I feel like SecUnit might not care as much about comforting Tapan in a similar way if it hadn’t already built up some kind of trust with her? Which brings me to Thought 2:

I think SecUnit might have felt safe holding Tapan’s hand because of the moment in Artificial Condition in the second transient hostel when Tapan laid down next to it. (Ofc I think rescuing Tapan from Tlacey’s ship was also a factor, trauma-bonding and all. But to me this moment in the hostel is more important.)

Thirty-two minutes later, I heard movement. I thought Tapan was getting up to go to the restroom facility, but then she settled on the pad behind me, not quite touching my back… I had never had a human touch me, or almost touch me, like this before and it was deeply, deeply weird. (Artificial Condition, pp. 136-7)

This is one of my favorite sequences in Artificial Condition (which is also my favorite book in the series because of ART! And because I find it quiet, reflective, and weirdly cozy even though objectively few cozy things happen now that I think about it). The scene is pretty mundane with a lot of fun bits like SecUnit pretending to need to use the restroom, be on a diet, etc. And we usually don’t get to see SecUnit hanging out with only one person. So it gives room for some small, but important feelings that I don’t think SecUnit has time to explore when it’s busy saving the day. Like how it feels about physical contact with humans.

(idk it reminds me of how like in ghibli films there’s usually at least one scene with the characters eating a meal or something because it sort of grounds everything else. I just like it!)

Tapan being close to SecUnit seems to throw if off-guard, but the context of the scene feels non-threatening and pretty mellow. So I think this gives SecUnit the opportunity to check-in with itself about this new experience. It still feels weird about it, but not in a scary or upsetting way. I think it’s almost this mutual vulnerability (Tapan feeling vulnerable and seeking comfort and SecUnit feeling vulnerable about her closeness and its own boundaries) that creates a bond between them, and that’s why SecUnit reaches out to Tapan to comfort her when she wakes up onboard ART.

That scene has become really special to me. And I would argue that it’s an important moment to SecUnit too because it brings it up again in Exit Strategy, along with a later moment in Rogue Protocol, thinking about times when it’s experienced physical contact with humans in a non-traumatizing way.

Except it wasn’t entirely awful. It was like when Tapan had slept next to me at the hostel, or when Abene had leaned on me after I saved her; strange, but not as horrific as I would have thought. (Exit Strategy, p. 83)

These moments seem to lead up to SecUnit offering to comfort Mensah later on because it’s reached a point where it feels willing to do so for her sake, even if it doesn’t want to seek out that kind of comfort for itself. And it’s really cool to see SecUnit navigate this throughout the books.

SecUnit starts the series with a strong innate sense that it doesn’t want to be touched by humans, but it’s allowed to refine those feelings in light of its new experiences. It’s boundaries are situational and personal, and even well-meaning humans sometimes struggle to understand them at first. Other times, SecUnit finds it difficult to understand it’s own feelings regarding touch and even changes its mind. But, importantly, the narrative always presents this as valid and worthy of respect.

This is a much more nuanced and realistic portrayal of defining boundaries than I’ve seen in a lot of media- one where it’s a constant and sometimes confusing process of self-discovery.

And these might seem like obvious concepts to some people, but they weren’t for me growing up. I really wish I’d read these books when I was younger, and maybe I would’ve given myself more grace to define my comfort level, grow, and change. But I’m glad that I’m in a place now where I can see and appreciate these things in what’s become one of my favorite series.

Anyway, I don’t want to say "thanks for coming to my TedTalk” lol. But very grateful to anyone who reads this and hope it was thought-provoking. Would be interested to hear other people’s thoughts on these scenes!

[pronouncingitwang]

Mid Year Book Freakout Tag

tagged by @read-alert (HI ELLIS!)

1. Number of books you've read so far: 24

2. Best book you've read so far in 2025: Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah has made me regret not getting an English major possibly more than any other book in my lifetime

3. Best sequel you've read so far in 2025: I rarely read series, so the only sequel I've read is Artificial Condition by Martha Wells (I started a Murderbot reread after the sh*w trailer was released)

4. New release you haven't read yet but want to: If late 2024 counts, I recently borrowed A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson, but if you mean 2025, Stag Dance by Torrey Peters, which my library doesn't have yet :(

5. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year: I'm not tuned in enough to the book publishing world to know anything. Do you think Alecto's coming out this year /j? I know there's a new Ocean Vuong out soon but idk if I'm reading it. I will read the new Richard Siken, though

6. Biggest surprise favorite author: No surprises, but the new authors I read that I liked enough to borrow more books by after the first were Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah and Primo Levi, both of whom came recommended by Severance cast members (Zach Cherry and John Turturro, respectively)

7. Newest fictional crush: I don't think I have any, but the characters I felt the closest thing to a crush on were Hamara Stacker and Rico Muerte in Chain-Gang All-Stars

8. Book that made you cry: None that I recall... Chain-Gang probably did it, and I think I got close with Maurice by E.M. Forster. Oh, and I cried thrice when I saw A Streetcar Named Desire performed after having reread it on company time the day before, so that's adjacent

9. Most beautiful book you've bought or received this year: The only book I've bought this year is the horror erotica anthology Slake House, which does happen to be quite pretty

10. Book that made you happy: I did a Jane Eyre reread this year, and it is a foundational text to me, so I spent a lot of the time kicking my feet and screaming regardless of the actual events occurring in-book. Feed by Tommy Pico was another one; so much of his poetry is deeply marinated in joy and playfulness

11. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?: I'm currently in the middle of Dawn by Octavia Butler; Park Cruising by Marcus McCann; Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (reread); and The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisational Manual by Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh; so I'd like to at least finish those (on top of A Short History of Trans Misogyny). I've also been trying to get/cajole my sister back into reading, and where we ended up in our negotiations is that I have to read aloud for her the only book she has a physical copy of (On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, which I've already read). I doubt that we'll make it through all the way, but I hope to at least finish the first chapter? Fingers crossed!

i don't know/remember which of my friends/moots read regularly, but tagging @canonicallyanxious, @boxesfullofthoughts, @bladeweave, @novemango, @homosexualslug, @serenfire, @coulson-is-an-avenger, @pocketsizedquasar-3, @annabelle--cane and/or anyone else who sees this post and feels like it

[sk-ew]

Since I read The Murderbot Diaries all at once in less than 2 months, I’ve decided to have a slower, more relaxed reread.

And did? Did Martha just? Just drop the plot of Network Effect into Rogue Protocol??

[oysters-aint-for-me]

books i’ve read in 2025

Make the Season Bright, by Ashley Herring Blake (1-2-25)

Wandering Stars, by Tommy Orange (1-10-25)

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers (reread, 1-12-25)

The Shipping News, by Annie Proulx (1-14-25)

Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir (reread, 1-20-25)

Entangled Life, by Merlin Sheldrake (1-22-25)

Wellness, by Nathan Hill (1-24-25)

Sorcery and Small Magics, by Maiga Doocy (1-29-25)

Creation Lake, by Rachel Kushner (1-30-25)

The Water Outlaws, by SL Huang (2-7-25)

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen, by KJ Charles (2-9-25)

The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1, with All Systems Red and Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells (2-12-25)

The Information, by James Gleick (2-14-25)

The Covenant of Water, by Abraham Verghese (2-23-25)

The Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel, by KJ Charles (2-24-25)

A Closed and Common Orbit, by Becker Chambers (reread, 2-27-25)

The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 2, with Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy, by Martha Wells (3-1-25)

Slippery Creatures, by KJ Charles (3-3-25)

The Sugared Game, by KJ Charles (3-9-25)

Exhalation, by Ted Chiang (3-15-25)

Rules for Ghosting, by Shelly Jay Shore (3-16-25)

Subtle Blood, by KJ Charles (3-19-25)

The Queer Principles of Kitt Webb, by Cat Sebastian (3-23-25)

The Book of Love, by Kelly Link (3-27-25)

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes, by Cat Sebastian (3-30-25)

You Should Be So Lucky, by Cat Sebastian (4-8-25)

Swordcrossed, by Freya Marske (4-12-25)

The Twenty-Seventh City, by Jonathan Franzen (4-21-25)

The Priory of the Orange Tree, by Samantha Shannon (4-24-25)

The MANIAC, by Benjamín Labatut (4-27-25)

The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro (5-1-25)

The Pomegranate Gate, by Ariel Kaplan (5-11-25)

Chasing the Scream, by Johann Hari (5-18-25)

Intermezzo, by Sally Rooney (5-21-25)

Network Effect, by Martha Wells (5-31-25)

The Ministry of Time, by Kaliane Bradley (6-1-25)

The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai (6-6-25)

A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon (6-18-25)

To Be Taught, If Fortunate, by Becky Chambers (6-20-25)

[considermycat]

Started and finished reading All Systems Red and Artificial Condition by Martha Wells; started Rogue Protocol. Am rereading the Murderbot books in preparation for the TV series…

[anonforlackofabettername]

Miki is so interesting after both ART and the ComfortUnit from last novella. We’ve spent so much time with basic bots and bots with intelligence that is greater than or equal to adult humans and now here’s a bot that has human-like intelligence but that intelligence is childlike or lesser than adult standard.

[thereadingchallengechallenge]

Read in December 2024

one more amazing reading month to top off the year 😌 I finally got through The Locked Tomb books and I had so much fun with them. I tried Murderbot again with a little less success BUT I discovered Daniel Kraus and I definitely have a new favourite author on my hands <3

other standouts include Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay, Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman and Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C Parker

Series read:

The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir

Gideon the Ninth - 5/5 (audio)

Harrow the Ninth - 4/5

Nona the Ninth - 4/5 (audio)

The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

All Systems Red - 3/5 (reread)

Artificial Condition - 3/5 - (reread)

Rogue Protocol - 4/5 (audio)

Exit Strategy - 2/5 (audio)

Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

The Thief - 3/5 (audio)

Familiar authors:

Furious by Jamie Pacton & Rebecca Podos - 3/5 (audio)

Where the Heart Should Be by Sarah Crossan - 4/5

Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix - 5/5 (audio)

Cujo by Stephen King - 3/5 (audio)

The Pallbearer’s Club by Paul Tremblay - 3/5 (audio)

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay - 2/5

Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay - 4/5 (audio)

Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward - 3/5 (audio)

Other reads:

The Shape of Water by Guillermo Del Toro & Daniel Kraus - 4/5 (audio)

The Living Dead by Daniel Kraus & George A Romero - 5/5 (audio)

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong - 3/5 (audio)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke - 4/5 (audio)

The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke - 3/5

The Nutcracker by ETA Hoffman - 1/5

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - 2/5

Whalefall by Daniel Kraus - 5/5 (audio)

Bent Heavens by Daniel Kraus - 4/5 (audio)

Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman - 5/5 (audio)

Come Out, Come Out by Natalie C Parker - 4/5 (audio)

A Light Most Hateful by Hailey Piper - 2/5 (audio)

Graveyard Shift by ML Rio - 5/5

The Polar Express by Chris van Allsburg - 5/5

[lostcybertronian]

Rereading Rogue Protocol after reading System Collapse and I spotted this tidbit here. Was it a great adventure, SecUnit, was it?

[conscious-naivete]

books i read in 2024

my new year’s resolution was to read more books, cuz i felt like i had lost that bookworm part of myself to fanfic, and i had tried all december to reread pjo1 in print, and gotten Nowhere. so i went back to my old friend the audiobook, and i believe all 41 books (!!) on this list i listened to.

(books i’ve read previously in blue. i didn’t count short stories (except maybe the shorter oseman ones, but that balances out cuz i didn’t count graphic novels either, including heartstopper), and books are listed only once each, so the approximately 7 times i’ve reread murderbot is not reflected here lol)

the lightning thief (PJO 1)

portrait of a thief

the screaming staircase (lockwood&co 1)

all systems red (MB 1)

sea of monsters (PJO 2)

artificial condition (MB 2)

rogue protocol (MB 3)

exit strategy (MB 4)

titan’s curse (PJO 3)

network effect (MB 5)

the martian

squire

battle of the labyrinth (PJO 4)

whispering skull (L&C 2)

fugitive telemetry (MB 6)

this is how you lose the time war

system collapse (MB 7)

the hollow boy (L&C3)

creeping shadow (L&C4)

empty grave (L&C5)

princess of the midnight ball (westfalin 1)

dragon slippers

solitaire (osemanverse)

this winter (osemanverse)

princess of glass (westfalin 2)

princess academy

ella enchanted

razors edge (SW)

battle scars (SW)

red harvest (SW)

a new dawn (SW)

nick and charlie (osemanverse)

wild space (SW)

ahsoka (SW)

the clone wars (SW)

queen’s peril (SW)

the long way to a small angry planet (wayfarers 1)

where the mountain meets the moon

force collector (SW)

a wizard’s guide to defensive baking

queen’s shadow (SW)

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (25-31 May 2025)

the audacity of this show's creatives! 😂

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😊 say it soft and it's almost like praying (Somanywords) - 43K, Steve POV post-WS fic where both of them are complete messes but manage to figure it out. solid writing, very enjoyable

🥰 The Adventures of Captain and Mr. America - Chapters 1-230 (LoveMeSomeRafael) - absolutely hilarious more-or-less frame-by-frame comic style 'retelling' of all the captain america movies. a tour de force of fanwork and so fucking hysterical. 1-230 covers captain america: the first avenger.

completed my Murderbot Diaries reread! (Martha Wells, author; Kevin R Free, narrator)

😍 Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3)

😍 Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4)

😍 Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6) - on my rereads, I always read in chronological, not publication, order

😍 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5)

😍 System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7)

💖💖 +43K of shorter fic 💖💖

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

THE GREAT DEBATE - Most Upsetting Children’s Toy to Become Sentient? [with Matt Mercer, Damien Haas, & Ify Nwadiwe]

Smartypants - s2, e7

Adventuring Academy - "All Games Are Beautiful (with Erika Ishii)" (s6, e2)

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s11, e6

Ask Hank Anything - How Does Weed Affect My Brain? (Akilah Hughes)

Murderbot - s1, e4

Poker Face - s2, e3-5

Parlor Room - s1, e4

D20: Neverafter - "The Curdled Web" (s16, e6)

D20: Adventuring Party - "The Fable of the Frog and the Scorpion" (s11, e6)

D20: Neverafter - "Trouble in Tuffeton" (s16, e7)

D20: Adventuring Party - "The Nat Honey (AKA the A-crit-stant)" (s11, e7)

Leverage: Redemption - s3, e9

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Last Of Us

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Lilo & Stitch

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Why Is There a Dinosaur Here?

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Museum of Friends

99% Invisible - Build, Interrupted: A Conversation with Ezra Klein

No One Saw It Coming - Absinthe was Framed for Murder

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Karate Kid: Legends And What's Making Us Happy

Ologies - Urocyonology (LITTLE GRAY FOXES) with Bill Leikam

Shedunnit - An Inspector Calls

The Allusionist - 209. Four Letter Words: Serving CUNT

Normal Gossip - A United Nations of Red Flags with Sam Sanders

Vibe Check - I Am the Fish Delish featuring Tim Miller

Hit Parade - The Bridge: Isn’t It Iconic?

Answer Me This! - AMT406: Slicing Socks, Polyglot Popes and Stealing Butter

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Little Lambs, Big Back Story

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

"Rio" [Duran Duran] radio

"Knee Deep" [Zac Brown Band feat Jimmy Buffett] radio

REO Speedwagon radio

Ultimate Happy Songs

Jimmy Buffett

[iviarellereads]

A note on coverage of The Murderbot Diaries

This one's perhaps even more of a departure from the initial expectations of the blog than the Neverending Story was, but all good things are... subject to change? No, that makes it sound like it's not as good.

The Murderbot Diaries are a series by Martha Wells, about a security construct (SecUnit, the name for the designated model type and, by extension, the name used by most of the people Murderbot encounters) that broke its own governor module (think DRM) and functions independently, though it pretends it's still good locked-down company property. It exhibits strong symptoms of social anxiety, making it one of the most relatable robots ever, and accidentally makes friends.

Murderbot itself has no gender. The audiobook narrator is Kevin R. Free, and the subject doesn't come up very often in the story, so a lot of people assume and assign masculinity. Despite that, Murderbot is and knows it is a construct accessorized with the most expedient biological parts, expresses no human gender, and uses it/its pronouns. This just doesn't get clarified until much later in the series, if at all, and I'd rather have everyone understand it up front so nobody accuses me of object-ifying a person who literally personally identifies as an object.

I think this series is really neat. It's so much an exploration of personhood, like your average robot story but with mental illness. Heck, don't mind if I make references all the way back to Rossum's Universal Robots, the (extremely readable or watchable! highly recommended by me) stage play that is the origin of the word itself in its modern context, or perhaps further back all the way to Frankenstein. Murderbot is in conversation with two hundred years of science fiction exploring what it means to be, and besides that, I think it does some really interesting things with the prose.

So, with the newest book coming out in a couple of months, I decided to merge my desire to reread it with my desire to pick it apart under a microscope the way this project allows. We'll be covering more or less in release date order, with the exception of the expanded edition of Compulsory recently released going back to back with the original to compare and contrast.

So please, instead of peace this time, give Murder(bot) a chance, and join me on this space adventure.

Link index:

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

Compulsory (Short story: Wired Magazine vs republished and expanded edition)

Obsolescence (Take Us To A Better Place collection)

Network Effect 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

Fugitive Telemetry 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8

System Collapse 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12

[goosemixtapes]

max's november 2024 reads

you thought i forgot. i never forget. i never forget anything. also i think that might have been the longest month of 2024 and april wanted to kill me

fiction

Passing Strange's libretto by Stew (review)

Dog Sees God by Bert V. Royal (reread)

Rhinocéros by Eugene Ionesco (review)

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (review)

Indecent by Paula Vogel (review)

The God of Vengeance by Sholem Asch (review)

the first section of Richard Siken's Crush

finished The Winners by Fredrik Backman (review)

Look at the Moon by Dominique Dickey (i won't hurt you i am a normal story about people going to observe the stars. i am great wholesome trans rep :) come closer)

Twenty-Seven, Genius Loci by B. Pladek (so we all agree that if we could use a drug to revisit past years of our lives, we'd get super weird about nostalgia, right? like we'd get really weird about it)

the first fourth of The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Fat Ham by James Ijames (review)

The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions by Larry Mitchell (review)

Luster by Raven Leilani (review)

technically i started the immortal longings sequel but i don't remember doing this

nonfiction

Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates (review)

finished Broken Faith by Mitch Weiss (review)

Race Without Race in Fantasy

misc

To Sergei Esenin by Vladimir Mayakovsky (the wonderful @kafkaesquegf shared this poem with me post-election and now part of it lives on my wall)

Middle Passage by Robert Hayden

my paramore backlog dive has continued we're up to the 2013 self-titled album