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What a week! I’ve been blown away by the support from everyone who has subscribed to the newsletter and promoted it to their friends. I appreciate it very much. :D

Today’s issue comes to you pre-Murderbot debut. It’s heavy on the Murderbot content, but I did read/watch other things. That said, if you see any interesting Murderbot headcanon, reviews, analysis, or commentary about the show/book series between now and next Wednesday, reply and let me know!

A-side

Murderbot‘s Creators on Letting AI Be the Good Guy for Once
A quick interview with the adaptation creators from Cheryl Eddy. “I [identify with the character] along the kind of axis of social anxiety, and certainly Martha sort of felt that she was discovering her neuroatypicality while she was writing the character.”

Murderbot‘s Creators on Finding the Right Tone for the Sci-Fi Comedy-Thriller
More interview from io9, where we learn that the show is going to be more sitcom length than thriller length. While it means less Murderbot, it also suggests they’re not trying to insert too much extra material.

Murderbot Showrunners Chris & Paul Weitz on How David Lynch Evoked Their Take on Sanctuary Moon
The joy I felt when I realized they were going to film parts of Sanctuary Moon was indescribable. It also suggests that, if the series continues along the storyline of the books, that we may get pieces of World Hoppers (this is the Murderbot Diaries version of Stargate and I’m speaking this into the universe until proven wrong) and many other shows that Murderbot watches by itself and with others.

David Dastmalchian talks 'Murderbot' and more
This Youtube interview with the actor portraying Dr. Gurathin made me think of the first novella and its characterizations. They’re really light, because the novella is very short, Murderbot doesn’t know the team well yet, and so much of the story is internalized. This is a consequence of the change in medium—the Preservation team will get to be whole people, and with it create new character connections that might never occur to Murderbot to notice (because of many things, like anxiety and violent threats to its humans). I’m fascinated. Also: we were correct about everyone being a little in love with Mensah.

Murderbot’s Ratthi & Dr. Bharadwaj Actors Talk Preservation Team’s Dance Moves
“Khanna—who plays the self-described ‘himbo’ Ratthi on the series” I am so ready for this, for the Ratthi headcanons, for the fanfic omg

Murderbot Is a Funny, Violent Exploration of What It Means to Be Human
The most notable part of this review goes back to my point about how the Preservation folks will get to be full people and how that’s going to feel very different than the books no matter what choices were made in the adaptation to respect the source material. Eddy, in her recap of the episode, outlines some characterization choices that were definitely not present in the novella because a) it was Murderbot’s story and b) Murderbot doesn’t even like Dr. Gurathin and thus does not care about his romantic or sexual interests.

Alexander Skarsgård Is a Lovably Awkward 'Murderbot' in Apple TV+'s Killer Sci-Fi Adaptation
This review by Carly Lane at Collider digs into Skarsgård's performance of Murderbot. When the first stills, and later the trailer, came out, there was a lot of dubious takeaways from those of us concerned about how the show was going to handle gender. Murderbot doesn’t have one, doesn’t want one, and uses it/its pronouns when it uses them at all. If it doesn’t come up explicitly in this story line, I’m curious about the ways it might in future seasons. In Artificial Condition, we’re explicitly introduced to ComfortUnits, which feel more analogous to the way society currently imagines AI assistants, whether they have a body or not (Siri, Alexa, Samantha from Her, Ava from Ex Machina). There’s going to be a lot for us to chew on with this adaptation.

Murderbot: Exclusive Opening Scene
All I have to say is AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

What to Read After Watching Sinners
At Reactor, Alex Brown shares a whole list of books to read after watching Sinners. I still haven’t seen the movie because I haven’t been in a theater since 2019? 2018? But every new themed book rec list weakens my resolve against wearing an N95 mask for 2.5 hours. I’ve been seeing a lot of these go around on TikTok, but Alex places their list in context with a short summary, which is very useful if you’re not sure where to start.

“I am become death”, by Nishka Dasgupta
This is actually a short story, not an essay, but what’s the use of having a newsletter if I can’t indulge myself? I love how much world building the author packed into this piece. It’s all sharp edges and the glee of denying your enemy what they want most. Mind the content warnings.

Debut Showcase | Magic: The Gathering / Final Fantasy
Last year, the Bloomburrow sets got me back into the Magic universe (the art is SO BEAUTIFUL). However, if they hadn’t, this collab would have. I need a better job. I need to take out a second mortgage. I need to win the lottery. This showcase walks through some of the big cards and they’re all amazing. I will fight someone for the Rinoa card (the artist is Francesca Resta).

Reading the Hugos 2025: Best Novella
Dina recaps the Best Novella shortlist and does a little predicting. She’s already done with her novella reading—I’ve barely started, predictably. I have series debt to pay down for Nghi Vo and T. Kingfisher before I can get to the nominated work. But her thoughts on The Brides of High Hill have me excited to get to it. I also never know how to predict the winner (I’m better at the short lists). I suspect The Practice, the Horizon, and the Chain has a higher chance of winning, being a standalone versus two popular series with sequels. But! It also depends on who casts a ballot, and after all the regrettable PR for Seattle, I have no clue who might still vote.

The 2025 shortlist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award
It’s out! I have three of the finalists on my TBR: The Ministry of Time, Annie Bot, and Service Model. The one I’m most surprised by is Private Rites, which I haven’t seen marketed as science fiction at all (that’s more to do with me than the book, probably). It’s a delight when an award short list can surprise you.

Fitting a round peg into a genre-sized hole
Andrew Liptak discussed the life cycles of two book series I remember coming out and how the marketing failed them. I own one of them and purchased it myself—The Cold Between. In the case of that book, the publisher did the author dirty, per this interview. On this plus side, Liptak’s article put this book back on my radar and I put it on my Space Opera Reading Challenge shelf.

Romantasy & the death of substance
I’m on BookTok the same way a crab clings to the side of a massive whale in turbulent waters. I can follow people, but will I ever see them again on my FYP? A mystery of the algorithmic tides. That said, I have managaed to teach the algorithm that I like the videos Emma Skies makes and got my first dose of Silver Elite discourse. Silver Elite is apparently The Hunger Games, but with banging? While about the book’s marketing, there’s also some good commentary about the current romantasy moment creating books that don’t fully engage with their themes. Hearing about Silver Elite didn’t make me want to read it, but it did make me want to reread The Hunger Games.

thoughts on "reading for escapism"
This excellent video essay by Mari breaks down the conversations happening over on BookTok around critical reading practice. I especially liked this bit: “We do ourselves a disservice when we assume that joy and critical thought are incompatible.” But truly, the whole video is full of striking insights and is well worth a listen (which I did while doing dishes).

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Romantasy
At Reactor, Jenny released her latest Ships in the Night column about romantasy. Her thesis rings true to me as someone who traveled from romance to fanfiction (in primarily SFF fandoms) to original SFF and then back to romance.

Genre Grapevine’s Deep Dive into the Use of ChatGPT by Seattle Worldcon
For Worldcon nerds, here’s all the words you’ve been waiting for on the background of the ChatGPT debacle. It’s pretty long, and I was with him until this bit: “[…] there will be increasing pressure from convention volunteers to use generative AI systems as an alternative to sinking entire days or weeks of their life into doing something ChatGPT can accomplish in mere minutes.” If these hypothetical convention volunteers are going to take this position, my proposal is that convention leadership make it clear that AI tools aren’t acceptable. Volunteers who don’t want to do the work without using AI tools should not volunteer to do convention work.

Reviews

Colourfields by Paul Kincaid (Roseanna @ nerds of a feather)
Don’t Let the Forest In by C. G. Drews (Cameron Miguel @ Strange Horizons)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Tori Morrow)
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson (Bill Capossere @ Strange Horizons)
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (Greekchoir/Bailey)
Thunderbolts (Alasdair Stuart @ The Full Lid)
The West Passage by Jared Pechaček (Electra Pritchett @ Strange Horizons)
Where the Axe Is Buried by Ray Nayler (Niall Harrison @ Strange Horizons)

B-side

Sign up for a recommendation session with Kristen from Fantasy Cafe on Zoom. She will rec you great books. Unless you’re a time traveller it’s a too late for the May session, but there’s two more later in the year. Cool piece of Hugo lore re: design of the 2024 Hugo Award base. Nerds of a Feather has an interview with Emily Tesh and No Pages Unturned discussed her book, The Incandescent, on their pod. Greekchoir shared The Fantasy Lover’s Fantasy Book Recs. Via Jenny’s Professional Review sleuthing, we all need to prepare ourselves for traditional media reviewers getting real weird (sexually) about Alexander Skarsgård as Murderbot.

Charlie Jane Anders is releasing a book this year, Lessons in Magic and Disaster. She’s doing a special preorder project; if you’re interested in a sequel to All the Birds in the Sky, check it out! The digital copy of the excellent The Saint of Bright Doors by Vajra Chandrasekera is on sale. Thomas Ha’s collection, Uncertain Sons and Other Stories, is available for preorder. Stephanie Burgis announced the cover of the sequel to Wooing the Witch Queen, Enchanting the Fae Queen. If you are independently wealthy, maybe you would like a Folio Society edition of Piranesi by Susanna Clarke or to preorder all the Final Fantasy Commander decks from out for Magic: The Gathering? Or! John Scalzi has a limited edition version of Constituent Service out from Subterranean Press. Back in the free category for us brokies, Martha Wells was on the This Queer Book Saved My Life and did an AMA on Reddit. You can read an excerpt of The Witch Roads by Kate Elliott (which I enjoyed a ton) before its June 10 release date.

We’re getting Practical Magic 2, although I’m ??? about it. There’s a Superman trailer, and it looks good, but mentally I’m still living in Season 1 of Smallville. The Ironheart trailer looks incredible, but drives home how behind I am on everything after Avengers: Endgame, where I was like, “okay, I can get off the MCU ride and feel okay.” Earth is cool (and climate change caused by rich blowhards sucks). Reactor is looking for a News Editor and it’s remote. I wish I had the skills they needed, but since I don’t, maybe you know someone who does!

Long canvass animals series (tiger is my fave). Beautiful Rinoa Heartilly art, and yes, I will probably spend money to acquire this Magic card even if I get none of the others. Time’s End. No Love is Wasted. The sacred fruit. She yearns for the tub water (no, this is not a photograph). The Final Frontier art from one of my favorite artists has a notepad version now, which is funnier/sadder if you know of the original NASA photo. Fix your hearts or die. Village (because I never say no to cat art).

Outro

Part of the reason I’m able to do this newsletter at all is because so many people contribute to the SFF community with their free time and labor in order to share what they’re passionate about and connect with other fans. If you read/see something you like, be sure to let the author or artist know with a like/comment/repost. :)

Happy Murderbot weekend!