Sophie seeks respite in a good comfort read…
As habitual readers of this blog will know, I am a lifelong believer in comfort reading both old and new. I started early, following in my mother’s footsteps. And reading has got me through difficult times, from Stressful Tasks in Parts to Lockdown.
This week the news, the weather and a dodgy bit of plotting in my current wip sent me back to my bookshelves again. Or maybe it was just the notorious January slump catching up with me a little late.
My Comfort Reading 1: Murderbot
Well, fairly old. It’s not in the same category as my childhood love, The Secret Garden. I first came across Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries four or five years ago. But the series has become a firm favourite and I have returned to it more than once. I see I’ve even blogged about it.
The diarist is a “construct” i.e. a hybrid made partly of cloned human tissue, including its brain, and partly of robotic devices. These include automatic weapons in both its arms.
This particular form is called a SecUnit and is programed to provide protection, lethal if required, for people who rent it from its owner, “the company”. There are similar constructs with different functions – the Comfort Unit (basically for sex) and Combat Unit, bigger, faster, meaner than a SecUnit but equally enslaved to its owner or client.
All SecUnits are ultimately controlled by a governor module. (And, incidentally, they data-mine their clients’ information so the company can use anything profitable.) If they breach any company protocol, the governor fries their brain. Our diarist has eliminated it own governor module and is now making its own judgement and decisions. (It doesn’t think much of the company: cheap and unreliable is its key opinion.)
The company and most clients treat constructs as machines. They travel as cargo. But all are self-aware and have feelings.
Our diarist privately calls itself Murderbot. The reasons for this, complex and mainly unacknowledged, emerge through the story. It started watching media on its feed because it was bored. This included dramas, especially soap operas, but also documentaries and books. It has a substantial library and plays them to relieve boredom but also in times of stress.
Comfort streaming, you might say.
An example?
Here is an example: distressed by desperate humans it cannot help, it is watching a new show and it isn’t quite hitting the spot.
“It was about a pre-terraform survey that turned into a battle for survival against hostile fauna and mutant raiders. But the humans were too helpless to make it interesting and they were all getting killed. I could tell it was headed toward a depressing ending and I just wasn’t in the mood.”
Oh, I so relate to that.
Yet that is only part of the reason I love Murderbot.
It takes on big business, with all the greed, lying, manipulating and general indifference to people and planet(s) that that involves. And Murderbot and friends succeed in doing the right thing, despite the companies’ best efforts. Mostly by the skin of their teeth.
I really needed that this week.
My Comfort Reading 2: Peter Maxwell
This is a very new discovery. I jumped in rather late in the series – there are now 19 books – but each book is genuinely stand alone. And the continuing characters are a delight.
Maxwell is Head of Sixth Form at Leighford High, a school in a small south coast town where he teaches history. He has a passion for sixties pop songs, all film, the broad sweep of history – which he teaches – and working out puzzles.
He’s also quite keen on his Sixth Formers, who reciprocate. They call him Mad Max. Hating administration, he regards the unimpressive Head Master with neutral tolerance. That doesn’t stop Max asking awkward questions, though.
And he can’t keep his nose out of local murders that affect his school.
Max’s crime solving is clever and usually successful. It drives the local police mad. He’s also very funny. Which ditto.
He is a widower. An inspiring teacher. Eccentric. A thorn in the side of Authority everywhere, basically. His reflections on assorted UK Government education initiatives made me cackle with laughter.
And he has a grumpy black and white cat. It is called Metternich, after the smooth article who ran the Conference of Vienna, carving up Europe after Napoleon’s defeat. Max usually addresses him as “Count”. The cat, that is; not the late statesman.
Max tries his theories out on Metternich. Metternich is hardly ever impressed.
As you can see, I am in love.
Short Story Comfort Read for the Holidays
Like Murderbot, stress and boredom send me off looking for a comfort read. Strangely enough, holidays of all sorts can throw up both.
Think about it – anxiety about going to new places or situations; unusual journeys; plans that could go wrong; people in untested combinations who might not get on; people in familiar combinations with known risk factors… Fraught, I tell you. Fraught!
And then there’s the oppressive stressed boredom of just waiting – for trains, for planes, for people. (I never visit a doctor or dentist without a comfort read in my bag.)
But the problem with waiting is that you know you won’t have time to finish a whole novel. And I have found it gives offence if you tuck yourself into a corner and re-open your book the moment you arrive at a destination. People can be so funny about unloading cars and stuff.
The answer is a Short Story collection. If you haven’t managed to finish one before your train/plane/person connection arrives, you can probably manage a sneak peak or two in the general post-arrival confusion without anyone noticing. So you will know how that story ends, at least.
And Now a Surprise for you …
To lighten the February blues, the Libertà Hive bring you a free collection of 6 short stories (novellas, really) by Hive members and friends, set in the slightly weird small seaside town of Little Piddling, with romance, humour, mystery, fantasy, a look at the past, a hint of a possible future…
Valentine’s Day Treat and all round stress buster
0800 GMT on 12 February, next Wednesday, to 0800 Monday 17th February,
just click https://mybook.to/BeachHutSurprise
Libertà Books Short Story Collection FREE!
And this is my story in the collection. Enjoy!
I had not heard of Murderbot or Maxwell’s House. You’ve intrigued me now. Will have to hunt them out.
Echoing the joy of your Beach Hut story collection. It’s a gem.
So hope you enjoy whichever, whenever you find it, Liz.
And many thanks about our Beach Hut collection. It was a blast to put together and I really enjoyed writing mine. Had never done anything like it before!
Delighted that the collection is getting another outing! And I dowloaded the first five Maxwell books last week. Only up to comfort reading at the moment, and just finished the last Dan and Oscar book (Murder in Tuscany etc) so needed something. You’ve reassured me!
I absolutely adore Max. He makes me laugh AND he makes me think. Mind you, I remember a lot of the same things he does and I share his taste in music. Well, mostly.
I downloaded the first 5 Maxwell books too, Lesley, on Sophie’s recommendation. Sadly, the Murderbot books are very expensive. Apart from book 1, they’re £8.99 for the ebook version of what are, basically, novellas. So being a Scottish cheapskate, I have let them go by. Publishers may be cashing in on the Murderbot TV series?
I’m glad too that Beach Hut Surprise is getting another outing. I hope that Little Piddling finds lots of new fans. It was such fun to write — my novella is a vampire story, but not at all your standard vampire — that I’d love it to have wider circulation.
I keep seeing the Maxwell covers but haven’t yet dived in. They sound exactly my sort of thing so thank you!
I love Mad Max.
One word of warning – he has a habit of zipping from end scene to mid next scene which he signals by a double space and ***. Sometimes this slips, so you fall over what looks like a total non sequitur, and have to do a quick reboot. I did think of alerting the publisher but in that particular book there were so many instances, it would be a major exercise. And I really don’t have the time. (But if I finish the wip before my deadline, I might give it a go. The story is certainly worth it.)