#Rjalker reads City of Bones

[rjalker]

not physically or literally but in spirit I am repeatedly slamming this metaphorical book onto a table for emphasis so hard the table breaks in half and turn to dust.

It is so fucking easy to include physically disabled people in your writing. There is literally no fucking excuse for not doing so.

If there's no physically disabled people in your setting you're ableist and a shit writer.

Ann Leckie just keeps proving how fucking effortless including physically disabled people is. Without fail. I am no longer going to tolerate settings that exclude physically disabled people. It's ableism, laziness, and shit writing.

And yes, this goes 100% for The Murderbot Diaries, because Martha Wells is still fucking using the same magical healing she did with the Books of the Raksura, only now it's just called "medbay" instead of "literal magical healing trance that fixes everything".

Martha Wells gave us Malachite, who is covered head to toe in scars. But it's just set dressing. Those scars are not injuries. She's not disabled, she's not in constant pain, she's not impaired or impeded by them in any way. They're literally just set dressing to make her look cool.

Meanwhile,,,,Ann Leckie actually lets the characters' fucking traumatic injuries cause lasting permenant damage. Actions have fucking consequences, you cannot just jump off a fucking bridge to save someone who's already falling and walk away like nothing happened. It fucking means something. No one gets blown up or riddled with bullets and then a few paragraphs or chapters later is perfectly fucking healed again like nothing happened. Martha Wells refuses to let her characters lose in any real way, and she considered being disabled to be losing, so she'll never let her characters' injuries have any real lasting impact. They're literally just for drama, and as soon as they've worn out their use, they're magically healed like nothing ever happened.

Khat should not have been able to fully fucking recover from that absurd plan like it never happened. It's great that he got sick, because tHAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT. It's not great that it's 100% temporary and he's fine afterward. No lasting damage at all -.-

If Balm fucking went head to head with a ~~~scary terrifying~~~~ fell Ruler the way we're supposed to take seriously, she should have lost, at the very least, one of her fucking arms. But instead she just comes away with, and I quote, some "scratches" on her arms. That's it. That's all the damage she took from a Fell Ruler, who are apparently, as Martha Wells repeatedly tells us but never shows us, super scary and terrifying and horrible and scary and yada fucking yada. Supposedly they're soooo dangerous that everyone has to run away when they see one. But you know, not really, because that would require letting the protagonists lose, for real, in a real way that matters, and not due to any other thing except that they're too weak compared to this supposedly terrifying enemy.

[rjalker]

I have talked about how Martha Wells thinks just having a matriarchal society makes her setting feminist but she also very specifically seems to think that having a male protagonist who is afraid of being raped is somehow feminist. And not like in a way where it's being acknowledged that anybody can be a victim of rape and that this is a serious thing no it's just like you know how misogynistic male writers will just throw in the threat of rape for a cheap drama? Yeah that's literally what she's doing but instead of it happening to women it's just happening to men and this is supposed to be like. Groundbreaking feminism. For men to be afraid of being raped. A real win for feminism everywhere that men are subjected to the same violence.

Like. How about nobody is afraid of being raped. How about that. How about your setting actually have real equality between the sexes instead of just having men be the ones who are oppressed and we're all supposed to think this is awesome and totally fine now well nobody in the setting has a problem with it except for the one guy you explicitly wrote as being a mentally ill serial killer for thinking that biological essentialism and oppressive sex-based caste systems are bad.

[rjalker]

Rating books by how fitting their titles are, Martha Wells edition:

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The Cloud Roads - Not literal, but aplicable. They fly. The clouds are their roads. It works.

The Serpent Sea - yeah, there's a sea. And there sure as fucking hell is a sea serpent in it.

The Siren Depths- oh yeah, the depths. The depths that call like a siren. the siren depths.

The Edge of Worlds - yeah, it sure as shit is

The Harbors of the Sun- YEAH!!!!!!! THEY SURE ARE!!!!!!

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City of Bones - no, not really. yes there's a city but bones are mentioned offhand one time as being at all important and they were not important in this story. No one tried to steal Khat's bones. If that were a common occurrence this title would be warranted but it's not.

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Wheel of the Infinite - I guess. This book was really boring though so IDRC. It wasn't even really a wheel, more like a mural. Mural of the Infinite. Map of the Infinite. Window of the Infinite. Mirror of the Infinite. many titles can be just as vague.

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The Wizard Hunters - yes they do in fact hunt wizards

The Ships of Air - yes there are air ships. flying whales you might say. But they were in the first one and they aren't any more relevant in this one so I don't know why that's the title.

The Gate of Gods - ? sure? I mean they were also literally in the first one. This could have been a name for the first book. Why is it the name for the third one? It's not like this is new information.

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Razor's Edge - of what. No. has nothing to do with the story. The story is not dramatic or suspenseful enough for a title like this. Very misleading.

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Reliquary - yes, that is the purpose of a reliquary. Martha Wells are you autistic.

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All Systems Red - no, not all the systems are red. most of them are working just fine. Overdramatic and misleading.

Artificial Condition - ???? no??? has literally nothing to do with the story.

Rogue Protocol - what does this even mean. This could have worked for the title for the second book but how does this have anything to do with this story

Exit Strategy - no not really. it's not a strategy it's two steps and the first one requires the enemy be unconscionably usesless and incompetant so it's not even a plan. It's just "oh I hope our enemie decides to sabatogue themselves for no reason" and then they do!!!

Fugitive Telemetry - ??? no? what

Network Effect - literally where. only by the most absurd stretching of the imagination. This is just a bad name. There are so many other things you could call this book that would better identify the story it tells. You could have made puns about the word "transmission" but sure, Network Effect totally works /sarcasm

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[rjalker]

anyways do you think Martha Wells will write about any kind of oppression that is not literally just "dangerous people are oppressed because they're dangerous" in her new book, Witch King????

Because this has been the whole basis for the oppression in:

The Murderbot Diaries

The Books of the Raksura

The Fall of Ile-Rien

City of Bones

and that's just fucking racist.

Murderbot is distrusted and feared because it's got guns in its arms and could crash a space station into a planet in twenty seconds if it felt like it. It's literally confirmed that it can hack even high security government systems without a single moment of trouble. It spies on everyone around it at all times, even after it's no longer forced to.

The Raksura are distrusted and feared because they literally evolved to mimic other species so they could sneak into their cities and eat them once they'd gained their trust. And also they look exactly like their cousin species, which still does literally mimic other species to eat them!!!! The Raksura are stronger and faster than any other sentient species they meet. They don't need weapons because they have razor sharp fangs and disembowling claws and even spines on their backs. Not to mention they could just pick you up and drop you.

In The Fall of Ile-Rien, wizards are distrusted and feared because most wizards literally just use magic to be evil and torture people. People who have spells cast on them are shunned and ostracized (except when they're not because Martha Wells forgot about her own rule) because a lot of the time, the spells cast on people are fucking curses to make them kill people and go out of control. Including curses that takes years to take effect.

In City of Bones, the main character's people were literally genetically engineered to replace everyone else after the apocalypse.

Martha Wells has written oppression to always be "dangerous people are oppressed because they're dangerous" and that is literally just fucking racism and so many other forms of bigotry it's not even funny!

Real fucking people are not oppressed because otherwise they'll fucking kill everyone around them.

Her work also relies very heavily on biological essentialism, and gender essentialism.

[rjalker]

someone on pillowfort was asking (rhetorically) "why doesn't Murderbot feel like cyberpunk?"

and the answer is, "that would require worldbuilding and understanding of oppression beyond 'dangerous people are oppressed because they're dangerous'"

Which is a very big problem with Martha Wells' writing. Khat's people are the only ones in any of her series so far who were oppressed, and not because they're literally quantifiably stronger, faster, and smarter than everyoen else with literal guns in their arms or you know, literally evolved to eat everyone and can sprout dead claws in .02 seconds flat.

Actually no I take that back. Khat's people can't even be counted because if I'm remembering correctly, his people were literally created to replace everyone else after the apocalypse. >.> you know, a thing that is literally inherently hostile and dangerous to other people????

[rjalker]

[ID: The handshake meme, with one arm labeled, "Khat", and the other, "Jolinar", with the clasped hands reading, "Making the worst possible decision for the situation possible". End ID.]

Khat: What could possibly go wrong?

Jolinar: Yeah, I'll just stand here and die.

[rjalker]

Hope Murderbot gets to be just as much of a fucking dumbass as Khat one of these days.

[rjalker]

Khat, you definitely could have just thrown her out and no one would have known.

???: *still alive*

Khat, chanting hopefully: Die! Die! Die! Die!

[rjalker]

If your fictional characters are doing stupid shit then they should in fact face consequences.

If they're a fucking marsupial and they decide to shove a filthy probably cursed accient magical relic into their pouch to hide it they should get sick and almost die because that's what happens when you do stupid shit like that.

If your character's an android who, for example, keeps peeling back its organic skin to store stuff under it, which is not the intended purpose of that skin, then that character should get a fucking infection and almost die because that is fucking stupid.

[rjalker]

oh now I'm going to be worried about this until the series is officially over.

[ID: The meme of a person pointing at a dog, saying, "Do not blow this for us", now edited so the dog is labeled, "Martha Wells", the person is labeled, "Me", and the dialogue is, "Do not fuck this up." End ID.]

[rjalker]

There was one (1) moment where I would have had to rip Khat's head off with all the brutality I can capable of, when he thought about saying something.

Luckily for him, he decided not to say it, he just thought about it.

[rjalker]

Khat: *puts the relic in his pouch to hide it* what’s the worst that could happen?

Khat, later:

[ID: The “(chuckles) I’m in danger” meme, edited to say, “(chuckles) I’m dying.” End ID.]

[rjalker]

Khat: this is fine

Khat, dying: I may have miscalculated

[rjalker]

Khat at least has good taste in friends.

His friend became the fantasy equivalent of the chief of police and he’s like nope. I’m outta here. goodbye.

[rjalker]

Khat kept hoping she would die suddenly, releasing him of any responsibility, but she seemed to have no inclination for it.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

[rjalker]

correction: Khat has a last name, we just don’t know what it is because his family sucks and he hates them for good reason