That character's interactions with Murderbot are a lot like Rodney McKay and John Sheppard, which is no surprise if you know that Wells wrote professional tie-in novels for SGA.

I read the first Murderbot a while back. I liked the character, but I thought the plot was kind of dull, but everyone here seems to like them so much maybe I'll give the next one a try.

I find the plots actually kind of hard to follow, but the voice and emotional growth of Murderbot are what keep drawing me back. I sympathize so much with its desire to NOT DEAL WITH PEOPLE AND THEIR FEELINGS. It's just charming.

I remember really disliking the writing style in The Hot Zone.

I thought The Coming Plague by Laurie Garrett was much more clearly presented and engaging to read.

Yes, The Hot Zone is definitely written in the style of pulpy thriller. That's why I liked it. I would never choose to read a book like Garrett's. As I said, I'm not a big non-fiction fan. Unless it's for work, I rarely pick it up for myself. I only read Life Among the Savages this year because it was Jackson and I'm slowly reading all her stuff.

I also love that Murderbot will now autocomplete when I’m typing on my iPad

Ha! I don't get the Murderbot autocomplete, but I do get Murderbiscuit...

Murderbot is next up in my queue.

I'm still less than 100 pages to go with Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, which is taking way longer than it should, but by the time I settle down to read I fall asleep! Life really needs to stop getting in the way of my reading. My original thought was to dive right into Piranesi, but Murderbot has been staring at me and it wants to be next.

I sympathize so much with its desire to NOT DEAL WITH PEOPLE AND THEIR FEELINGS. It's just charming.

Stupid breakable humans I JUST WANT TO WATCH MY SHOWS IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK.

Right? So relatable!

Laura, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell just takes a long time, as I recall. And there isn't a strong reason to jump from that to Piranesi if you'd rather hop over to Murderbot, they aren't related

Yes, I just have been reading this one for so long and Murderbot has been glaring at me.

I've been mostly reading whatever awful romance novels the library has available, even if the vast majority of them are terrible, while waiting for various holds to come available. I did take a chance on a YA recently that I really liked--low stakes YA romance that I dug in these trying times (I do not need EXTRA angst, thanks, even the ones I know are going to work out by the end of the novel because it's a romance book!) "More Than Maybe" by Erin Hahn. Realized at the end I'd read an earlier book of hers, but I think I liked this one better. Or possibly just "liked this one for this moment in history" better. Who knows.

Anyone want to recommend calm soothing books? Good people doing good things where they are not even going to be foiled THAT much by the bad guy? Or better yet, are working to fix something and there is no real bad guy, but they need/want to fix something and then they do? Justice is served, etc? Things I hate: when the people in charge either don't care or can't help/fix the characters and it's unjust (ie Harry Potter and Dolores Umbridge). Too flashback to some issues growing up. Am OK with adults or higher ups or the prince or whoever being oblivious to the issue and would fix it if they could (ie, cops would arrest the bad guy if our valiant heroine can just figure out who did it but meanwhile they're busy investigating other things!)

I admire the clarity of your request and will try to think of anything that fits, meara

I mean, I just re-read The Goblin Emperor as a soothing antidote to The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, which I found extremely upsetting. Like, The Last Girl Scout (which I read right before that) was vastly less upsetting to me, although that might be due to the content warnings at the front, so I knew was I was getting into. Also, TLGS is full of queer joy, even in the midst of terrible things.

I think, though, Red Heir and A Wizard's Guide To Defensive Baking would fit your requirements.