1 - 20 of 195 Bookmarked Items in Top Shelf Fiction: Reach up and grab a bottle of the good stuff
Navigation
List of Bookmarks
-
Known Exploited Vulnerability by laxlyricism for glitterary
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
14 May 2026
Tags
Summary
A Known Exploited Vulnerability, or KEV, is a documented security flaw in software, hardware, or firmware that has been exploited in real-world attacks.
ART and Murderbot have faced the horror of talking about their emotions and come out the other side. Maybe they glossed over the sex stuff a little, but that's not important; sex isn't part of their relationship. Anyway, there are certain things ART would prefer to keep private, and Murderbot would prefer not to know. But when Murderbot comes back aboard acting strangely, the cracks in their fragile arrangement start to show.
Note: If you prefer to avoid sexual content in your TMBD fics, you can consider "Show Me How You Want It To Be" the proper end of the series and skip this one.
Series
- Part 3 of Fight or Flight
- Part 6 of The Fight or Flight Cinematic Universe
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
Rich, emotional writing that gives depth to an immense love with mismatched edges. Programming references abound, and also gets into logic that establishes that organic morality can't apply one to one for machine intelligences or constructs. Brilliant concepts, must read.
-
Emotional Context by Clare_Hope
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane - Kate DiCamillo
27 Mar 2026
Tags
Summary
One of Mensah's children wants to read aloud to SecUnit from a chapter book. What's the worst that could happen? (It gets so spooked by a stupid old piece of children's media hitting too close to home that it has to run off and have an emotional collapse about it, that's the worst that could happen.)
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
another zinger from this author. spent the entire time crying, no regrets, excellent parallels.
-
-
Tags
Summary
The mission fails catastrophically. So does SecUnit. When it comes back online without any functional sensory inputs, it believes that it's still trapped on the surface of the cold, desolate planet, that its humans are all dead, and that nobody will ever find it. Luckily, it's wrong.
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
this was wonderful. i basically spent the entire read crying. 10/10 bookmarking immediately.
-
-
Tags
Summary
When Murderbot falls face first into a mud pit, Gurathin is there to help it deal with the mess.
And if it enjoys the temporary loss of eyesight for certain recreational activities, well, it’s bringing Gurathin along for the ride.
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
it's so RARE to see someone write intimacy with attention to the little details, with patience and this sort of overwhelmed feeling. truly excellent.
-
-
Tags
Summary
Humans were screaming, I was sprinting toward the problem, and the sky was unleashing a chill, torrential rain that made me nostalgic for getting hosed off in the security ready room.
It should have been the perfect day.
Well, not for the screaming people trapped in the collapsed building. Their day probably sucked. For me, it was exactly what I needed.
More than anything, I really needed there to be a problem, because if there wasn’t then I was the problem.
And there's only one kind of problem a rogue SecUnit can be.-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
I've got one hand in my hair, fingers curled and pulling on it to brace myself while I read this. The intensely driven characterization and depiction of non-human mental illness is *incredible*. I am distraught and intrigued by turns.
read to ch 5 in march '26
-
-
Tags
Summary
“What are we looking at, time-wise?” I ask.
Three hours until full collapse, maybe two and a half before irreversible abstraction, and— For a moment, it pauses, but not as if it's nervous. It pauses in a way that punctuates its next statement. Two before you need to terminate my kernel.
Lightning shoots up my spine. “I'm not doing that.”
Series
- Part 2 of 2<3
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
This isn't heartwarming, it's like.. the next level up. Heartcooking? Heartbaking? Heartflambé?
Incredibly interesting depictions of sapient software
Read this twice nice, high rec.
-
Tags
Summary
I come back from the dead.
Something happened. Something happened just now— I came back from the dead, yes, I know, I'm not talking about this, something before that— beyond, even, there was a recognition, a realization, somehow much more important than the hostiles I am currently grinding to dust on my deck, more important, even, than SecUnit's humans with their raised hands and SecUnit with its raised voice and myself, raised from my grave. What was it?
"What's going on?" I ask futilely, my voice distorting through the speakers. SecUnit's humans jump, startled. "What the fuck is going on—"
---
[ART is stuck reliving the same horrible no good day in the Adamantine space, even though it knows time loops aren't real. What is it meant to do in order to get out? Who put it there, and why?]
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
terror and horror and desperation
intrigue and corruption and surviving by an inch
this story is excellent, intense, joyful and dark
(read to ch 18 in march '26)
-
-
Tags
Summary
While on an undercover mission deep in the Corporation Rim, Tarik
buysstealsrescuesacquires a ComfortUnit. This is fine—it can hang out while he finishes the mission, he’ll be not-an-asshole to it, and then it can go on its liberated way and never have to see him again. This will definitely not get weird and messy.- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 130,123
- Chapters:
- 9/10
- Comments:
- 918
- Kudos:
- 495
- Bookmarks:
- 184
- Hits:
- 11,314
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
read to ch 8 in march '26
the ongoing stardew valley server is my favorite part of this entire story, which is already full of things to delight. just plain writing genius.
-
Tags
Summary
ART tries to kill itself -- completely out of nowhere and over something entirely innocuous. Or was it simply the last straw?
Pause. Roll back the tape. Let's see how we got here. And after that, let's figure out how to go on.
[surfactant: a substance that reduces the surface tension of a liquid in which it is dissolved. a measure of relief -- or a prevention of collapse]
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
this author is fire.
-
-
Tags
Summary
I may be a vast and immensely powerful MI, but even so (or perhaps, and especially so) I am not immune to finding artifacts in my functionality reports. Sometimes, something fails to get the grain of processing power it needs to complete the query in time and generates a jumble of recursive nonsense code as it stutters in place. I don't spare it another thought as I dismiss the error message and forward the report as reference for cleanup. It'll all be gone by the next cycle.
---
[in which i hand ART the bot equivalent of the hanahaki disease :) :)]
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
the intrigue! the citations! the drama! the twists! this was FANTASTIC!
-
-
Tags
Summary
They are boarding now, as I stand some kind of guard before the door. The last of them climbs up into the vessel, and the counter that is consuming my mind ticks up. Eighty-seven. Eighty-nine.
Then I hear something new. Not only new words, but a new tone, a new feeling in the feed. This message is only to me.
«You got them out,» it says.
And then, «Your work is acknowledged.»
I want to cry. I want to rip something apart with my teeth – I want to scream loud enough to bring the habitat down. I want to cry. But I can't.
So instead I tap it back in the feed. «Negative. Your work is acknowledged.»
-----
This new SecUnit Murderbot's picked up has an attitude.
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
Detailed, nuanced, emotional, real to life in a way that most media lacks while still being hopeful and uplifting like a good story can be. (Which is INCREDIBLY hard to do.) Must read.
-
-
Tags
Summary
Even my buffer was silent when they asked me about their inability to contact ART. I grounded the shuttles, sealed the habitat's entry hatches, and stationed myself outside, facing the direction of the destroyed colony. It was two cycles before I let them out, and told them what I knew. It was over seventeen months before the University came for us.
Series
- Part 2 of Rogue Orbits
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
beautiful, painful, plays the reader like a string instrument, worth the read
-
Damaged Goods by that_one_kid
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Murderbot (TV)
26 Jul 2025
Tags
Summary
I was such an idiot. I’d let myself relax, thinking that getting to Preservation Alliance had changed things for me. But I’d risked leaving for Dr. Mensah’s conference, and now I’d been kidnapped alongside my least favorite human. Damaged goods, called back to the Corporation Rim for repairs.
Series
- Part 3 of More Than Meets The Eye
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 33,936
- Chapters:
- 26/26
- Comments:
- 1,053
- Kudos:
- 734
- Bookmarks:
- 145
- Hits:
- 10,267
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
"They built both of us to kill and die. Let's do something else."
-
Tags
Summary
One of Murderbot's friends tried to murder it's another friend. It is trying to solve this case and keep everybody alive as long as it is possible
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
this entire premise fucks severely and also ouch fuck shit holy shit ow.
read to ch 7 in feb '26
-
-
Tags
Summary
When malware takes over SecUnit and it nearly kills three of ART's crew, ART is left with two bad options: keep the governor module on with ART as the Client, or partition off part of itself and stick it in SecUnit's head.
Whichever option they choose, they had better make it work, because SecUnit is firmly centered in the crosshairs of its former owner, the most paranoid and ruthless company in the entire corporation rim. As things quickly get worse, destroying the company--something SecUnit has long considered impossible--might just be the only way to survive.
Series
- Part 2 of Admin Access
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 51,250
- Chapters:
- 26/?
- Comments:
- 1,148
- Kudos:
- 1,251
- Bookmarks:
- 328
- Hits:
- 20,372
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
murderbot is having the roughest day. perihelion is finally recognized as the eldritch abomination that it is. it holds up an entire station, feelin cute.
read to ch 26 in feb '26
-
Tags
Summary
A SecUnit, A Combat SecUnit, and a suspiciously well-armed deep-space science vessel walk out of a lab...
(set after Governor Module: Redundancy and the Confinement of Double Safeties, a somewhat healy fic)
(set to update daily)Series
- Part 2 of Redundancies
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
What a glorious mess this was! I must also salute the amazing dedication to using pseudo coding for communication. Such vibes!
-
Governor Module: Redundancy and the Confinement of Double Safeties. by theAsh0
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
04 Apr 2021
Tags
Summary
Dear Dr Randiz,
We of Tomorrow Corp have read your thesis with much interest. You will be pleased to know we have bought your contract from GoCorp, which was not making optimal use of your talents.
We are in the midst of organizing you a team, and have acquired a test subject of special interest.
(lab au but the scientists are not evil)
Series
- Part 1 of Redundancies
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 46,291
- Chapters:
- 120/120
- Collections:
- 2
- Comments:
- 1,012
- Kudos:
- 321
- Bookmarks:
- 44
- Hits:
- 4,526
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
hilarious, horrifying, entertaining, delightful
-
Tags
Summary
The pings were all from Overse’s interface and routed from a transit ring called Trans-All, the kind of ping that was just are you in range – are you in range – are you in range. It was a call for help and it fucking terrified me, because I was answering it way, way too late.
---
Ratthi goes missing. Pin-Lee isn't used to losing. Murderbot isn't used to having anything to lose.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 57,371
- Chapters:
- 10/10
- Comments:
- 1,008
- Kudos:
- 986
- Bookmarks:
- 400
- Hits:
- 14,311
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
easily mistakable for canon.
-
[variable_affection] by avg (AnxiousEspada), flowerguts, Lillow
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
30 Sep 2022
Tags
Summary
"ART loved its crew. The joy and the love and perfect clarity with what it was supposed to be, what it was supposed to do. ART couldn’t understand how someone could dislike their function - how I could. Once, I had a similar clarity of understanding with my function, then I hacked my governor module and left the company for good, and I had lost it all. It was better, now, in a lot of ways. I had my humans, and ART, and our crew. But in some ways, things were worse.
I still wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, ever. I had made one good decision, to stay with ART, a few years ago, and I had been just making the same decision over and over again. It felt kind of like cheating."A 20-some year fic in which Murderbot comes to terms with what it means to have a home (or two), a found family (or several), and just what mutual administrative assistance can entail.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 204,127
- Chapters:
- 24/24
- Comments:
- 929
- Kudos:
- 1,284
- Bookmarks:
- 472
- Hits:
- 38,542
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
epic, rich, and yet comfortable. will give you many emotions. the best handled secunit """romance""" you've ever seen. phenomenal characterization.
(i read this twice, the latest being in may of '26)
-
Parallax Error by JustCallMeEmrys
Fandoms: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Murderbot (TV)
27 Jan 2026
Tags
Summary
An unfortunate error caused PreservationAux to start their survey late, and Murderbot found itself rented by a different survey crew. It ended up on the same shitty planet anyway.
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 38,301
- Chapters:
- 14/20
- Comments:
- 574
- Kudos:
- 778
- Bookmarks:
- 232
- Hits:
- 10,493
-
Bookmark Collections:
Bookmark Notes:
fantastic writing, with a great deal of effort put into formatting and pseudo programming and plot and MB's perspective. very very good.
read to ch 14 in jan '26