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Tag Archives: Murderbot

Platform Decay: A Review

Murderbot’s back!

Really, that could be the whole review, and I know so many of y’all would be okay with that and a five star rating. I’m going to give you more than that, obviously, because we love Murderbot. How could we not?

Platform Decay follows on the heels of System Collapse, with our beloved rogue SecUnit setting off on a rescue mission. Dr. Mensah’s spouse Farai, their daughter, and Farai’s mother. Naturally, this rescue mission involves Murderbot breaking into one of its least favorite space-bound structures, a torus. These doughnut-shaped space stations are ridiculously complex to navigate due to their sheer size and the fact that the interior is broken up into independently governed sectors. It’s also on one of these structures that Farai and her family are being held under Barish-Estranza supervision.

Murderbot’s arrival on the torus is assisted by Three, one of the other SecUnits that Murderbot taught to hack its own governor module back in Network Effect. While Three is busy causing a distraction, Murderbot will slip in, find Farai, and get out again. Or at least, that was the plan. Things never go according to plan.

See, there’s a Barish-Estranza executive on the torus too, and she knows Murderbot. When our Friendly Neighborhood SecUnit reaches Farai, the executive is there, but not to stop it. She needs to get her own family out of BE’s reach, and she is willing to bargain with Murderbot to ensure their safety. So begins a trek across the station with multiple civilians in tow. It’s going to take all of Murderbot’s already-strained patience to get them back to their ship before BE catches them.

I love these books so much, y’all. They’re fun, quick reads with a spectacular balance of tension and humor. Murderbot’s working through some things in the wake of previous books’ events/traumas, and finding itself thrown into a much more complicated escort mission does not do anything to improve its mood.

Platform Decay came out back in May, and I’ve just been swamped with other things and had this review in drafts for *looks* YIKES. Two months. So. Sorry about the delay there. Point is, it’s a great book. Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for an eARC copy in exchange for a fair review.

System Collapse: A Review

Murderbot is back! Again!

Last time we saw it, publishing-order-wise, was actually a larger step back in time. Fugitive Telemetry took place in between Exit Strategy (book 4) and Network Effect (book 5). Now Martha Wells is following up the plot events from Network Effect with System Collapse, with Murderbot still dealing with the alien contamination that nearly wiped out a corporate colony.

At the outset of System Collapse, Murderbot is definitively not having a good time. Something redacted happened to it, and it is not about to talk to anyone about it. Not its humans, not ART (Asshole Research Transport) or ART’s humans, and not Three, the new rogue SecUnit that’s following in its footsteps toward independence. The struggle against the contaminated humans and the malicious code that infected them has left a mark on Murderbot. To make things worse, that fight may not yet be over. A hidden colony on the same planet has been located, and there’s a possibility that the same alien contamination might have infected it. Murderbot’s humans have decided that they need to investigate, since attempts to contact the colony have gone unanswered.

A rival corporation, Barish-Estranza, already has designs on the planet, regardless of any contamination that may be in place, and finding a group of colonists that they could force into indentured servitude would be icing on the cake. It’s up to Murderbot to find the colonists (if they’re alive) and get them off-world before that can happen. Its performance levels are not anywhere near its standards, and it knows it, but redacted continues to get in the way of it doings its job properly, to the potential risk of its humans. Resources are limited (no armor, less than half of its usual complement of support drones, and no direct communication with ART’s full set of sensors) and its own growing paranoia may just get the better of our favorite rogue SecUnit.

Martha Wells is one of my all-time favorite science fiction writers, and the Murderbot Diaries remain one of the best modern series in the genre. System Collapse is a tight, intense narrative that reminds us just why we love to follow Murderbot’s internal monologue, and why we’ve done so for seven books now. It’s full of corporate criticism and mental health crises, and I absolutely loved it. It’s out in the world today, and I’m incredibly grateful to Tor.com and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for a fair review.

Fugitive Telemetry: A Review

Murderbot is back!

Martha Wells has crafted another spectacular novella in the Murderbot Diaries series. Taking place between the events of Exit Strategy and Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry is another solid adventure for everyone’s favorite misanthropic SecUnit.

While trying to settle in aboard Preservation Station as Dr. Mensah’s bodyguard, Murderbot is having a difficult time adjusting. It’s not that it isn’t relatively happy to be somewhere outside of the Corporation Rim. It’s that Station Security isn’t pleased with the idea of a rogue SecUnit wandering around. With the various agreements in place to allow Murderbot to keep its freedom, it has almost no access to the security systems that it would normally rely on to do its job. No hacking of the station SecSystem, only a handful of drones to be able to deploy…

All of these things aren’t a real problem, as Dr. Mensah is fairly safe from Corporate assassination attempts on Preservation Station. This far from their territory, real action against her is unlikely. However, everything gets turned upside down when a dead body is found on board. There’s been a murder on the station, and Station Security needs Murderbot’s help to solve the mystery of who killed our victim and why. No witnesses, no camera footage, no DNA evidence. With only limited resources at its disposal, Murderbot must find a killer who might be a true rival in covering their tracks.

I love the Murderbot Diaries, y’all. I’ve read every one of these books since I first heard about All Systems Red back in 2017 and I have never been disappointed. Fugitive Telemetry is available on April 27th. If you’re a sci-fi fan, or just love mysteries, check it out.

My utmost thanks to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for a fair review.