User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Not to be dramatic or anything, but...
I WOULD DIE A THOUSAND FIERY DEATHS FOR ART AND MURDERBOT.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:
Martha Wells’ Murderbot has been gathering enthusiastic fans (which would be certain to have Murderbot hiding behind its opaque armored faceplate), along with multiple Nebula, Hugo and other awards and nominations, as each of the first four novellas in the MURDERBOT DIARIES series has been published over the last three years. In
Network Effect, the first full-length novel in this series, Wells is able to explore a more complex plot and to more fully develop Murderbot’s character and its relationships with others.
Murderbot is now with Dr. Mensah and the other Preservation Station characters who Murderbot was protecting in the first book, All Systems Red, and the fourth, Exit Strategy. Preservation is an unusually liberal society in this universe, where single-minded, coldhearted corporate profit-making is the norm, and Mensah and her family and friends treat Murderbot, who they call “SecUnit,”as a person rather than as a possession. Mensah’s brother-in-law Thiago, however, is suspicious of Murderbot’s influence over Mensah, and Mensah’s adolescent daughter Amana considers Murderbot an annoyance, especially after it scared off someone she thought was a romantic interest (“Yes, it was hilarious”).
As
Network Effect begins, Murderbot is accompanying Thiago, Amana and several others on a survey expedition of another planet. After surviving an encounter with pirates — where Murderbot gets a chance to flex its muscles and show its expertise as a security consultant — the group lifts off the planet to rejoin their base ship in space. Just after the base ship exits a wormhole on its return to Preservation Station, there’s another attack on their group. This one succeeds in capturing Murderbot and Amena in their spacesuits and pulling them onboard the raider ship. Murderbot is completely bewildered to discover that the ship that attacked them is its old friend ART (an acronym for “Asshole Research Transport”) from Artificial Condition. But ART, the powerful artificial intelligence that controls the ship Perihelion, is nowhere to be found once they’re onboard the ship. Instead there are gray-skinned hostile humans that immediately try to kill Murderbot. Now it’s on!
The bot and AI characters — Murderbot, ART, and a couple of new ones — are absolutely fantastic. Murderbot’s and ART’s friendship (though Murderbot would be really reluctant to call it a friendship) gets a lot more complicated and real, especially after Murderbot thinks ART has betrayed it. One of the subplots features sentient killware, a lethal kind of spyware/malware, which was one of the best parts of this book, fascinating and unexpectedly poignant. Murderbot takes some substantial steps forward in its self-understanding and in deciding what it wants to do with its life. The right of self-determination for all sentient intelligences is an ongoing theme in
Network Effect.
In addition to Murderbot’s favorite human Dr. Mensah, a couple of other human characters start to stand out, including Mensah’s daughter Amena, who has a way of cutting through Murderbot’s protective shell. Wells has a degree in anthropology, which explains a lot about how well she writes the relationships and interactions between people and bots in this series. The title “Network Effect” has at least two different meanings: it’s a key aspect of the enemy Murderbot and its friends and allies face in this novel, but it also references the growing and changing ties between Murderbot and its human and non-human friends. Murderbot still hates the F-word — that would be “feelings” — and it likes to snark about humans’ stupid decisions, but it’s now willing to admit that it cares about people and actually enjoys helping and protecting them.
A little of the tension went out of her body. “Thank you.” Her face looked younger. She looked like she had been pretending to have hope and now she didn’t have to pretend anymore.
(Confession time: that moment, when the humans or augmented humans realize you’re really here to help them. I don’t hate that moment.)
Network Effect isn’t perfect: the pace lags in parts and the plot gets overly convoluted and confusing in the second half. One significant aspect of the key danger that the characters face doesn’t make sense to me logically. (view spoiler)
[It’s an alien malicious code that needs to be passed from machine to humans to machines as it infects and takes over and controls you. No good reason is given for this odd quirk. (hide spoiler)]But the good parts of
Network Effect are just SO good that they completely outweigh any plot weaknesses. One more example: There’s a bit with some “HelpMe.file” excerpts that Wells uses to good effect to relate some of the backstory. They’re initially a bit of a headscratcher, if only because of their odd headers, but when the payoff comes much later in the book, it's a brilliant plot turn.
Murderbot — both the character and the series — has grown on me immensely with each book in the series. Murderbot may be a cyborg, but it’s one of the most human and appealing characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.
Update 5/1/20: Rereading as of yesterday. I started looking at my ARC yesterday evening so I could write my full review, then I said to myself “I’ll just reread the first 50 pages or so,” and now I’m on page 200. DON’T JUDGE ME.
Comments after first read: 4.5 stars - it was great! The only thing better than a Murderbot novella is a full Murderbot novel ... with ART (the Asshole Research Transport) in it. Review to come! Cheers!! I'm sorry most of my Murderbot-loving GR friends have to wait until May 2020 to get this, but I promise it's worth the wait.
Initial post: A copy of the ARC of this book landed on my doorstep today!! I literally gasped in delight. What a fantastic surprise! Thank you Tor!!
THERE CAN NEVER BE ENOUGH MURDERBOT IN MY LIFE!
Rating: really liked it
I'm doing the BookTube thing now! Find me at: The Obsessive Bookseller
[4.5/5 stars!] There are few things in life that make me happier than spending time with Murderbot.
… which is ironic, considering it would rather do literally anything than be social. The Novellas alone were enough to solidify the series as an all-time favorite, so discovering this full-length novel was in the works immediate jumped it to the top of my priority list for 2020. Network Effect was every bit as sardonic, action-packed, and endearing as the novellas, but took it one step further by adding even more depth to the characters.
The unique writing style is the best thing about these books (aside from character construction). It doesn’t follow typical storytelling constructs and often comes across as more conversational than anything else. There’s a great deal of punctuation used to convey Murderbot’s sardonic tone, and no shortage of profanity for comedic impact. I’ve never read anything that comes this close to how I communicate in my daily life, so even the bones of how the story was presented sang to my soul. There were a few occasions where the sarcastic voice was a bit heavy-handed, but this is one of the few cases I would rather a little too much than not enough.
And then we have Murderbot. The best character in sci-fi, hands-down.
I think it’s my spirit animal. It’s awkward and introverted and just wants to be left alone to watch its tv serials and I can relate to every single solitary time it couldn’t bring itself to “people” anymore. But the brilliance in this novel is that, social obligational constructs aside, it still craves connection. And that’s where the story becomes much more than a action-packed sci-fi. It’s about a rogue SecUnit trying to carve out a place for itself in the universe. Did Murderbot make me cry? Maybe. I don’t know. Fuck off.
Recommendations: The Murderbot Diaries is in close running with The Expanse and Planetside as my favorite sci-fi on the market. It’s exciting, it’s funny as shit, and it has that magic X-factor that gets people emotionally invested. Start with All Systems Red, and I bet you’ll know within the first few pages if it’s something you’ll enjoy. I was hooked from the first sentence, and it has only gotten better from there. Consider this an official Obsessive Bookseller endorsement – this series is fantastic!
Via The Obsessive Bookseller at www.NikiHawkes.com
Other books you might like:
Rating: really liked it
Hugo Award *and* Nebula Award winner for Best Novel *and* Locus Magazine Award winner for Best Science Fiction Novel.
Yup, Murderbot is the absolute best SecUnit out there. Am I ecstatic? Take one guess.
—————
“(You know, if you don’t want to be manually eviscerated with your own energy weapon then maybe you shouldn’t go around killing research transports and antagonizing rogue SecUnits.)”
I finally figured out that one of the reasons I love Murderbot so much is that it’s my soul-sibling. MB’s preemptive pessimism and expectation of the worst case scenario every time it is faced with a new problem is exactly my modus operandi, although I’m rather good at concealing it.
“I was worried about Mensah, if everything had been okay while I was gone. I wasn’t sure exactly what “okay” would involve, but I was willing to settle for “unmurdered.”
“It was too dark for her to see my expression. I’m not sure what it was but you could probably describe it as “skeptical.” (Ratthi says that’s how I look most of the time.)”
This is the first full-length Murderbot novel, following four amazing novellas that I only discovered a couple of weeks ago, but already cannot remember what life was like without Murderbot in it. (I kid, I kid - well, mostly.) In typical Murderbot fashion we have
all the snarky sarcastic grumpiness of our prickly media-obsessed nonhuman person who is secretly a softie, but if you mention the f-word ((view spoiler)
[feelings (hide spoiler)]) to it you have only yourself to blame for what’s going to follow. We have space exploration and space raiders and alien abductors and sentient killware and contamination by alien remnants, and space flight and explosions and other stuff that tends to result in the catastrophic systems failure and forced systems shutdown more often than not.
But what we have at the heart of this story is, of course, the issue of personhood and interpersonal relationships.
And friendship - that other dreaded f-word. “In a low voice, Ratthi commented to Overse, “Anyone who thinks machine intelligences don’t have emotions needs to be in this very uncomfortable room right now.”
You see, after a pretty traumatic life of being treated as nothing more than
“an appliance for a team”, a dangerous weapon that can be discarded and abandoned if its human clients need to save their own hides, and being very much an introvert to begin with, Murderbot is not too comfortable with feelings and affection and emotions. Not that it does not have emotions - those are present in abundance - but MB is very uncomfortable expressing them. M-Bot is a very private person and prefers it that way.
“Ratthi had said, “I think you should let it go for a while, at least until we get ourselves out of this situation. SecUnit is a very private person, it doesn’t like to discuss its feelings.”
This is why Ratthi is my friend.”
MB has its favorite human Dr. Mensah, and our old friends from the Preservation Aux survey team from the first novella (
“Just clients. And if anyone or anything tried to hurt them, I would rip its intestines out.”) but it is more than reluctant to admit how much others can mean to it. Especially when a certain “ART” is concerned, an immense artificial intelligence located in the interplanetary spaceship that Murderbot befriended back in the second novella, and gave it, ahem, an interesting nickname (
“Except that I’m being held prisoner by a giant asshole of a research transport.”).
“(If I got angry at myself for being angry I would be angry constantly and I wouldn’t have time to think about anything else.) (Wait, I think I am angry constantly. That might explain a lot.)”
Murderbot goes through a
complicated and confusing mix of emotional breakdown and a temper tantrum (although that last one was mostly justified given all those feelings of betrayal), and tries to come to term with the blatantly obvious fact that its relationship with ART is that of a deeply committed friendship. Yeah, I know.
“It still sounded disgusting. “Do you have to call it a relationship?”
Ratthi shrugged one shoulder. “You don’t like the word ‘friendship.’ What else is there?”
I had no idea. I did a quick search on my archives and pulled out the first result. “Mutual administrative assistance?”
Yes, emotional vulnerability is difficult for our SecUnit. Can’t fault it for that - MB’s life until a few kilohours ago used to be basically a neverending case of PTSD.
“I yelled, “ART, stop talking to my human behind my back!”
You know that thing humans do where they think they’re being completely logical and they absolutely are not being logical at all, and on some level they know that, but can’t stop? Apparently it can happen to SecUnits, too.”
—————
The other continuing thread is
the right of a sentient intelligent being to self-determination and personhood, the overarching theme of the entire series.
Murderbot’s world is the corporatized universe of the future, where planets with their inhabitants are property and indentured servitude to companies is a way of life, and Corporation Rim is a very powerful supragalactic entity
“(Corporations didn’t actually invent space and planets, despite the patents the company had tried to file.)” Unlike the more egalitarian and utopian outliers of the Preservation Alliance, Corporation Rim will always view our MB as not a person but property, tool, weapon, appliance, dangerous but disposable. And the more we get to know MB the more and more jarring this feels; instead of desensitization
the incongruence between what it IS and what the corporate world considers it to be becomes more and more painful. As it should be.
“I was getting tired of being told what to do. Self-determination was a pain in the ass sometimes but it beat the alternative by a lot.”
In the middle of snark and lightheartedness and overall hijinks the serious reminders of SecUnits slavery and subjugation (
“SecUnits are not rabid murderers unless humans specifically order them to be”) and any of the transgressions (even involuntary) punishable by torture and death are sobering. And anger-provoking. And poignant.
“I love it when humans forget that SecUnits are not just guarding and killing things voluntarily, because we think it’s fun.”
And no person needs to take that kind of treatment from anyone.
(view spoiler)[ “I want you to know if you help me, I’ll help you, and that you can trust me. Now here’s the code to disable your governor module.”
———————
“Just because we’re both rogue SecUnits doesn’t mean we’re going to be friends, but I knew if it went back, it would be dead. I’d hacked my governor module and kept doing my job because I didn’t know what else to do (except you know, a murderous rampage, but murderous rampages are overrated and interfere with one’s ability to keep watching media) but that was different from escaping and then going back.
I said, “Because change is terrifying. Choices are terrifying. But having a thing in your head that kills you if you make a mistake is more terrifying.” (hide spoiler)]
The ending of
Network Effect left me so happy and hopeful. Because I love seeing our MB grow and develop and find what it wants and go for it. The universe owes it that at the very least.
“(Confession time: that moment, when the humans or augmented humans realize you’re really here to help them. I don’t hate that moment.)”
———————
5 stars.
Now excuse me as I start my re-read already.
And now the impatient wait begins for the further adventures of Peri’s SecUnit and Asshole Research Transport.
—————
EDITED TO ADD: I caved in and switched the pronoun to Murderbot’s preferred “it” instead of “he”, based on the word of
God Martha Wells . Feels jarring but I’ll try.
—————————————
My review of the first novella, “All Systems Red” is here.
My review of the second novella, “Artificial Condition” is here.
My review of the third one, “Rogue Protocol”, is here.
My review of the fourth one, “Exit Strategy”, is here.
My review of the sixth one, “Fugitive Telemetry”, is here.
———————
Ratthi sighed, leaned against the wall and said, “So, you have a relationship with this transport.”
I was horrified. Humans are disgusting. “No!”
Ratthi made a little exasperated noise. “I didn’t mean a sexual relationship.”
Amena’s brow furrowed in confusion and curiosity. “Is that possible?”
“No!” I told her.
Ratthi persisted, “You have a friendship.”
I settled back in the corner and hugged my jacket. “No. Not—No.”
“Not anymore?” Ratthi asked pointedly.
“No,” I said very firmly.
———————
My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2021: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Rating: really liked it
Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries #5)
by Martha Wells, Kevin R. Free (Narrator)
2021 Hugo Award best novel: Network Effect
2021 Hugo Award for best series: The Murderbot DiariesMurderbot is not kidding when it says that 90% plus of its problems are in its head. Life is getting more complicated for MB. Those around him keep mentioning feelings and using the "friend" word. Ick! It's bad enough that MB had to convince (okay, bribe) its former owner to go into extensive in-patient therapy, MB knows deep down that it needs help, too. MB has been having emotional crises. What the heck!?!
Still, thank goodness there is no time for MB to think about such issues. In this full length addition to the Murderbot Diaries series, MB is very, very busy. MB is on a mission with its not-friend humans when it's contacted by its not-friend ship bot acquaintance. The ship bot needs help but it's not acting very friendly in the asking for help. In fact, it looks like an attack rather than a request. But then so much of what happens in this story is not what it seems.
MB would like to just lock itself in a room and never come out. It'd like to watch its entire collection of media in peace. It never wants to talk about feelings or acknowledge that some think of it as a friend. And now its ship bot not-friend and its human not-friends are meeting and just maybe ganging up on it when MB is extremely mad at non-friend ship bot. Did you know that MB has anger issues?
And then there are all the attempts to kill those it's trying to protect. That makes it mad and you do not want to make MB mad!
There is a lot of action, a lot of cussing (I'm looking at you, MB), and loads of funny internal MB dialogue which is my favorite part about these stories. Although, MB's external dialogue is funny, too. MB is snarky internally and externally and I'm glad I get to hear it all.
Pub May 5, 2020 by Recorded Books
Rating: really liked it
UPDATE: $2.99 Kindle US Today 12/28/204.5 stars! I love Murderbot!!
I was stoked when there was going to be a full length novel of our favorite MB! I’m hoping there are many more books to come. There are more of the characters we love in the book as well and the usual mess that ensues!
I’m going to leave it with a few lines from the book!
(Humans have a bad tendency to use weapons unnecessarily and indiscriminately. Of the many times I had been shot, a depressingly large percentage of hits had come from clients who were trying to "help" me.)(Another significant percentage came from clients who had just wanted to shoot something when I happened to be standing there.)
We made it outside to the pedestrian plaza and I asked her, "Do you need a medic?" I thought she might be sick. If I was human and I’d had to be in a pavilion with all those other humans for the past two hours, I’d be sick.
I said, "If I thought he was going to hurt you, I’d be disposing if his body. I don’t fuck around, either."
Hey, is that you?
It was loud, right in my ear, and I almost screamed. It was a feed contact but so close it was like it was already inside my head.
Who are you?
It said, I’m Murderbot 2.0.
If this is going to be like one of those shows with the character trapped in a strange place and then ghosts and aliens come and mess with their mind, I just can’t do that right now. But I couldn’t ignore it. I mean, I guess I couldn’t. Ignoring stuff is always an option, up until it kills you.
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
Rating: really liked it
First of all, it's Murderbot. So 'four stars' here is about a million for a normal read. But I struggled with Network Effect. Yes, pandemic, yada, yada. The fact is, while I was waiting for this to come out, I was able to read the quartet of novellas back-to-back, and appreciate the sense of growth in 'Bot's character. Starting from a largely indifferent security AI ("as you may have noticed, I didn't care") to a being that risked security and function to save the human who consistently recognized it as its own entity.
Yet despite that tremendous growth, Network Effect opens with a 'Bot who is behaving more than a little like an adolescent teen. Fair enough, I suppose, as like a young adult, 'Bot is emotionally conscripted into a job it doesn't really want to do, working with at least a couple of people it doesn't really like, for a person it does like but feels conflicted about (talk about first jobs in a nutshell). But it just seemed like too much a couple of times; like Wells had heard back from fans and the agent and the publisher about all the things that people loved about Murderbot, and so she took the sarcasm and the emotional unavailability and the situational resolution and turned the dial up to 'eleven' for the first chapter. In fact, I feel like she turned back the clock on 'Bot's development just to see how far the dial would turn. Frankly, it disappointed me so badly that I put it aside until I could let my expectations go.
So there we are, expectation-free, and reading again. I still got wriggles on a few of the same lines, but generally was able to relax and just enjoy all of them. When I read:
"I said 'Let him go.' I didn't really feel like negotiating. I have a module on it, somewhere in my archive. It was never much help" and chuckled, I knew I was in a good spot.
The narrative is almost entirely from 'Bot's viewpoint, and once we pass through the adolescent scenes into the situational investigation and resolution, 'Bot's voice is far more tolerable. When Wells does add in another voice, I'll confess I was triply impressed (view spoiler)
[ by both 'Bot 2.0 and by the newly freed Bot. All three managed a separate voice to my read. (hide spoiler)]Wells did a couple of surprising things with Network, and the most surprising of all is that I somehow remained unaware of them despite reading many reviews. So while we all might know that ART will show up, there's many twists and turns up Wells' sleeve, and the solutions that the players arrive at are occasionally surprising as well. I will say that it felt very fast-and-furious, with hardly time to breathe in the last half of the book. I look forward to re-reading at my leisure and paying more attention to the craft of the book, because I think Wells is a fantastic author.
Rating: really liked it
murderbot for president of everything.
i read my first murderbot this year, way back in april, and now—six books and two short stories later, i cannot remember what life was like before murderbot stomped into my readerheart. it sounds stupid, but i feel positively
enriched by these books and i don't know what i will do if she ever decides to stop writing this series.
this is the longest and most satisfying murderbot book, and i'm already looking forward to rereading it. because here's the thing—as much as i love murderbot—how they think, how they fight AND THE FRIENDS THEY MAKE ALONG THE WAY, i get lost sometimes in the sci-fi of it all. and it's no fault of the author—her writing is excellent, she does all the world-building work, and the SF elements are not even that complicated; it is hundo-percent me and my inability to really visualize things i've never seen, and once you throw any kind of technology in there, i'm a goner.
there are a million ships and transports (but only one that matters ♥), and fuck me if i know the difference between pathfinders and shuttles and explorers, or even what their relative dimensions would be. and then there's the various weapons and drones, implants and alien remnants, malware and feeds and wormholes and i'm over here still struggling with how gravity works. additionally, there are several crews' worth of humans (returning and brand-new characters), altered memories and complicated timelines and political pissing contests and all sorts of technical shit that makes my mind's eye recoil with incomprehension.
even more than in previous murderbots, i had a hard time keeping everything straight, and i had to reread passages frequently, which is not something that happens to me with any other kind of book. for example, i am right now reading Moon Witch, Spider King, which has like 4 whole pages of characters listed before the book starts, and although i'm not very far in, if it's anything like the first book in the trilogy, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, which was convoluted and character-heavy AF, i know i'm gonna be fine.
it's just outer space that gives me trouble. well, and lovecraft, because he doesn't even
try to describe things, he just throws up his hands and bleats "ineffable" and we're supposed to be satisfied with that.
like i said, it's probably just me and my dumb brain, but just opening to a random page:
I've considered constructing a killware assault, but the data I managed to retain from targetControlSystem suggests it would be ineffective...Both Ratthi and Overse have theorized that some elements of the Target's Pre-Corporation Rim technology—for example, the implants—may be acting as receivers for esoteric alien remnant tech, like the object that affected my drive. A standard killware assault on the Pre-CR systems would not be able to take into account the alien system, not unless it was variable and could alter its behavior based on the protections and obstructions is encounters. I can't code that with the resources I have available.
It was talking about something similar to the self-aware virus that GrayCris and Palisade Security had deployed against the company gunship, where I'd crashed myself and nearly wrecked my memory archive helping the bot pilot fight it off.
that all sounds like BEEP BOOP BOOP rattling around in my brain and it takes me awhile to sift through paragraphs like that to make any sense of it.
[savvy readers will note that ellipsis—i have omitted six words because i'm choosing to keep mum on something that other reviewers have shared freely (and it's not a spoiler at all so don't be one of those spoiler-scolders everyone hates), but i'm choosing silence because when murderbot's penny dropped (triggering my own one-cent tumble*), my jaw dropped. it DROPPED.
and i want other readers to have that experience.
two words: peri 4-eva.]
so, yeah, i'm too dumb for a lot of this world's details.
but, oh, the rest of it. murderbot's growth as an independent person, their cranky observations about human behavior (and biology), their stunned reaction to any kindness, their discomfort with their feels, their knack for getting out of tricky situations, and the reluctant burden of acquiring allies and even (saying it quickly to lessen m-bot's squeamishness) lovedones.
it's funny and touching and FULL of sulking. murderbot-as-mentor is glorious, and the ending opens up so many possibilities for future adventures that i cannot wait to read.
as long as mensah and murderbot keep in touch.
She smiled a little. "The good thing is, you do know what you want."
I sort of did know. It was a weird feeling. "That's new."
She smiled all the way. "I wasn't going to put it quite that way, but yes."
i'm not sure if the unwritten-but-commissioned murderbot books are going to be novellas or full-length novels like this one, but either way, i am OVER THE MOON excited to go wherever martha wells sends murderbot next.
*you know who gives one-cent tumbles? GM!
****************************************
2021 = YEAR OF MURDERBOT.
i will be sad once i finish this and realize i will have to WAIT for more murderbots to be published, instead of just grabbing one from my shelves whenever i feel the need for a MURDERBOT FIX.
review to come but YESSSSSSSSSSS
come to my blog!
Rating: really liked it
Post-release thoughts aka Review: I loved this book so much, and that of course means I am at a loss to describe it. I also read it almost three months ago, and am only now attempting to write this review. This means BULLET POINTS.
But first, I do want to say that I was very pleased with the first outing of Murderbot in novel form, as opposed to novella. I enjoyed spending a longer page count with Murderbot, whose character arc continues to develop in a pleasing fashion. I will be sad and displeased if Wells goes back to novellas. (I am typing all of this full well knowing that the next Murderbot book is going to take place before this one, and it is going to be a novella. I guess I am in “denial”.)
•Murderbot once again has to save the pesky humans, this time after they are all abducted.
•ART is back! And oh my god it’s even better than before. (view spoiler)
[Murderbot and ART have the closest thing to a romance arc an asexual android and fully bodiless A.I. can have, complete with unexpected baby. If you would have told me that Murderbot #5 was a closet romance novel, I would not have believed you, but I can tell you I am delighted about it (hide spoiler)]. And it makes it all the more delightful for me that all of this plays out with Murderbot’s characteristic repressed but very strong emotions in play.
•I liked the way that there was such an emphasis on Murderbot not being a human, and not wanting to be a human, just being a person is hard enough, thank you.
•I don’t remember very much about the plot, sorry, entirely here for the emotions or denial thereof.
•Mensa is so motherly in this I can’t even.
•When the second SecUnit gets roped in to Murderbot’s hacked governor-module club, I nearly lost it with glee, I was so happy.
•I don’t remember enough to make more bullet points.
I really just want to re-read, but that would mean re-reading all the novellas, too, and I only own the first one in e-book, and not the others. I’m waiting so patiently for an eventual bind-up to be published. I tried the audiobooks (they’re all on SCRIBD) but I hated Kevin R. Free’s narration. He’s just not Murderbot for me and I didn’t make it past the first two sentences, though I have enjoyed a couple other books he’s narrated. Basically: WOE.
Pre-release thoughts: MURDERBOT NOVEL. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Rating: really liked it
Marvellous. Incredibly readable and deeply humane depiction of a friendship, which is funny because the protagonists are a misanthropic and deeply traumatised killer cyborg that just wants to watch soap operas, and the utterly amoral AI of a large spaceship. Murderbot is a fantastic creation, and the emotional arc is deeply engaging as it reluctantly develops feelings, and friendships, and responsibilities. The external plot is a bit out of focus at points, but the joy of this is all in the characterisation and narrative style. Plus the fights are excellent and there's some really good creepy stuff. Spectacularly readable.
Rating: really liked it
Everything I was hoping for! To be honest this full length book was no different from the previous novellas except in its number of pages. Murderbot was still its cranky, sarcastic, amazing self. The story went from one action sequence to the next. And that special little bit of magic that Wells weaves into her writing to keep the reader captivated was still there.
Loved the return of ART who is cranky, sarcastic and amazing, just like Murderbot! I enjoyed the way the author brought the Preservation team into the action and also how she has set events up for the next (full length we hope) novel.
I strongly recommend that this is not read as a stand alone. It needs the build up of the earlier books, especially the previous encounter with ART, to fully appreciate all that goes on. Easily five stars for me:)
Rating: really liked it
Check out my YouTube channel where I show my instant reactions to reading fantasy books as soon as I finish the book. The first Murderbot Diaries full length novel sparks new life into a series that was starting to get too predictable.Murderbot is back, and this time in an actual novel compared to the previous four books where were novellas. This expanding of the story length strengthened the story in every conceivable way, and fixed many of the problems that plagued the last few entries in this series.
My main issues with the previous books were that the formula was getting stale, and I feared that the short book didn't give enough room for real story development. The author found something that worked, and stuck with it - but after several books of doing a very similar thing didn't feel fresh.
This book having more than double the length of the previous books solved these problems by allowed actual character growth for all of the characters involved, the reintroduction of a much beloved robot, and a plot that was significantly different from the previous entries. I found myself both giggling, and eagerly turning the pages to find out how they were going to solve the mystery - in a way that hasn't happened yet in the previous 4 books. It doesn't surprise me at all to find out that this book is the highest rated of the bunch.
While I still am eager to read #6 in this series, I do find myself a bit disappointed that it is back to the novella format.
Great work Martha Wells - and please get back to writing full length Murderbot books. They rock!
Rating: really liked it
*** 4.75***
"... “I was having an emotion, and I hate that.”
― Martha Wells, Exit Strategy "It is obvious I love this series - I engulfed the whole thing in two days. What I would like people to know about the Murderbot Diaries is that yes, it is a Sci-fi series with a cyborg for the main character, but it should not be read by Science Fiction fans only. If you are at all interested in the way humans relate to each other and how those with either body dysmorphia or Asperger's aspects might view their role in human society, this is the series for you! It is about friendship even when those we love might not understand what friendship is. Families like mine, who have someone dealing with certain spectrum of autism in members of our family or social circles, would gain a lot of perspective as well as recognize a lot of the behaviors in Murderbot and some of his friends.
"...“(“I don’t want to be human.” Dr. Mensah said, “That’s not an attitude a lot of humans are going to understand. We tend to think that because a bot or a construct looks human, its ultimate goal would be to become human.” “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”)”
― Martha Wells, Exit Strategy " I have no words to express how much joy this book brought me and I would really like to share it with as many people as I could possibly reach! The writing is simple, but very appropriate for the subject, and the plot in the first four novellas as well as in this fifth volume, but first full size novel, is meticulous and deliberate, but the interpersonal relationships between the characters is what makes this story shine. The constant running internal monologue Murderbot shares with the reader is awkward, uncertain, insecure, and so very human, that I laughed and cried in equal measures. And even though he is one of the grumpiest, more easily annoyed and impossibly stubborn creatures you could meet, he will steal your heart and bring optimism and light to your soul!
"...“(Possibly I was overthinking this. I do that; it’s the anxiety that comes with being a part-organic murderbot. The upside was paranoid attention to detail. The downside was also paranoid attention to detail.)”
― Martha Wells, Exit Strategy " Highly recommend this series for everyone, and you should definitely read the series in order - not good for a stand alone.
"...“It was very dramatic, like something out of a historical adventure serial. Also correct in every aspect except for all the facts, like something out of a historical adventure serial.”
― Martha Wells, Exit Strategy " Now I wish you all happy reading and may you always find what you need in the pages of a good Book 😉💜👍
Rating: really liked it
Second read (Jan 2021)
I retain my rating. The story got overly long and bored the heck out of me after halfway and only picked up in the last few chapters. I don't need to be told each step SecUnit took, architectural features it observed, or technical details it was pondering about. At first I thought it's because the audio, but even reading the ebook version I still had the same experience. Glad the next one would be in novella length again.
First read (May 2020)
Revising my previous rating to 3.5 stars and rounded it down. Yeah, I'm a bit disappointed. The book would easily be a four star or even a five if it's a novella and could shed the many, many padding in it.
I was very excited during the first 35% of the novel which was awesome and endearing at the same time, with the coolest action scene in the book. Afterward however I slogged through it until the 80% mark. I listened to the audio and remember having to rewind chapters because almost none of the narration stuck. When I finished listening to one chapter for the second time, oftentimes I thought 'well apparently I did not miss much after all!'.
I believe the simple plot does not justify the page length. There were many telling and not showing. I mean, everyone loves Murderbot including me, with their glorious snarky, series-binging self. But I need more story, more exciting worldbuilding. There were some additional, uh, characters, whose appearances have not assured me worth more than a plot device.
To finish my rant, for me this novel just have too many fan service in regards to the Bot's relationship with a particular AI, it felt like reading a romcom which cute/funny parts were milked and milked it became grating. I understand the need for the Bot's character development but I don't enjoy reading them acting like a emotionally pent-up lover. It should have stopped at the vitriolic best buds type. I don't want to spoil but if you pay attention to the cover, you'll know who it is.
I know, I know, I'm totally in the minority here. I still love the Bot, mind you, and will continue reading the sequel, which I think will have far fewer pages ;)
Rating: really liked it
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"..was glad I could pretend to be too overwhelmed by being reassembled to respond, because I kind of was overwhelmed.
