Murderbot feels like a wet blanket crumpled on the floor

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)
by Martha Wells

So, I re-read the whole series, took a breather and then re-read System Collapse. I read Fugitive Telemetry and Network Effect in chronological order this time.

It took me quite a bit longer to read System Collapse the 2nd time around, probably because it was too soon and still to fresh in my memory. It was just not that nail-bitingly exciting so close to the first read. Ok, yes, the last part was still very good. Great action, would love to see all that on the big screen.

Murderbot is getting more clingy and emotional about its humans and dealing with PTSD is a bitch for it. Looking forward to its continued travels with all of them, its self-discovery and where ART will take it next.

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First read of the ARC in October 2023:

I was very confused in the beginning, because it has been over three years since I read Network Effect. And you really need to remember the ending of that one for this one here to make sense right away. There is no recap. 
So, if you are fuzzy on the details, re-read Network Effect!

“Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something.“

The action starts right away. As mentioned, I was pretty confused about the where and why, due to a complete lack of a recap. Once I got back into the swing of things, it was a lot of fun. 

ART is back! Murderbot works on some psychological stuff I cant tell you about because, redacted… It has to protect a lot of humans (so many of them, it needs group names to tell them apart!) and has to deal with a lot of shit happening. The usual. It‘s not getting old yet, but I am hoping that Wells will step up her game in the next two entries to the series.

Definitely for fans, not a stand-alone. I‘m actually going to reread All Systems Red now, just because. Time and stuff.

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The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order:
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. My updated review.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. My updated review.
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story, 19 pages. My review.
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is set before Network Effect. It is described as a standalone. Murderbot has to deal with a dead body. Detective Murderbot!
– Network Effect, #6, novel — upgraded from 2.5 to 4 🤖s…
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.

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I received an advanced copy of this book from Tor through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Implacably searching for vengeance.

Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
by Martha Wells

Re-read. I did not like this novel particularly much when I read it in 2020. I thought it was too slow and drawn out. I read quite a different book this time around. I guess I was more willing to just go with the flow and enjoy Murderbot‘s snark and exploration of the weird humans. I was relaxed and just enjoyed, without having the need to rush to the end. 

Maybe something else helping with the enjoyment: I re-read the whole series in chronological order, not in publishing order. Just just for the fun of it I might re-read System Collapse as well next month with my favourite Goodreads group.

So, what goes on in this one? I liked the beginning on Preservation. It‘s all very domestic, with Murderbot accompanying Dr. Mensah planetside to a festival that felt like a mix of Woodstock and Holi. Murderbot gets to see a lot of plays. It also gets to meet the family. Ok, and then (spoiler!) (No, really, it’s a little spoiler!) we get that Bond-like intro with the boat and the pirates and that mass-kidnapping and… the fun commences.

As mentioned, I liked this a lot better than the first time around. It‘s kinda slow and then it isn‘t. It‘s emotionally taxing for Murderbot. There are weird aliens and scary stuff. Everybody keeps getting into trouble and then ends up rescuing each other. It‘s good and I am genuinely happy that I re-read this. 

4/5 🤖🤖🤖🤖

P.S.: I will leave my previous review from 2020, although I don‘t agree with my old review anymore. But obviously I changed my opinion of this book quite A LOT. And read Fugitive Telemetry before this and System Collapse right afterwards!

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The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order:
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. My updated review.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. My updated review.
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story, 19 pages. My review.
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is a prequel to book 5, Network Effect. It is described as a standalone. Murderbot has to deal with a dead body. Detective Murderbot!
– Network Effect, #6, novel — upgraded from 2.5 to 4 🤖s…
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.

Sometimes you have to look into every possibility, even the dumb ones.

Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries, #6)
by Martha Wells

Re-read. Murderbot finally is on Preservation Station. Things are awkward, even more so when it discovers a dead, murdered human. 

“No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.“

Station Security is not impressed, but they reluctantly agree to work with Murderbot, when they realize that it knows what its doing. 

“I had archives of everything that had happened since I hacked my governor module, but I hadn’t had as much relevant experience in that time. But what I did have were thousands of hours of category mystery media, so I had a lot of theoretical knowledge that was possibly anywhere from 60 to 70 percent inaccurate shit.”

Well, Station Security didn‘t know that…

I had forgotten who had done it, although it‘s only been two years since I have read this. Fun! I practically breezed through this one. Still all the bots… 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖 

PS: Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is set before Network Effect (published as #5). It is described as a standalone.

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Comments for my first read in 2021:

Muderbot is back in novella length. Snark and sarcasm abound. I felt a bit meh about the full-length novel, so I am very happy that my favourite ‘bot has returned to form. There wasn‘t anything particularly new, just another crazy day, tracking down a murderer and making sure one’s humans don‘t come to harm. All the stars.

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The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. My updated review.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. My updated review.
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story, 19 pages. My review.
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Murderbot has to deal with a dead body. Detective Murderbot!
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.

You’re a thing, and there is no safety.

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (The Murderbot Diaries, #4.5)
by Martha Wells

Next up in my re-read of the entire series. Takes place directly after Exit Strategy, 19 pages, set on Preservation station and told by Dr. Mensah. She is trying to deal with her trauma and emotions after the events of Exit Strategy. Or rather, she is trying not to deal with them. Murderbot is lightening the mood and helping in its own unique way. 

For fans of the series. Won‘t make much sense without having read it.

Comments from my first read in 2020  |  Can be read for free here

The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. My updated review.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. My updated review.
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story, 19 pages. 
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Next. Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is a prequel to book 5, Network Effect. It is described as a standalone. Murderbot has to deal with a dead body. Detective Murderbot!
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.

Circling the clusterfuck target zone, getting ready to come in for a landing.

Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)
by Martha Wells

Re-read. Dr. Mensah is in trouble. Murderbot to the rescue. I struggled a little to picture some of the settings in the station. It might have been me, reading this late at night, when I was pretty tired. Hard to stop though. We get to met all of Murderbot’s humans and there are great action scenes. I especially liked the escape sequence with Mensah and then the bot battle on the gunship. 

In my previous review I mention that the ending was too abrupt. This time around I think that the ending worked very well. Murderbot slowly coming back around was nicely done.

I will continue my re-read in chronological order, with Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory and Fugitive Telemetry next, before re-reading Network Effect.

This one stayed a little foggy for me, so I am docking one star bot. 
4/5 🤖🤖🤖🤖

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Review from 2018: 

WHEN I GOT BACK to HaveRatton Station, a bunch of humans tried to kill me. Considering how much I’d been thinking about killing a bunch of humans, it was only fair.

If I hadn‘t been so tired last night, I would have read this in one sitting. Very good. Not as fast paced as the last one, a little lighter on humour, but still full of the expected snark and eye-rolling. Nice ending to this story arc. It lacked a little of the suspense and tension of the previous novellas in my opinion, but it was still very good.

The ending took me by surprise, it seemed a little abrupt (well, I would have happily continued for another 50 pages). However, it is a fitting set-up for the full-length novel that seems to be in the works. I am looking forward to a full novel, expanding on Murderbot‘s relationship with its first family and friends from All Systems Red. That is what I am rooting for, anyway.

Have a look at this article over on Tor (Spoilers!), which I got from a goodreads friend.

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The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. My updated review.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. Just finished.
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story Next!
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is a prequel to book 5, Network Effect.
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas.

Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries, #3)
by Martha Wells

Murderbot survived, found out about its past and now… what? 

Murderbot decides to travel to a planet where GrayCris abandoned a terraforming project. Our rogue SecUnit suspects a hidden agenda and plans to collect incriminating data. On the trip it gets involved with an assessment team from a different corporation wanting to take over the abandoned planet.

Part of the assessment team is Miki, a human-shaped bot. Murderbot once again has to come to terms with how it was treated in the past, compared to Miki and its treatment by its human friends. 

“Or Miki was a bot who had never been abused or lied to or treated with anything but indulgent kindness. It really thought its humans were its friends, because that’s how they treated it. I signaled Miki I would be withdrawing for one minute. I needed to have an emotion in private.”

Once the team and their secret stalker (Murderbot) arrive on the station above the planet, things go downhill fast. There is violence, betrayals, combat bots and Murderbot has to get involved, because it started to care about the humans.

“I was getting an idea. It was probably a bad idea. (When most of your training in tactical thinking comes from adventure shows, that does tend to happen.)” 

Another fun entry to the series. With a very sad ending.

All the stars constructs! 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

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First read in August 2018:

I tried hard to keep this free of spoilers, but I might have failed a little.

“There needs to be an error code that means ‘I received your request but decided to ignore you.‘“

Sassy bot is back! This newest novella is full of increasing levels of snark, sarcasm and mental eye rolls by one of the most engaging AIs I have met so far.

“Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas.“

Murderbot is still struggling with… emerging emotions? Becoming more human? Trying and failing to understand those pesky humans? And really getting fed up with pretending to be one. 

I really liked Murderbot‘s interactions with other bots, from remembering and missing ART to meeting transport bots that are either too demanding or too simple and unaware to present adequate sparring partners. 

I really liked the combat bots, too. Wells painted a great picture with her description of them. And how smart to put the main processing units where they are. Makes perfect sense.

“I hate caring about stuff. But apparently once you start, you can‘t just stop.“

As if hacking yourself and running away isn‘t bad enough, now there is also caring for pesky humans (again!) and their pets.

Miki was an interesting addition. Not as fun as ART, but a great exploration of where intelligence can take you and how treatment by others can shape your personality. Nature or nurture. And envy and anger. Murderbot is learning more every day.

Great addition to the series, can‘t wait for the next one and I am really looking forward to the full-length novel!

I received this free, uncorrected digital galley from Tor via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much!

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The Murderbot Diaries in chronological order / not publishing order
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella. My updated review.
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. 
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella. Next!
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella. Although this book was the sixth published in the series, it is a prequel to book 5, Network Effect.
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.

Pretending to be an ordinary augmented human, and not a terrifying murderbot.

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)
by Martha Wells

My first re-read since 2018. My new comments might be a bit spoilerish, because I am fangirling… If this is your first time reading the series, you might want to steer away from this review. 

So, Murderbot has survived a tricky situation, but in the process told its humans that it is a rogue SecUnit. That has ended better than expected and Murderbot is more or less in a safe place. It can‘t stay though, it has to find out why it did the horrible things in its past. It has to leave and find a transport to take it closer to that past it doesn‘t remember…

“How the hell was I supposed to know there were transports sentient enough to be mean? There were evil bots on the entertainment feed all the time, but that wasn’t real, it was just a scary story, a fantasy.“

ART is back… well, here for the first time! Yes!

“Maybe it was like me, and it had taken an opportunity because it was there, not because it knew what it wanted. It was still an asshole, though.“

Yes! I love you, ART (aka Asshole Research Transport)!

Murderbot is still struggling with its emotions and having to deal with those pesky humans…

“Interacting meant talking, and eye contact. I could already feel my performance capacity dropping. It will be simple, ART insisted. I’ll assist you. Yes, the giant transport bot is going to help the construct SecUnit pretend to be human. This will go well.“

Murderbot has to take a job to get access… well, for reasons… Things get interesting. Fun!

All the stars constructs! 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

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First review from May 2018:

A quick read. Which annoys me even more considering the ridiculously high price of the ebook. I even considered docking a star of the rating for that, but it wouldn‘t be fair to the story. 

It was good, but not as good as the first installment. I found it a bit thinner on plot and suspense, although I liked the way our murderbot keeps exploring its non-humanity. The addition of ART was fun. The bad guy was not very bad or scary. Regardless, I read it in two sittings and I am craving more. Good entertainment.

Excerpt at the author‘s blog here

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The Murderbot Diaries
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start the series with this one), #1, novella. My updated review.
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella. Started re-reading this.
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect. My review.
– Untitled #8 & #9, not published yet

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)
by Martha Wells

Murderbot is epic. After reading System Collapse (Murderbot #7), I had to circle back and finally re-read this, six years after reading it for the first time. Six years, wow.

I didn‘t remember that the plot was so dramatic! I had forgotten most of it. And I had also forgotten that so many of the characters showing up in later novellas were here already. I also didn‘t recall the quieter scenes. Maybe it needs a re-read to pick up those details.

Not trying to assign a gender to Murderbot anymore. I am probably also sadder about its horrible circumstances and the choices it has to make to protect its humans. 

5/5 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

Moving along to Artificial Condition. This is great comfort reading.

Review from October 2017:

This was fun, especially the inner monologue of our Murderbot. 

In just 160 pages the author managed to build a believable world with lively and varied characters and an entertaining plot. This is a winner!

“And in their corner all they had was Murderbot, who just wanted everyone to shut up and leave it alone so it could watch the entertainment feed all day.”

That could be me on any given day. 

Lots of potential. Is Murderbot a real person or not? The awkwardness of the crew, trying to figure out the correct way of interacting with Murderbot, once they realized that perhaps there is a person behind that opaque faceplate, was pretty priceless. 

And Murderbot’s horror at their attempts to interact! Talking to the humans! And feelings, oh no! 

I tried not to assign a gender to Murderbot. I don’t want to use “it” as a personal pronoun. I am leaning towards using “him”, not quite sure why. Well, actually, because I pictured him as the android in the Prometheus movies, aka Michael Fassbender.

This will be a long wait, the sequel is only planned for May 2018!

Murderbot could have been wearing armor, but decided to be weird about it instead.

System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)
by Martha Wells

I was very confused in the beginning, because it has been over three years since I read Network Effect. And you really need to remember the ending of that one for this one here to make sense right away. There is no recap. 
So, if you are fuzzy on the details, re-read Network Effect!

“Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something.“

The action starts right away. As mentioned, I was pretty confused about the where and why, due to a complete lack of a recap. Once I got back into the swing of things, it was a lot of fun. 

ART is back! Murderbot works on some psychological stuff I cant tell you about because, redacted… It has to protect a lot of humans (so many of them, it needs group names to tell them apart!) and has to deal with a lot of shit happening. The usual. It‘s not getting old yet, but I am hoping that Wells will step up her game in the next two entries to the series.

Definitely for fans, not a stand-alone. I‘m actually going to reread All Systems Red now, just because. Time and stuff.

5/5 🤖🤖🤖🤖🤖

The Murderbot Diaries
– Obsolescence, #0.1, short story published in Take Us to a Better Place, not read yet. Got the kindle freebie to catch up.
– Compulsory, #0.5, short story published in Wired Magazine after Exit Strategy
– All Systems Red (start with this one), #1, novella. Started re-reading this!
– Artificial Condition, #2, novella
– Rogue Protocol, #3, novella
– Exit Strategy, #4, novella
– Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, #4.5, short story
– Fugitive Telemetry, #5, novella
– Network Effect, #6, novel (my least favourite, might have to re-read this as well)
– System Collapse, #7, novella, set directly after Network Effect
– Untitled #8 & #9, not published yet

I received an advanced copy of this book from Tor through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

Murderbot slice-of-life snippet, the early days…

Compulsory (The Murderbot Diaries, #0.5)
by Martha Wells

Reprint of a Murderbot snippet originally posted in Wired magazine in 2018, set before the first novella. Supposedly longer than the original. I read both version and could not tell a difference in length. Slice of life in one of the earlier Murderbot days. 

“Since I hacked my governor module, it’s not like I haven’t thought about killing the humans. But once I started exploring the company servers and found hundreds of hours of downloadable entertainment media, I just thought, there’s no hurry. I can always kill the humans later, after the next series drops.“

first paragraph

The ebook version has some illustrations, which was my main motivation for getting it.

For fans. I recommend that all others start with the first novella.

I also finally watched the next film in the Fantastic Beasts series:

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore

What a hot mess of a plot that was! Not sure they knew what they wanted to do with this one. Some plot elements were rather silly.

I do love Jude Law as Dumbledore though and Mikkelsen is always worth watching. He definitely did a better job as Grindelwald than Johnny Depp, who gave a pretty wooden performance in the previous movie.