Murderbot Diaries 1-5 by Martha Wells
So one thing about me is… I really don’t like winter. It’s cold, wet, and dreary once the holidays are over. So I like to read about books that are either warm and sunny or in space. And since I had the first four novellas of this series on my new Kindle Paperwhite, space seemed like a great place to start off the year. And after I finished the first novella, I immediately ordered the full length novel that is book 5. These books are a fun and wild ride. And so well written; they’ve won both Hugo and Nebula awards, which is huge in the SFF world. There are spoilers for the novellas in the review, so be careful if you haven’t finished these yet, but nothing big for book 5. And really, go read. Short, fun, fast reads.
The story (beginning with All Systems Red) is from the point of view of Murderbot, the SecUnit (security unit that is mostly machine with some organic parts and looks human) assigned to provide security on a survey of a new planet. It’s (androgynous, non-gendered being) favorite thing ever is watching shows from the entertainment feeds, but it also controls drones for security and also does some awesome combat moves. Including shooting with the guns in its forearms. Super cool, right? In this first novella Murderbot is guarding Mensah, a planetary leader and also leader of the survey team. Also on the survey team are several other humans and augmented (extra computer and web connectivity stuff implanted) humans. They get attacked by another larger survey team and Murderbot has to come through and save the day for them. It’s a lot of fun to read, so I won’t spoil it for you. In return for saving them, Mensah buys the Murderbot from the security company and gives it freedom. So Murderbot runs away… which seems really ungrateful. But it makes sense later on…
Book 2, Artificial Condition, takes Murderbot to the scene of her worst day. She wanted to go back and see if what she partially remembered was actually something that happened. She travels by giving transports with bot pilots and no people entertainment downloads in exchange for rides. One transport is called ART (short for Asshole Research Transport lol) by our Murderbot and it helps transform Murderbot to look more like an augmented human to get by in society. The interplay between ART’s AI and Murderbot is one of the best parts of the series. Well, in the end it turns out Murderbot is a mass murderer… because of malware. And ART goes along on its way while Murderbot goes on to a different destination.
Which is where book 3 (Rogue Protocol) takes place. On an abandoned terraforming platform in a distant part of space from where book 2 was. Getting there means impersonating a person, which Murderbot is slowly getting better at. But in getting in to get info and trying to get all the people in this survey group back out again, Murderbot is recognized as a rogue SecUnit. It still saves the day (in even more awesome action-sequence fashion) and gets some dirt on the bad guys from book 1 in the process!
Exit Strategy, book 4, gets us back to our original survey group. Mensah has been kidnapped by the book 1 bad guys and is being held on a station somewhere. Her survey group friends are trying to ransom her (unsuccessfully) and then Murderbot shows up! It saves the day with the most epic fighting between a SecUnit that can hack like nobody’s business and an OP Combat Bot. It’s such a crazy and fun read. They make it out, but just barely. And head back to the planet Preservation where Mensah and the others are from.
Book 5 is the first full length novel in the series, and almost twice as long as the earlier stories. It’s called Network Effect and there are multiple levels of meaning in that. In this book we get to spend time with Murderbot of course, but also Mensah and her family and her group as they complete another survey. ART is back, or maybe not completely, as is his crew who we haven’t met yet. And there are people under control of alien tech, malware to the max, and more SecUnits to join in the fun. I don’t want to spoil this one any more than I already have. But really, it is fantastic. I keep wondering why I didn’t read these sooner. Book 6 (Fugitive Telemetry) is due out in May and I already have it preordered. Because really, who wouldn’t want to sit down and enjoy more from this Entertainment Feed. Martha Wells has knocked it out of the park and I just want more!
