[Read as an audiobook from the public library]
I got this one a lot sooner than expected, hooray!
This was, for me, a welcome return to form for the Murderbot series after the longer and (for me) more confusing and annoying Network Effect. I’ve found that I’m happiest with Murderbot’s grousing on a limited basis — say, four-hour increments or so. Also, if I learned anything from The Mandalorian it’s that I’m highly susceptible to the Monster of the Week format when done well, and I think that sort of shorter, episodic plot structure works for this series too.
This time Murderbot gets to play detective — sort of — working with a pretty reticent Preservation Station security detail after a mystery human turns up dead. Because it’s Murderbot, nothing is ever as easy as it appears, and things end up getting quite messy and complicated by the end. (Say it with me: Robot Action! YES!)
This hits all the necessary series plot beats that I expect and that make my dopamine receptors happy. Murderbot employs copious swears and boatloads of sarcasm, side-eyes humans for being various flavors of inadequate, hits things, and is generally the anxiety-riddled paranoid construct of my dreams (No, I’d never tell it this to its face, obviously).
No spoilers, but I was able to predict part of the ending ahead of time. That didn’t make anything any less enjoyable, but it wasn’t quite the whatatwist it was presented to be. But otherwise I was just really happy with this book and really happy to be back to the shorter format, and now I’m realizing that I’ve burned through the entire series in less than a month and…well crap, now what?