CBR16 BINGO: Tech, because Murderbot is a construct of robotic and human parts (Obviously)
As my Bingo board can confirm, I’ve been zipping through the Murderbot Diaries this summer and having a good time getting to know SecUnit and its “friends.” Book #5, Network Effect, is the longest entry in the series so far, the first “full-length” novel in a series previously comprising novellas.
In Network Effect, Dr. Mensah, SecUnit’s favorite human, sends it on a research mission with a couple of new characters–Mensah’s teenage daughter Amena (a typical adolescent human) and brother-in-law Thiago (who is suspicious of SecUnit and keeps wanting to talk to it, which is annoying for everyone). Other familiar team members on the mission are partners Arada and Overse, and my own favorite human in the series, Ratthi (I can’t help but picture Ratthi as Kal Penn when he appeared as Dr. Kutner in House. Is that wrong?).
When the research party’s ship is attacked by a hostile vessel, SecUnit directs everyone off the ship but has to go in search of Amena (ugh, why does it have to be its favorite human’s daughter that almost gets left behind?) and they end up in a tractor beam unable to escape. Once onboard the hostile vessel, SecUnit gets ready to kick some ass, except. . . he recognizes the ship as the transport vessel that his friend ART (from Artificial Condition) controlled. When the hostile crew inform SecUnit that they deleted the bot pilot, it goes full Murderbot.
**A few spoilers ahead**
I cheered at the thought of encountering ART again and, not gonna lie, I was really worried that ART was dead for good (I should have known better). My favorite part of this novel is when SecUnit has to grapple with its feelings about ART and the prospect of losing one of the few beings it feels a connection with. For me the high point is when, after Amena’s persistent questioning about “What’s wrong?” SecUnit finally blurts out the truth, “My friend is dead!” That’s a beautiful thing and hits just the right amount of feels for me.
Of course, if ART really were permanently dead, we’d have a lot of disappointed fans, so eventually we learn that ART hid a copy of itself that only a “trusted friend” could find. Unfortunately, the relief of finding ART alive is short-lived as SecUnit then has to grapple with the fact that its friend sent murderous creatures to find and kidnap it, thus endangering SecUnit’s own humans. The arguing between SecUnit and ART is fun, though it’s akin to romantic comedies where a silly misunderstanding keeps the protagonists apart, but you know they are going to make up eventually and everything would get resolved a lot quicker if they’d just communicate. This isn’t exactly a criticism–the banter between ART and SecUnit is the best part of the novel. I particularly enjoy when SecUnit is irrational and knows it (“Stop talking to my human behind my back!”).
Now I have to make a confession: Space stories aren’t really my thing. Notable exceptions (the original Star Wars trilogy and the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies) aside, I don’t seek out space fantasies, probably because I tend to skim over all the details about how the space-based technology operates. I get lost in those details and tend to rush on to the character interactions. As such, this wasn’t my favorite Murderbot. I enjoyed the Murderbot reactions and interactions, but I think bingeing these books is doing them a disservice. Perhaps I need to put them aside and wait in anticipation a bit for the next one to really appreciate them.
I am pleased that the end of this novel promises more of ART in the future, not to mention the possibility of a new SecUnit “friend” (maybe?). After a bit more of a waiting period, I’ll resume the series. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder (I can feel MurderBot staring uncomfortably at the wall at that comment.)