Bingo 23: Tech
Sci-fi general is a safe option for this box, and I just so happen to have had Murderbot Diaries #6 on my TBR shelf. System Collapse is definitely tech-relevant, but only if you’re pretty current with previous episodes of the series. There’s two big mysteries in this volume: can Murdebot and its humans save some divided groups of planetary colonists from an evil corporation that wants to trick them into slavery, and 2) what’s up with Murdebot and {redacted}?
The {redacted} thing is what Murdebot has to say about something it either cannot or will not openly discuss for most of the story. Only if you’ve read previous volumes can you reliably figure out what’s going on there, once Murderbot gives a few hints about that. It is rather technology related, but also rather not. It’s an interesting premise, but one that doesn’t get much attention, since the first half of the story is about trying to find the colonists while Murderbot worries about being able to do its protection job while being affected by [redacted]. The second half of the story is about trying to save the colonists; it’s a race against time that involves among other things an ART drone and some other SecUnits, as well as a friendly (?) computer system on planet.
The one new thing that keeps the story interesting (it’d be pretty slow otherwise, with a lot of Murderbot worrying while withholding info) is the newer character of Tarik about whom Murderbot learns some interesting things.
In some ways, this whole book feels like it’s setting up from something to really get going in a later volume in which hopefully we see what happens with 3 who gets mentioned off and on the whole time but hardly seen, as well as actually getting to see Murderbot directly interacting with another SecUnit in a non-shooting way (the glimpse we get here is intriguing).