Last fall I started a full Murderbot Diaries re-read in the lead up to our Cannonball Read book club about all things Murderbot. I got five stories read, but then November and December happened, and I did not get to finish in 2024. But that’s okay, I have the remaining books in my custody for January and I can get to the last new-to-me Murderbot (System Collapse) in just a couple of weeks!
My main takeaway this time through Fugitive Telemetry is that I missed SO MUCH having not read Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory before I read it last time. I five-star loved Fugitive Telemetry when I read it the first time, but the second time through with the full information on board (I have also read Compulsory since the first time I read Fugitive Telemetry) I caught so much more nuance that Wells is just so stinking good at weaving in.
Fugitive Telemetry centers the investigation of a murder on Preservation Station. The mystery expands naturally from the murdered human to the circumstances around its death, and how it ripples out into the greater world of Preservation Station. It’s the greater world of Preservation Station that holds so much interest for me, particularly with the knowledge of events of Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory. That story is told from Mensah’s POV (its now free online), and is Mensah transitioning back to life after being held captive and arguing for Murderbot’s place in Preservation with the local powers that be.
Fugitive Telemetry is still working that tension point – how do Mensah and Murderbot move forward from Mensah’s kidnapping and continuing fears of what GrayCris might attempt and also solving how does Murderbot integrate into life after escaping the Company, and what will it have to do to feel content anywhere, but specifically on Preservation to stay with Mensah. In doing that we see Murderbot grow, figuring out how to investigate and protect while staying within the bounds it has agreed to and also getting to a point where it feels like itself – my favorite scene in the entire book is a moment late in the novella where Murderbot feels like itself because it gets to make a plan that is a SecUnit plan, not a CombatUnit plan, because protecting people is its job. I’m looking even more forward to getting back to Network Effect and discovering what System Collapse contains.