cbr17bingo – work for Fugitive Telemetry
Although Fugitive Telemetry is the 6th book in the series, I read it 5th because that’s chronologically when it takes place and is often the recommended reading order. Murderbot is still on Preservation Station and seems to have been spending a lot of its time guarding Mensah. Then security comes across a dead body, and Murderbot contracts with them to help solve the case, primarily because it wants to make sure the murder isn’t related to GrayCris.
The goal is partly to help Preservation security acclimatize to Murderbot through their interactions and hopefully help them feel less distrustful of it. Murderbot tries to be on its best behavior and work within the limits it’s been given (e.g., it’s not allowed to hack Preservation systems) while continuing to be its snarky, lovable, a-hole self. Several other Preservation Alliance characters from the previous books show up at least as a passing mention and some get page time. I particularly enjoyed Murderbot’s rationale for reaching out to Ratthi and Gurathin: “That left me with the human most likely to want to drop everything and come watch me break into a damaged transport and the human also most likely to come watch me break into a damaged transport but only so he could argue with me about it. So I called both of them.”
There was a little bit of character growth for Murderbot and some progress toward the goal of Station Security accepting it, and this novella was ultimately a solid entry in the Murderbot Diaries series.
Network Effect is definitely my favorite Murderbot book so far (4.5 stars). While it’s the first full-length novel, I don’t think Martha Wells’ having more room to work in fully explains that. Part of it is that by now we know Preservation Alliance characters better, whereas in All Systems Red they had kind of blurred together. Although this one introduces new significant characters, including one of Mensah’s children, it’s not overwhelming and readers have a chance to get to know them. The other part is that we get the return of an old character and Murderbot’s reaction to that.
Murderbot is at times delightfully sulky in this one, and this is the first book that had me writing down quotes:
- “Anyone who thinks machine intelligences don’t have emotions needs to be in this very uncomfortable room right now” (spoken by Ratthi to another character).
- “Wait, I think I am angry constantly. That might explain a lot” (thought by Murderbot).
There were times I couldn’t put this down, times I laughed out loud, and times I was really touched. And Murderbot really grows a lot in this one. I’m looking forward to seeing where the last (so far) book takes us.
System Collapse
I didn’t find this book to be quite as enjoyable as some of the others (3.75 stars, which ties it with Rogue Protocol for lowest-rated Murderbot books), but I still like it quite a bit. It continues from Network Effect, with Murderbot, ART, and company trying to work with the colonists while hoping that Barish-Estranza doesn’t convince those colonists to commit to indentured servitude.
That’s one of the things that separates this book out from the others: it deals a little more overtly with what is essentially slavery (sometimes voluntary indentured servitude, but as we know from Fugitive Telemetry, that servitude can pass down to descendants). It had come up in All Systems Red when one character (Ratthi, I think) blatantly calls the use of constructs like SecUnits slavery. I find it interesting, and depressing, that in this world that has got to be hundreds of years advanced beyond our own, intense capitalism has encouraged slavery and related practices. It’s especially depressing because it actually doesn’t seem too farfetched.
Relatedly, I am intrigued about how some of these bots, including ART (though I realize it’s not “just” a bot) have emotions. It makes sense with Murderbot, who has organic neural tissue, but other bots don’t and still seem to feel emotions, like anger or a trauma response; Murderbot explicitly refers to ART having emotions and impulses. I don’t understand how a bot can have emotions, and if they can, then it seems a natural progression to ask if it’s slavery to use bot/organic constructs, then could you say the same thing about purely mechanical bots? Martha Wells doesn’t really bring this point up, though I wouldn’t say she’s unaware of the question given how Preservation Alliance treats bots.
I hope some of these questions and big issues continue to be addressed in future Murderbot books. This is the last one for now, but there’s another one that looks like it will be coming out in 2026. I can’t wait!