Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Network Effect

The beginning is a little confusing, but that's the experience Murderbot also has: it gets into yet another unfamiliar hostile situation and has to figure out a way to get out of it while keeping it's humans safe. Having so much agency available to itself, Murderbot ends up in an enotional spiral that reveals it might be close to being able to start processing the traumatic events it has been through. At least Murderbot is a little more open to discussing it's thoughts and feelings with the selected few in it's inner circle of... clients/teammates/*gasp*friends.

I didn't like the idea of saying "I don't know" to Amena because humans panic and I almost don't blame them because right now I feel like panicking and I was not in control of this situation and I could see at least ten instances now where I'd made wrong decisions and being in control of the situation was really important because otherwise it was in control of me and that felt like a short step to being back in the company's control.

All the revelations, plot twists, and feelings made me unable to put the book down – I just had to know what happens next and keep reading! The book gets better and better while the plot advances, and I can't describe how elated I am with all the connections Murderbot is finding.

Of course Murderbot is being the familiar sassy, assholeish, introverted SecUnit who keeps going to impossible lengths for the not-friends it won't admit caring for but actually does. Murderbot is slowly starting to admit it has friends, though, and that might help it decide what it wants to do in life. I love Murderbot's personality!

Alongside Murderbot's familiar narrative voice, the narration is splashed with additions of it's memory files and towards the end also pov's

of different SecUnit/Murderbots

. Ahhhh, I almost feel spoiled rotten to get so many new perspectives on Murderbot, but still get to see the original one evolve and yet stay recognizably itself.

I'm intriqued by the first glances we get to the new

SecUnit 03. I wish it could become friends with Murderbot, or at the very least that we'd get updates on it in the future as well

There is a lot about what is going on here that I don't understand. But I am participating anyway.

–

SecUnit 03

Content Warnings

kris_tea516's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

This was another great installment in The Murderbot Diaries. This is also the longest so far. There were times that my mind wandered & I would have to run it back a bit but I don’t think that was the fault of the writing but more of my skills of multitasking. If you like Sci-Fi (particularly space stories) & want to go on an adventure while laughing, I highly recommend this series.

Content Warnings

bexi's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

emilywemily6's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I love Murderbot and I really enjoyed seeing the progression of their relationships with both new and old characters. Lots of
funny moments between Murderbot and a certain bot pilot. I did find that the pacing of this story wasn’t my favorite compared to the novellas (a little slow for the first half) and some of the information about what was really going on a talking about killware and TargetControlSystem was hard to understand. I had to reread a few parts just to know enough of what was happening to skip over the details, so this read wasn’t quite as enjoyable as others. And even though I’ve finished, I still am not quite sure what all we learned about what really happened. I think the novellas experience this a little bit (and of course, Murderbot is a bigger brain than me) but it was much more pronounced in this full-length novel. I’m still really looking forward to the next installment because of adore these characters and how SecUnit is growing as a person.

Content Warnings

brynalexa's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

“I’m alone in my head and that’s where 95% of my problems are. “

I love sec unit.

and sec unit 2.0 and sec unit 3.0)

I typically find the action scenes in this series a little boring but that’s because I also fall asleep at on screen action scenes.

Can’t wait to see where it goes next.

Content Warnings

miguelito_juanito's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

More...