It feels downright indulgent to read a 350-page Murderbot book.

There was a lot about this book I liked. Because it was longer, we get to see more of Murderbot's interactions with various humans and bots / constructs as well as its overall character development. I liked the creepy atmosphere toward the end, and seeing Murderbot get upset thinking

ART was dead

. I liked the serious tone; the book really reframes a lot of the previous material.

For example, that Murderbot's relationship with the company, which it often jokes about, is based deeply in trauma. And when Murderbot sees another SecUnit that was ordered to stand down and then killed by its governor module. It's like a joke or an annoyance at first, and this book really shows the reader that this isn't to be taken lightly.

 

That said, the plot felt like it moved really, really slowly, and then went way too quickly at the climax. In the other Murderbot books, because they're novellas, that doesn't seem so weird, as the overall effect is that the entire plot moves quickly. But it doesn't work in the full-length novel. Additionally, it seemed like Wells wanted to expand on a bunch of themes - the self-awareness of other SecUnits, Murderbot's ability to have meaningful relationships, corporate greed - but wasn't able to fully explore all of them. There were so many different pieces, many of which worked well together, but some of which didn't.

Also, and this is a problem with all the Murderbot books, there are just so many damn characters.

I did really love this book, though. As a novella with much the same content, I probably would have given it 5 stars.