Gods, do I love Murderbot. I continue to love the stilted way in which Murderbot attempts to connect with the world around it, and how it deals with the emotions it gets from its organic parts. 

It was lovely to have a return of ART, especially with such sweet reasons behind it, and a rescue of Murderbot for once, instead of Murderbot doing all the saving. It's space opera at its very best and I love it. 

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.

Murderbot my beloved 😍 

Somebody should give it a vacation

Murderbot the movie. This is my favorite book in this series, a certifiable event. It pays off so many plot threads and calls back the best jokes. Honestly this is Murderbot at its best, and even in my mind it felt like the high budget movie made at the end of a limited mini series

I loved this full length Murderbot story with lots of new characters (and some familiar ones!). 

Audiobook read by Kevin R. Free. Unsurprisingly, Free is a fantastic reader.

I was wondering how Murderbot would work as a long-form novel, when the previous parts are each novellas, but Wells new what she was doing. I love how MB's emotional intelligence developed without challenging its character and I especially enjoy its dynamic with ART, a research transport system. iykyk. I'll be reading it again, definitely.