author : Martha Wells

Planetary survey missions must be accompanied by a Security Unit: a protection robot supplied by the lowest bidder. The current survey team don’t know that their SecUnit calls itself ‘Murderbot’, and has overridden its governor module. But when mysterious things start happening, they are going to be very glad it has.

This is a zippy little novella, just 150pp of snark as we listen to Murderbot narrate its story, and discover more about its background. There’s not time for a lot of character development other than the first person narrator, but we get an interesting world, an engaging protagonist, and the set-up for a lot more action and robot-soul-searching.

This makes a good contrast with that other recent ‘robot learning to live in a human world’ tale, A Closed and Common Orbit. They are quite different in feel, but both are thought-provoking.

Murderbot has decided to investigate the planet where it originally went rogue and earned its name. This means avoiding being discovered by humans who would be hostile to its very existence. So it hitches a ride with an unmanned research ship; this is not necessarily a safe option, as the ship’s AI is somewhat curious, and can’t be completely distracted by Murderbot’s collection of space opera shows. And then when Murderbot reaches the planet, it decides a good cover is to sign on as a security consultant for a group of naive scientists who may have just made a big discovery. What could possible go wrong…?

This is another great little novella narrated by the snarky Murderbot, as it discovers things about its past, and itself, that will have a big impact on its future.

Murderbot has noticed a set of unusual events that might just give it a clue in its GreyCris Corporation investigations. So it sets off to the edge of known space to find out just what has been going on. There it finds itself once again acting as protector for a group of humans. This time it might be impossible to complete its own mission and save the humans: which one will it sacrifice?

Another great novella. The plot thickens, and the snark continues. But it’s getting harder to believe some of Murderbot’s self-professed lack of care.

Murderbot finally has the evidence that will take down GrayCris Corp. But Dr Mensah is being held hostage by the Corporation. Can Murderbot deliver the evidence and save Dr Mensah? And why does Murderbot even want to do this?

This final novella in the Murderbot series zips smartly along like all the others, and ties back neatly with the characters from the first instalment. Murderbot continues to be snarky, and continues to run rings around tech defences. This being the last instalment, there are several times where it is not at all clear how things are going to pan out. There is a satisfactory conclusion, but I do want to see more Murderbot tales, and maybe in meatier novel form for next?

Murderbot is now free, working with the crew it rescued. But on their way back to Preservation Station, they are kidnapped, by Murderbot’s old friend, spaceship ART. But it looks like ART and its crew have been destroyed by invaders. As usual, humans underestimate Murderbot, and mayhem ensues.

A novel-length Murderbot tale! Yay! It’s as frenetic, snarky, and suspenseful as the novellas, but longer. We get to see more inside Murderbot’s head (with parenthetical asides (and asides to asides)), and the range of reactions of the humans it works with. Murderbot never feels “human”, but never feels “inhuman” either. Excellent stuff.

Murderbot gets to solve a murder!

This is an interesting security-bot procedural, where Murderbot is working with humans (not all of whom are happy to be working with Murderbot) in order to solve a murder on Preservation Station. The problem has all the usual red herrings and complications of a murder mystery, but Murderbot breezes through most of the puzzles with relatively little violence.

A novella-sized step in the humanisation of Murderbot.

Murderbot is still traumatised from the events in Network Effect, and that is affecting its performance. Blackouts and paralysing fear are not in its standard repertoire of behaviours. Which is a problem, as there are a bunch of suspicious colonists to save from the predations of the Barish-Estranza corporation. Can Murderbot pull itself together before it experiences complete system collapse?

This took me a few chapters to get into, because of having read another Murderbot book between Network Effect and this, and because Murderbot’s trauma make the tale a little disjointed. But I soon settled into it, and enjoyed another tale of the snarky, competent SecUnit, and its growing contingent of friends.