System Collapse

... and I'm not satisfied and now keep waiting for a new book in this series. What is so fun is the always hard strategical thinking Murderbot and ART and their humans have to do, which always happens because they are always in dire straits because of buccaneering megalarge companies doing their power grabs over humans, other companies, even planets.

Also, because it's fun because Murderbot got rid of its governor module, so it can be free. But the governor module also manages anger, and since it's down, the anger is always up. Beware of ART, who is much bigger than Murderbot, and so he's got much bigger amounts of anger, you know.

And also because it feels like Murderbot is freeing lots of other SecBots everywhere and this might lead to a full stop revolution of SecBots and larger bots as well.

Murderbot just has near infinite potential as a character. It's multiprocessing nature makes the stories complex but so rich, I feel like starting the whole series again now to pick up the bits I missed.

I continue to love the Murderbot series. By this point, the action parts have lost impact because there's too much precedent for how they're going to turn out, so I think it's wise of Wells to play that part down a bit in this book, in favour of a story more about persuasion and trust building. And the ongoing saga of Murderbot learning about both its limits and capabilities continues to be one of the most relatable arcs in SF/F.

This seventh Murderbot story is a direct sequel, a part 2 even, to Network Effect, which was not actually the previous book published. So if it's been a couple years since you read Network Effect, it's worth doing a quick reread before starting this one as there are a lot of references to the events in that book which will be hard to keep track of unless it's fairly fresh in your memory. Or at least read a plot summary somewhere.

That said, Network Effect did seem to leave a lot of questions unanswered at the end, so getting a part 2 is wonderful and learning a bit more about ART and the organization ART is part of were an extra treat. I ended this book wanting an entire side series about Three and where they end up. Another satisfying Murderbot treat!

Oh my [REDACTED] god, it was just too short.