RogerBW's Blog

2023 short science fiction novel, seventh in the Murderbot series. After the events of Network Effect, Murderbot continues to help the Preservation mission to an alien-remnant-infected planet.

There's a subtle change in style here. There is still action, there is still snarky comment, but Murderbot is suffering from lowered reliability—for reasons that are not immediately clear, and are revealed about half-way through—and undergoing significant personal growth. Which is great (if not much fun) for Murderbot, but isn't always much fun to read.

Murderbot does do some very impressive things here, but there's rather less of the snark and action I come to these books for, and while I can see the reason I think it's a pity they couldn't have been retained. There's much more tense waiting than there is murdering here.

Another thing to bear in mind is that this follows directly from Network Effect and there's very little recapping here. Depending on how much you retain, it may be worth re-reading that one before jumping in.

I did still enjoy it, but it's not the "another Murderbot story" that I'd been expecting. I suspect that it will fit better when I read it without a three-year gap since the previous chunk of the story.