What makes Murderbot as endearing as it is engaging are the ways that, through a narrative about an autonomous robot, we think about what it means to be human. The stories are sort of a perfect balance, full of equal measures snark and heart that gives readers all the feels wrapped in a narrative exploding with action. But at the center is our rather reluctant hero—Murderbot themselves—who is so easy to empathize and often identify with but also tells us that even if we, too, would rather hide from the world and watch our favorite tv series, or hate everyone and don’t want to talk about our feelings, or even want to get up and face the world, we too could channel Murderbot and still be the incredible hero when the chips are down. I’ve followed this series with nothing but utter bliss and joy so when System Collapse released this week I knew it was one to drop everything and dive into. And I gotta say… Murderbot has a past where humans were killed and where it came to call itself Murderbot. There was a reason behind the naming, the bot is sure. However, the massacre that inspired this name remains vague in memory. After going through so much and having vague recollections about its past, Murderbot wants to find out more. This book takes place just after Network Effect, which is where I wanted to be, more on that later. Here we find our favorite, freed SecUnit and its working with ART. However, Murderbot seems to be having some issues other than the task which they have set their mind to. Murderbot is experiencing things like self-doubt and anxiety and it is a pleasure to behold. Not that I'd wish anything bad would happen to it, it's just that I love its human qualities and I'm glad to see more of them.

Knowing what would happen, she wouldn’t choose a different planet, a different bond company. Because then SecUnit would still be someone’s property, would be waiting for the contract where the negligence or greed or indifference of its clients got it killed.” Not only a fun, fast-paced space-thriller, but also a sharp, sometimes moving character study that will resonate with introverts even if they're not lethal AI machines.” —Malka Older, author of InfomocracyViolently Protective Shipfriend: To secure Murderbot's release from kidnappers, ART threatens to destroy a colony from orbit. Shortly after is ART's upgrade to Implied Love Interest. Ridiculously Human Robot: Played with. SecUnits' and Bots' physical processes are quite different from humans' (no desires for things like food and sex), but Murderbot and ART both have rather human personalities and a great interest in human media. Love the 'Bot and want to join a re/read? Discuss the upcoming release? Nataliya, Dennis, and I lead a group: Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Figuring out what Murderbot actually wants and feels is an overarching motivation for it.

Humans have a bad tendency to use weapons unnecessarily and indiscriminately. Of the many times I had been shot, a depressingly large percentage of hits had come from clients who were trying to "help" me.)(Another significant percentage came from clients who had just wanted to shoot something when I happened to be standing there.) Murderbot — both the character and the series — has grown on me immensely with each book in the series. Murderbot may be a cyborg, but it’s one of the most human and appealing characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Homeworld Evacuation: Preservation was founded after the residents of a failed colony were forced to do this.BUT, as I was saying, Wells does drop us in the action (as usual) and 'Bot is struggling with (redacted). Literally. That's not me redacting anything--that's 'Bot doing it, leaving the reader wondering what exactly is being redacted. Specific events from Network Effect? The alien intelligence? Murderbot 2.0? Who knows, because (redacted). It’s easy to think of our former “mindless killing machine” with a soft spot for media entertainment and - brace for it - humans and a certain Asshole Research Transport as amazingly invulnerable, save for a bit of severe social anxiety and awkward difficulty adjusting to accepted personhood after existence as basically a disposable weapon, and now certainly PTSD. But Murderbot is not invulnerable, and emotions happen, and trauma - as much as it would like to keep that part [redacted] - wreaks its consequences on our favorite bot/human construct. You know that thing humans do where they think they’re being completely logical and they absolutely are not being logical at all, and on some level they know that, but can’t stop? Apparently it can happen to SecUnits, too.”————— The other continuing thread is the right of a sentient intelligent being to self-determination and personhood, the overarching theme of the entire series. I think you might know,” she had said. “You just don’t want to talk about it.”She is definitely not 100%, and she knows it. In fact, her knowing it is something like 80% of the problem -- Murderbot is suffering from that oh-so-familiar-to-humans problem, a failure of self-confidence. She needs help, and her relationships, always an uncomfortable subject for Murderbot, with "her" humans and with ART are essential. When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.

In a series like this, some parts of it will be more crucial than others. This is not a high-intensity (relatively to plot. All the books are action heavy. Yes, all!) book, it is the aftermath, psychologically and dealing with minor stuff like oh yeah what happens to the population of that planet now (just some hundred, at most a few thousand people...) and more worldbuilding and more (glorious) stuff on how those people (human and not. The non human are just chef's kiss..) deal with each other. It is not an ideas book, but it is a really well done element of a truly original series which focus on action with a lot of thought and care to the characters and worldbuilding. And it is really really well done, Martha Wells is just fully in control of the story. It is not a mind blowing story or a series crucial point, but so worth it (I voted for another book, Children of Memory for the goodreads reader choices awards for sf and I am not changing my vote. Because CoM goes deeper, in ambition and ideas about personhood and consciousness. This is just as good technically but it stays, intentionally, more at the surface). Special Edition hardcover compilation of the first four novellas plus "Home: habitat, range, niche, territory." Subterranean Press, March 2021. Cover art and illustrations by Tommy Arnold. I don't think I ever get excited about anything the way I get excited about anything related to Murderbot (if my excited ramblings under this review from before I got the ARC are any indication). If I can't sleep one of my solutions is to put one of the Muderbot audiobooks on and listen to it until I do — The Muderbot Diaries is all consuming.It's why I identify so deeply with Murderbot: We had all the right things go exactly right at the right time or we'd simply have ceased to exist. It is through Dr. Mensah's clarity that I feel so seen in my hatred of this system's brutal, dehumanizing, and revoltingly deeply entrenched dominance of the hearts and minds I must live among, as Preservation is a fictional construct. It would be the work of but a moment for me to apply for asylum or whatever they call it to get to Preservation were it real. Bizarre Human Biology: Even their human parts have unique qualities such as being able to seal their own veins and arteries.