Reviews

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

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venusbloo's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells is the seventh entry in the Murderbot Diaries series, but it technically takes place between the fifth and sixth entries - Exit Strategy and Network Effect respectively. After saving Dr. Mensah from GrayCris again in Exit Strategy, Murderbot decides to stay on Preservation Station for a while. Dr. Mensah and friends help Murderbot begin to establish a career as a security consultant on the station. The Preservation Station Security head is not too happy about having a potentially mass-murdering SecUnit on her station, but when a random station visitor is found dead in a very public place, she's left with no choice but to ask Murderbot for help solving the case.

Murderbot only agrees to help in case this has something to do with GrayCris. Its first priority is to protect Dr. Mensah and the other friends it's made on station. Plus, it's still feeling salty about the treatment it's received thus far from Station Security. One of the conditions of it being allowed to remain on station is that Murderbot has agreed not to hack certain systems within the station. This makes the job of helping solve the murder case unnecessarily difficult, in Murderbot's opinion, but it's willing to work with what it has to help out.

I really enjoyed this story for how different it was from other Murderbot books. This book was much more like a mystery or police procedural than the action sci-fi of other entries. I think, as in the other books, it's very effective having the story told from Murderbot's perspective. It's obvious Murderbot doesn't exactly know what it's doing, and it's mostly using what it's learned from watching media to figure out the next step. However, Murderbot proves to be more effective at solving the mystery than the humans.

Part of this effectiveness has to do with who ends up being the murderer, but I won't spoil it for anyone. Naturally, it wouldn't be a Murderbot story either if it didn't come down to saving some dumb humans. The story took a few twists that ended up forcing Murderbot to rescue more people in a very short time frame. As much as Murderbot claims to dislike humanity, it ends up saving people quite a bit.

Fugitive Telemetry didn't do much to progress the overarching story that really got going in Network Effect, but it did add some characterization. It also helped establish Murderbot's position within Preservation society a bit, and it showed that Murderbot really does enjoy working in security. The mystery was definitely difficult to predict, and the ending was satisfying. I also really enjoy how the titles to each book make way more sense once I've read them. This one is no exception. Overall, this was a great addition to the Murderbot series.

I gave Fugitive Telementry by Martha Wells five out of five stars. The mystery and characterization in this book helped fill a bit of a time gap between previous entries. I always enjoy reading more about Murderbot and its snarky attitude. It knows much more about security and can react faster than humans, and it's not afraid to bring it up occasionally. If you've enjoyed the series so far, definitely keep reading with this book!