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fred___'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Trafficking, and Murder
Moderate: Gun violence, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail
chris_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Violence and Trafficking
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Confinement, Gun violence, and Slavery
sammy357's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Another great book in an amazing series. Not only do I love Murderbot, but I always love all the new characters. Martha Wells you are a god amongst men 🙇♀️
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Murder
katebella's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
pacifickat's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I found this installment to be quite a bit cozier than the rest of the series, with Murderbot realizing it wouldn't mind trying its hand at detective sleuthing closer to home. The tonal shift between Network Effect and Fugitive Telemetry is a little jarring though, and it felt a bit odd to shift from interplanetary adventures to a locked-room mystery on Preservation. Even so, I still thoroughly enjoyed spending more time in this series.
Murderbot still delivers in snark and darkly humorous internal dialogue:
"I didn't need as much air as humans did, but I needed some, and it was really cold out there in the colony ship's shadow. This meant that if the Life Tender failed, it would take me longer to die, so I'd have longer to feel dumb about it than a human would."
And in between the humor and action sequences, Murderbot still manages to deliver its signature surprising doses of introspective self-awareness:
"That plan was easier. Plus, one hundred percent less murdery. I liked it better. Huh. I liked it better because it wasn't a Combat Unit plan, or actually a plan that humans would come up with for Combat Units. Sneaking the endangered humans off the ship to safety and then leaving the hostiles for someone else to deal with, that was a Sec Unit plan. That was what we were really designed for, despite how the Company and every other Corporate used us. The point was to retrieve the clients alive and fuck everything else. Maybe I had been waiting too long for GrayCris to come along and try to kill us all. I was thinking like a Combat Unit, or, for fucks sake, like a combat bot."
As it turns out, existing in survival mode long term is not good for anyone, bot-human constructs included.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement and Violence
Anxiety, police profiling, prejudice, discriminationcfitz13's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Minor: Violence, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
wickedgrumpy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
arinheck's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gun violence, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Xenophobia, Medical content, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Colonisation
booking_along's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
So I don’t know if that was what made this one of the better books in this series or if the author needed to come back to novellas and that worked.
The plot in this was different and interesting and unpredictable (especially compared to the previous books) and I enjoyed that s lot.
Also murderbot was back to its snarky ways in this one, so that was fun too.
I don’t know if the pacing in this was actually better than in network effect or if the noticeable lack of length (160 pages compared to the 350 pages of network effect) just made the pacing better, but this didn’t drag, had a nice fast pacing and a good mixture of investigation and action.
This was fun and entertaining and made me enjoy the series again, which yes repeating myself again, I didn’t expect after that last book at all.
Well done, Martha wells! Let’s hope the next one will be a bit different and a similar pacing ad well, so that it is kept interesting and more unique and makes this sierra worth while to read just like this novella did!
Graphic: Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Murder
indeedithappens's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism