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embersbooknook's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I loved this adventure of Murderbot’s! It was cool to see It staying in one place on Preservation’s station, and I loved the banter with Indah and the security team. It’s lovely to see Murderbot’s relationships with this community continue to deepen.
It was interesting learning more about Preservation and its history too.
It was also thought-provoking seeing the bigotry It faced from those who knew what a SecUnit was - these books do a really good job of exploring the nuance of these topics without it being the entire plot.
Excited to dive into the next one! Gonna be pretty bummed when this series is over. 🥺
Shoutout to the fellow reader who suggested reading this before Network Effect! 🫶🏽
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Gun violence, Violence, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail
brynalexa's review
adventurous
funny
tense
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? No
4.25
A situation I’ve been waiting for, finally happened in this installment. Still in love with murderbot!
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
miguelito_juanito's review
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? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, and Kidnapping
madamenovelist's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder
geo_plumeria's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- 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
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping
katebella's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
pacifickat's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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
True crime Murderbot! What's not to love?
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 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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement and Violence
Anxiety, police profiling, prejudice, discriminationwickedgrumpy's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
This one was a bit of a murder mystery/whodunnit/almost a buddy cop moment and I’m not mad about it at all. I don’t think it moved the major overarching story much but it did develop more of the interpersonal relationships that Murderbot has been, let’s say, cultivating in a quasi-antagonistic manner.
Content Warnings
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
booking_along's review
adventurous
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- 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
After the disappointing read that was network effect, I have to say I went into this with extremely low expectations.
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!
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!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Murder
indeedithappens's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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