Martha Wells

Murderbot realizes that its investigations of the past two books have not gone unnoticed, and Dr Mensah has been blamed for controlling it to do her bidding. Gross. She’s being held captive as collateral so that various evil corporations can keep Murderbot’s findings from going public. What choice does Murderbot have but to rescue her?

A very enjoyable conclusion to this first arc. Most of the loose ends are tied up but there's plenty of room for more. I'm looking forward to reading more and finding out how Murderbot’s feelings toward nice humans are going to evolve.… (more)

Really very well done. It's difficult to write a good fight scene. Edgar Rice Burroughs is the master as far as I am concerned, but the fight scenes in this are very good indeed. The personalities of the characters are very well drawn even considering the book is so short. There's a good economy in the writing which is able to get the most basic personality traits across quickly and completely. This is the third in series but the first I've read so I don't know if I'm missing a lot or not, but this is good enough to reserve the other two books. Both have a considerable waiting list from the BPL.… (more)

A fun second novella in the series. If Columbo were a robot . . . This is not perfect, I got tired of Muderbot saying "I assumed this is what would happen" and then every assumption plays out even though assumptions are more often than not at least partially incorrect, and MB has no programming to empathize, and empathy is the only route to the sorts of assumption MB makes. Still. MB, like Columbo, is entertaining and improbable in several ways including being improbably charming.

Yesterday was a lovely day here so I met a friend to wander around the Russianish neighborhood near me (mostly Jews and mostly from former Soviet satellite countries) to search for bulk smoked paprika, sesame candies, disgusting Joya jelly ring candies for Passover gifts to old people and kachapuri. It was super fun (and I am eating the reheated leftovers of the excellent kachapuri as I type this.) When we parted ways I wandered back home with the audio of this novella keeping me company. The 15-minute walk turned into a 2-hour walk as I passed my house (with its taxes waiting to be done) and kept walking until I hit a tea house I am fond of and hung out there, listening to MB all the while. Somehow the combination of the day's activities and the story brought me to the Columbo association, and it made me like this one even more than the first. Light as air, smart and fun, perfect for a single sitting (or walking in my case) read on a beautiful day.… (more)