Exit Strategy

I think [b:Exit Strategy|35519109|Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)|Martha Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518642623l/35519109._SY75_.jpg|56934601] is my favourite Murderbot novella so far. It combines excellent action sequences with lovely character moments at just the right ratio. Murderbot is reunited with its human pals from the first installment, gets to watch some of its favourite media on a big screen TV, and most dramatically briefly becomes a spaceship! I also loved the moment when it meets one of Mensah's kids, who is of course delighted that it communicates via tiktoks.

There's something pleasing about the mundane sci-fi settings in the Murderbot series. Here, subterfuge show more and big dramatic fights take place in space shopping malls full of annoying adverts. Murderbot comments sarcastically on data mining in cheap hotels. Amid fast-paced events, the commentary on personhood continues to be astute. For instance, we learn that SecUnits aren't allowed to sit on furniture so Murderbot takes every opportunity to do so. It is determined to become a person on its own terms, though, rather than imitating humans.

[b:Exit Strategy|35519109|Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)|Martha Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518642623l/35519109._SY75_.jpg|56934601] also made a lovely palate cleanser after the deeply tedious first person narration of [b:Ascension|61813107|Ascension|Nicholas Binge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1675642495l/61813107._SX50_.jpg|93144065]'s protagonist. Murderbot is a consistently engaging, funny, and thoughtful narrator. I am definitely hooked on this series and look forward to seeing where the plot goes. I'm excited to see that [b:Network Effect|52381770|Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)|Martha Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1640597293l/52381770._SY75_.jpg|63614271] is more than twice as long as [b:Exit Strategy|35519109|Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries, #4)|Martha Wells|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1518642623l/35519109._SY75_.jpg|56934601], as my only real complaint about this series is that I get through each book too quickly. show less

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Exit Strategy

GrayCris is desperate. After Murderbot’s theft of their illegal information, they’ve decided kidnapping Dr. Mensha is their next best option. I don’t know about you, but kidnapping someone who is tied to a SecUnit doesn’t seem like a good idea. When a news burst comes across Murderbot’s feed involving Dr. Mensha and GrayCris, those pesky complex emotions start to crop up. And Murderbot finds itself en route to liberate Dr. Mensha.

No one thinks SecUnits can have emotions. Murderbot will tell you differently. In fact, the humans it finds itself thinking of as friends cause a whole variety of emotions it isn’t programmed to handle. And while Murderbot hates figuring show more out what these emotions are, it might actually admit to liking those humans. Must be part of that organic tissue they used to form its neural network.

I’ve realized I’m drawn to Murderbot because it struggles to deal with things humans experience every day. It brings to light all the little stresses that add up over time and begin to compromise the way we think. I can’t be the only one who’s had no clue what to do with their arms, or felt socially awkward around people that stir emotions I can’t name, or understand immediately. But not only that, Murderbot reinforces the theme that it’s ok to feel different. Just be yourself and do the best you can.

Murderbot is reaching a point in its character development where it outwardly no longer cares what people think. When readers first met Murderbot, most of its sarcasm and feelings were told through inner monologue. Now Murderbot is learning how to use body language and actions to show what it’s feeling. Even though Murderbot still doesn’t like to admit it feels anything. And it’s hilarious. You can count on Murderbot’s sarcastic humor to alleviate any situation.

The return of Dr. Mensha and the crew brings Murderbot’s story full circle, but it is far from over. And I can’t wait for Murderbot’s next adventure. Complex feelings, awkward encounters, and sarcastic humor included. show less

Exit Strategy effectively serves as final act in the initial Murderbot story arc. SecUnit decides the only chance for Mensah is a hostage rescue, and the plot is propelled along from the opening, though as usual SecUnit's narration is seemingly calm and unpanicked even through the most harrowing action scenes. While new characters appear, several major characters from the initial novella return.

Though the novella wraps up the overall story arc of the Diaries so far, it does so without fully addressing all questions about SecUnit's identity or past. While SecUnit's guilt and overall self-consciousness are accounted for, it remains hazy just how it hacked its governor module.

That she understood even that much made me melt. I hate that show more this happens, it makes me feel vulnerable. Maybe that was why I had been nervous about meeting Mensah again, and not all the other dumb reasons I had come up with. I hadn't been afraid that she wasn't my friend, I had been afraid that she was, and what it did to me. [116]

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Along with plot and plot-adjacent revelations, a deeper understanding of both SecUnit's world and its Self become possible.

● The story reinforces prior established facets of AI slavery, and elaborates that constructs were not always treated as chattel -- somehow their treatment evolved from a prior state (in which SecUnits were known as Augmented Rovers), after which time both their abilities and their treatment by humans changed. Notably, this mirrors the history of slavery in the U.S., evolving from indentured servitude (largely agnostic of racial conceptualisations) to slavery expressly undertaken in defense of White Supremacy. (See short story "Obsolescence" for possible background on the Rovers.)

● A new aspect of SecUnit's individuated Self is revealed when it defends against a virtual attack. Until now, SecUnit's hacking of security systems was accomplished entirely as an embodied construct, analogous to a human hacker via digital interface. This scenario, by contrast, involves SecUnit wielding offensive and defensive measures strictly as a digital entity. (These skills anticipate later plot developments in the next Diaries installment, Network Effect.)

One question is conspicuous for remaining unaddressed: SecUnit's consistent decision never to name the bond company which owned it, and which provided the underwriting for Preservation Aux's planetary survey in the first novella. There are repeated and pointed conversations featuring that entity, but these refer only generically to "the company". Repeatedly declining to name it becomes a deliberate act on the part of SecUnit, even to the point of remarking its logo yet never its name. [37] Notably, several other corporate entities are named throughout the series (but ... never another bond company?). [43] The cumulative result is to suggest that bond companies are distinct, perhaps for being the equivalent of slavers. (This is another aspect of the Diaries not addressed explicitly until the next installment.) show less

As I had hoped, the fourth Murderbot Diaries volume did break the hardening pattern of the previous books. It is not a matter of the SecUnit adopting a new "family" and protecting them from malefactors. Instead, it concerns Murderbot taking up unresolved relations with humans it knew before, and trying to address a crisis it knows itself to have helped create in the first place.

"Possibly I was overthinking this. I do that; it's the anxiety that comes with being a part-organic murderbot. The upside was paranoid attention to detail. The downside was also paranoid attention to detail." (14)

Although it was a little bit longer than the earlier books, it read even faster, and I basically tore through this one in a single, lightly-interrupted show more sitting. show less

I LOVE MURDERBOT. This is a wonderful final installment to the novellas, and ties the set of four up perfectly while leaving plenty of room for more stories in future (which is good since book 5 is due out next year). This volume contains a wonderful story, and I love how it brings the 4-novella series full-circle. I am glad I splurged on the hardbacks of these, because they are keepers.

"The Murderbot Diaries" are really a single novel that the publishers have released as four novellas. This would have been fine except each novella was priced as if it were a full novel, leaving me feeling abused by the publisher.

The reason I LET myself be abused is that "The Murderbot Diaries" are first-rate science fiction. They're fun, ingenious, fast-paced and plausible.

Murderbot is a wonderful creation. Its development over the course of the four novellas from a Security Unit that has hacked its own governor module so it can spend more time watching space soap-operas into a person with feelings, a strong sense of identity and a determination to stay independent is irresistibly attractive.

I read the fourth novella the same day that show more my pre-order dropped into my Audible library and I was gratified to find that the quality remained high and that the resolution was as plausible and original as the premise itself.

I won't go into the plot here other than to say that it brought together all the plot pieces from the previous novellas and used them to push Murderbot's development along by making it choose what to do about the mess "his" humans had gotten themselves into.

Although this final novella does what it's supposed to do and gives a resolution to the struggle with the big bad Corporates, it seemed to me that the main focus was on Murderbot working out what it wants to be. In the third novella "Rogue Protocol" Murderbot met what he thought of as a "pet robot". The sacrifices that robot made and the emotional attachment that the humans showed to it have both given Murderbot something to think about. He knows he doesn't want to be a pet. He also knows that watching media is no longer enough for him. Its still embarrassed and annoyed by the emotions it keeps feeling but has recognised them as an integral part of its personality.

I liked the fact that Murderbot rejects the Pinnochio option. It doesn't want to be a "real boy". In the end, what it wants is to have the freedom to be Murderbot.

Martha Wells has created something very special here. I hope there are more Murderbot books, just because I'm greedy for its company, but I'd be satisfied if this is all I ever know about Murderbot because it was a great ride in good company.

Of course, if there are more Murderbot books, I'd rather not have to buy them in four slices and end up paying four times the price. Did I mention that already? show less

It’s got attitude … SecUnits are never allowed to sit down or use human furniture whether on or off duty, so I sat in one of the chairs and put my feet up on the table. ... not to mention emotions ... I was having an emotion, and I hate that. I’d rather have nice safe emotions about shows on the entertainment media; having them about things real-life humans said and did just led to stupid decisions. And just why does it like watching media so much? Huh, why did I like Sanctuary Moon so much? I had to pull the memory from my archive, and what I saw there startled me. “It’s the first one I saw. When I hacked my governor module and picked up the entertainment feed. It made me feel like a person. Oh Murderbot, you’re breaking show more my heart.

This was a fantastic conclusion to the Murderbot Diaries first story arc and I’m SO glad the series doesn't end here. show less