Fugitive Telemetry
by Martha Wells 
The Murderbot Diaries (6), Murderbot Diaries [Chronological order] (5)
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When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people? who knew?) Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans, again.Tags
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FUGITIVE TELEMETRY might be the sixth entry in Martha Wells' The Murderbot Diaries, but beware that it comes before NETWORK EFFECT in the series' chronological order. This is something I found out after I started it, as I got really confused when Murderbot was still on Preservation Station. While this little mix-up did not detract from my enjoyment of the story, I wish I had followed the chronological order instead of the published one.
Anyway, FUGITIVE TELEMETRY is less like the other stories in the series and more like a traditional murder mystery, complete with a disgruntled investigator and plenty of secrets. Not only do we get to see Murderbot grow more comfortable around humans, but we also get a more carefree Murderbot. I say show more that because the stakes are lower in this story, and the story's tone is not as serious as the series to date. This is simply Murderbot attempting to solve a murder alongside the station police.
FUGITIVE TELEMETRY might be tonally different than the previous Murderbot stories. However, it still has Murderbot's snark, his bafflement and discomfort with human behaviors, and his general air of superiority to any sentient entity. The fact that none of Murderbot's chosen humans are in danger means there is less shooting and more humor in this novella. I feel this is my favorite Murderbot story so far because it was a refreshing change from the Corporation-versus-the-universe theme. At just over four hours as an audiobook, it was a great way to while away an afternoon. show less
Anyway, FUGITIVE TELEMETRY is less like the other stories in the series and more like a traditional murder mystery, complete with a disgruntled investigator and plenty of secrets. Not only do we get to see Murderbot grow more comfortable around humans, but we also get a more carefree Murderbot. I say show more that because the stakes are lower in this story, and the story's tone is not as serious as the series to date. This is simply Murderbot attempting to solve a murder alongside the station police.
FUGITIVE TELEMETRY might be tonally different than the previous Murderbot stories. However, it still has Murderbot's snark, his bafflement and discomfort with human behaviors, and his general air of superiority to any sentient entity. The fact that none of Murderbot's chosen humans are in danger means there is less shooting and more humor in this novella. I feel this is my favorite Murderbot story so far because it was a refreshing change from the Corporation-versus-the-universe theme. At just over four hours as an audiobook, it was a great way to while away an afternoon. show less
Fugitive Telemetry is a novella like the original four, but this one is a murder mystery. The story combines tropes from classic mystery stories with the world of Murderbot, where bots of all kinds are autonomous and a very few are accepted as people.
Murderbot plays the part of the private eye, who isn’t trusted by the cops, but ends up using his superior reasoning ability to find clues and solve the murder before they can, gaining their grudging respect.
It’s a great meshing of genres - Murderbot’s cranky, cynical and sarcastic tone and dry sense of humor is the perfect match for that of the down-on-their-luck gumshoes of classic private eye stories. This is without a doubt my favorite Murderbot story.
Murderbot plays the part of the private eye, who isn’t trusted by the cops, but ends up using his superior reasoning ability to find clues and solve the murder before they can, gaining their grudging respect.
It’s a great meshing of genres - Murderbot’s cranky, cynical and sarcastic tone and dry sense of humor is the perfect match for that of the down-on-their-luck gumshoes of classic private eye stories. This is without a doubt my favorite Murderbot story.
This book is set between books 4 ([Exit Strategy]) and 5 ([Network Effect]) of the series. A dead body is found on the space station Preservation, and of course the first suspect is a recently-arrived bot with “murder” right in their name. But the reader knows that Murderbot would never do that (leave a dead body laying around, obviously), and it is enlisted to help the police figure out the truth.
I do love these books, but this is my least-favorite. I don’t like the idea of Murderbot working with the cops, even reluctantly. The story goes out of its way to constrain Murderbot so it only uses publicly-available information to solve the murder, but I still don’t like having to think about it potentially violating civil rights in show more a relatively normal society. The ending turns out to be really, really good, but I’m looking forward to moving on in the next book. show less
I do love these books, but this is my least-favorite. I don’t like the idea of Murderbot working with the cops, even reluctantly. The story goes out of its way to constrain Murderbot so it only uses publicly-available information to solve the murder, but I still don’t like having to think about it potentially violating civil rights in show more a relatively normal society. The ending turns out to be really, really good, but I’m looking forward to moving on in the next book. show less
Can a rogue SecUnit engage safely and sensibly with station security in the investigation of the murder of an unidentified human? I don’t know. Can sarcasm exist without animosity? Well, in the case of Murderbot, sarcasm is just a default setting and paranoia is just the rational response to everybody (from the Corporation Rim) trying to kill you. Sure, it can assist station security, especially if Dr Mensah says it is the right thing to do. Even if that means talking to humans face to face. Ugh!
It’s another Murderbot adventure that tests our hero to its limits, though without the high bodycount its engagement sometimes elicits. At first it is just a mysterious murder at play, but soon enough the complications set in. And even show more though GrayGris is not involved, it’s highly likely that some corporate lies behind whatever is happening here. So it’s probably a good thing that Murderbot is on the case.
Fun hardly begins to describe the pleasure in picking up another Murderbot story. From pacing to perspective, I like everything about this series. And I can hardly wait for the next one to arrive.
Recommended. show less
It’s another Murderbot adventure that tests our hero to its limits, though without the high bodycount its engagement sometimes elicits. At first it is just a mysterious murder at play, but soon enough the complications set in. And even show more though GrayGris is not involved, it’s highly likely that some corporate lies behind whatever is happening here. So it’s probably a good thing that Murderbot is on the case.
Fun hardly begins to describe the pleasure in picking up another Murderbot story. From pacing to perspective, I like everything about this series. And I can hardly wait for the next one to arrive.
Recommended. show less
The snark is alive and well in Martha Wells’ latest release in her Murderbot Diaries, FUGITIVE TELEMETRY. SecUnit must solve a murder on Preservation Station (it had nothing to do with said murder), and is perpetually exasperated with the humans around it, as usual. Is GrayCris finally making a move against Dr. Mensah? Or is it someone completely new for Murderbot to worry about? The mystery is solid, and the resolution actually surprised me a bit. Wells continues to amaze me with her exploration of what it means to be human thru the eyes of an ever-perplexed cyborg.
The publisher plot descriptions for the Murderbot books make them seem like they might be flippant, irony-fueled, shallow (to quote one deeply inadequate description, "pew-pew") space fight books. But that's not really the vibe at all! They're certainly funny and action-packed, but they're also fundamentally kind, intriguing space mysteries with a deeply traumatized but entirely badass robot narrator. I care so much about Murderbot.
I quite liked this book--it's always great to see Murderbot growing and making friends--but I didn't like it quite as much as the other books in the series. At first, I thought it was because the stakes were lower than in the previous story, Network Effect, or that it was the difference in tone from a scifi thriller to murder mystery.
But I think the actual difference is that all the previous stories felt like one on-going story arc, and Fugitive Telemetry feels more like a story from a more episodic series. It felt more like the set-up to a different sort of series starring Murderbot than the one we've been following up til now.
Which, again, is not to say I didn't like this. I did, quite a lot. There were a lot of great character show more moments, parts where I laughed out loud and parts where I wanted to tell Murderbot same and parts where I got upset on Murderbot's behalf. There were several new characters I liked and hope show up in future stories. It was great, just a bit different from what had come before. show less
But I think the actual difference is that all the previous stories felt like one on-going story arc, and Fugitive Telemetry feels more like a story from a more episodic series. It felt more like the set-up to a different sort of series starring Murderbot than the one we've been following up til now.
Which, again, is not to say I didn't like this. I did, quite a lot. There were a lot of great character show more moments, parts where I laughed out loud and parts where I wanted to tell Murderbot same and parts where I got upset on Murderbot's behalf. There were several new characters I liked and hope show up in future stories. It was great, just a bit different from what had come before. show less
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Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells in Science Fiction Fans (March 21)
Author Information
89+ Works 49,072 Members
Martha Wells is an American author, born in 1964, based in Texas. She writes fantasy and science fiction novels, novellas, and short stories. Her first novel was, The Element of Fire, published in 1993. Her other work includes City of Bones, The Death of the Necromancer, The Fall of IIe-Rien trilogy, Books of Raksura series, The Murderbot Diaries show more series, and Stargate universe novels. She was awarded the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella for All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Martha Wells is a LibraryThing Author, an author who lists their personal library on LibraryThing.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Fugitive Telemetry
- Original title
- Fugitive Telemetry
- Original publication date
- 2021-04-27
- People/Characters
- Murderbot; Indah; Ayda Mensah; Tural; Pin-Lee; Tellus (show all 15); Lutran; Dr. Ratthi; Dr. Gurathin; Doran; Aylen; Farid; Tifany; Gamila; Balin
- Important places
- Preservation Station, Preservation Alliance; Preservation Alliance
- First words
- The dead human was lying on the deck, on their side, half curled around.
- Quotations
- The full station threat assessment for murder was sitting at a baseline 7 percent. (To make it drop lower than that we'd have to be on an uninhabited planet.)
Humans do the "make it a question so it doesn't sound so bad" thing and it still sounds bad.
"Corporate slave labor camps."
I said, "Yes, but if we call them that, Marketing and Branding gets angry and we get a power surge through our brains that fries little pieces of our neural tissue."
Being the top Preservation expert in dealing with contract law in the Corporation Rim apparently made Pin-Lee like the CombatUnit version of a lawyer.
Yeah, good luck with that. Trying to get humans not to touch dangerous things was a full-time job. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)She said, “Understood.”
- Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.08762
- Canonical LCC
- PS3573.E4932
Classifications
- Genres
- Science Fiction, Fiction and Literature, Mystery
- DDC/MDS
- 813.08762 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English By type Genre fiction Adventure fiction Speculative fiction Science fiction
- LCC
- PS3573 .E4932 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1961-
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 3,166
- Popularity
- 5,512
- Reviews
- 165
- Rating
- (4.19)
- Languages
- 5 — Czech, English, Finnish, French, Turkish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 12
- ASINs
- 7