Following right after the events of Network Effect, Murderbot, ART, and a selection of humans are working to foil the corporates and help the humans residing on the planet with the alien remnant contamination. When Murderbot and the crew hear rumours that there's another settlement near the pole of the planet, they go to investigate. Of course, as often happens with Murderbot, nothing goes super smoothly.

As long as Martha Wells keeps writing Murderbot books, I will keep reading them. As with every previous entry in the series, the character development is perfection, the action and suspense well-drawn, and the sarcastic banter between Murderbot and ART is my favourite thing ever. If you like sci fi even a little, I can't recommend this series enough. ( )

If you aren’t panicking, you’re not paying attention. Which might be Murderbot’s motto. Because reasons for panic seem to cluster around it. And more often than not, it has something to do with the Barish-Estranza corporation. Fortunately, our hero is not alone (unless you think it’s a bad thing that his friends and colleagues from Preservation ought to be panicking as well). If they can just clear out these ancient alien-tech infected ag-bots, then perhaps they can talk some sense with the humans on this godforsaken planet whom they are attempting to rescue. Unless there is another whole set of humans hidden away at the poles who have no idea that they even need rescuing yet. And oh, is that maybe B-E headed their way? Time to panic.

Once again, Martha Wells ratchets up the tension for Murderbot step by step so that it will be compelled to either collapse in an emotional shutdown and reboot, or once again be the hero it was born to be. Honestly, it’s almost like being in one of those entertainment vids that Murderbot and ART love to watch. Well, you get the picture.

Thoroughly enjoyable. Very easy to recommend. ( )

System Collapse - Wells
Audio performance by Kevin Free
3 stars

This book is a direct continuation of the events in Network Effect. ART’s crew and members of the Preservation team are engaged in a combined effort to prevent Barish-Estranze from acquiring a planet’s worth of colonists as indentured slaves. Murderbot is experiencing some strange after effects of the traumatic events of the previous book.

I never thought it was possible for a book in this series, but this one dragged a bit. The first part of the story was confusing with ‘redacted’ bits of MB’s diary interrupting the flow of explanations. When the action picked up towards the middle of the book, MB was vocal about just wanting to get the job done so they could leave the **** planet. I was in complete agreement with that thought. ( )

https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2023/11/2023166-system-collapse-martha-wells.html ( )

The newest book in the Murderbot Diaries series picks up where Network Effect left off. Murderbot, ART, and their humans are waiting for repairs to be made to ART, and in the meantime the human colony on the terraformed planet are in danger of becoming corporate slaves, so they might as well help them out, right?

But Murderbot has started malfunctioning in an unprecedented way and it is seriously impacting its performance reliability.

(Perhaps Dr. Mensah is not the only one who needs trauma treatment.)

As always, I loved it! We get Murderbot-ART shenanigans, we get to know ART’s humans a little better, we get to see a bit of Three’s progress as a newly freed SecUnit. And we get to see Murderbot go from a consumer of media to a maker of media! ( )