Murderbot So Far

No, I haven't heard from B&N yet that my copy is in, WTF, B&N? However, why wait to go into series detail?

With the excellent recent news that author Martha Wells has a deal for six new books, and three of them specifically Murderbot books, fans such as myself can relax: more of this excellent series is coming! As well as three non-Murderbot books, which I am also most interested in (I love her Raksura series, too). However, I thought this would be a good time to give a nod to the ‘read’ part of my blog title and give… the story so far.

Note 1: I will try to avoid major spoilers, but really, if you haven’t read any of them, and have any interest in the series, just stop reading here and go try All Systems Red, or at least try the excerpt here. You can thank me later—or, if you somehow don’t like it (I mean, anything is possible), you won’t have wasted your time reading the rest of this.

Note 2: All books are available in physical and e-book form, and in audio—those last being read by Kevin R. Free, who does a fantastic job, seriously, you should listen to them.

The basics: Murderbot is a part-bot/part-human construct, a Security Unit that is rented to clients for their protection during dangerous jobs. However, the client it is most protecting is the company that hires it, not the humans involved, and it has no say in where it goes. It’s a tool. It is also self-aware, and hates a lot about its job.

The series starts with four novellas:
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy

These set up the character of Murderbot (smart, sarcastic, awkward, relatable, and awesome), and the supporting cast (also lots of awesome, I especially love Ratthi but Pin-Lee rocks and of course Dr Mensah rules), and each story is satisfying on its own while also building to a strong overall conclusion. Fun fact: the author did not plan it this way! She wrote one, got asked to do a second, and then when they took off, continued on with the other two.

(The next item by interior chronology is a short story from the point of view of Dr Mensah, called Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory, set shortly after the end of Exit Strategy. It was a pre-order bonus when Network Effect came out, and is now available from Tor electronically (here), but not in physical form. It’s really cool to get the outside POV.)

Just out this week (ahem, for some people), but chronologically next, is another novella, Fugitive Telemetry, which is a murder mystery set on Preservation Station, as Murderbot is trying to figure out its place among the humans, some of whom are also not at all sure of its place there, or even that it should have a place.

Then Network Effect is a full-length novel, with some of the same characters and some different ones. I read one spoilery bit before I first read it, and it was Very Upsetting to me; although it worked out when I read it, I would have preferred not to have come across it, so I won’t go into detail, but I will say that having the longer canvas for the story, and room for lots of backstory and some future hints, was a lot of fun for me as a reader.

Wells said in an interview that of the three new ones, it will probably be one novel and two novellas; the more, the better, and I will take whatever she comes up with!