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Book 7 is, again, the most recent Murderbot book to date, but there are more on the way, we’re told, and thank goodness. This tip from Liz has been (yet again) a big winner. I took a big break between books 6 and 7 – pretty precisely three years, whew! but it wasn’t too bad to jump back in. I won’t say I recalled all the fine points of where we were and who the humans were, but I was close enough to follow along; I think I’m already a little liable, with sci fi in particular, to let some of the details of tech and even plot wash over me as I go with the general atmosphere, themes, and cleverness. The Murderbot Diaries are absolutely character-driven, with style (that is, chiefly, Murderbot’s unique, sarcastic voice and secretly-a-teddy-bear personality) carrying a good portion of the load as well. I’m way more here for Murderbot itself – its inner dialog, its anxieties and values and reluctant but absolute loyalties, its decision making and love for entertainment media – than anything that happens to it. Those events are only here to let Murderbot react and act and be its loveable self.

Murderbot is full of dryly funny observations about how inexplicable humans are. “Humans are great at imagining stuff. That’s why their media is so good.” “Not even humans know why humans do things.” It coins ‘argucussion’ for the argument/discussions its humans have. Upon conflict, one human says to Murderbot, “We should talk about this later,” and its internal narrative responds, “We probably should but we absolutely are not going to, not if I can help it.” Because Murderbot is as avoidant of its own emotions and trauma as any repressed, long-ignored, forced-to-be-self-reliant human. It is a very human SecUnit.

This edition, it is fair, may start a bit more mid-scene than usual even for Martha Wells (and this is a thing she does), and it’s been a while since I last knew where we were. Murderbot and its growing crew of beloved humans (it is reluctant to admit to this, of course, but we know it is true) and ART the sentient spaceship are in a tricky negotiation situation involving mistreated and rightfully suspicious colonists, evil corporation lackeys, and dangerous ancient aliens. There is action and fighting, and mysteriousness. Murderbot spends a fair amount of time pretending to be human, which is at least better than pretending to be a SecUnit that has not hacked its governor module (there’s a little bit of that as well). It has the opportunity to free other SecUnits, too, and that possibility and the other SecUnits’ reactions are promising for future books. I smell a sequel and I can’t wait.

Filed under: book reviews | Tagged: Liz, Murderbot Diaries, novella, sci fi |