Compulsory (#0.5)
Meet Murderbot. This story introduces Murderbot to the world in a bite-sized chunk of human rescue, internal dialog, and hacking. Murderbot doesn’t know why it rescues the humans. Technically, it shouldn’t because the HubSystem tells him to stay put and wait for the Safetybot to save the human. Is Murderbot a person or a machine? Reading this short story is a quick way to decide if you like the Murderbot vibe.
All Systems Red (#1)
Murderbot is a human/machine hybrid in charge of security for a survey team on a distant planet. It struggles with human interactions/emotions, preferring the humans in its’ charge to perceive him as a robot rather than a person. Murderbot has to step up its security game once its team is attacked by violent predators on the planet, then by an unknown, rogue team of surveyors with hacked security bots. The bad guys wipe out a different survey team and try to hijack Murderbot when it investigates the other team’s habitat. Murderbot’s team rescues him, and they work their way off the planet to safety. Thanks, Lucas, for the recommendation.
This book is for sci-fi fans and socially awkward humans.
(Rated PG-13, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 3:17)
Artificial Condition (#2)
In book two, Murderbot wanders around space, trying to find answers about his past. He travels on transports by bargaining with the bots or constructs in charge of the ships. One ship computer nicknamed ART helps Murderbot adjust its behavior, movement, and physical appearance so it wouldn’t be immediately recognizable as a Security Construct. Murderbot acts as a security consultant for a group of researchers who are being scammed by their employer. While protecting and advising the researchers, Murderbot uncovers critical details from the incident, which earned its nickname (Murderbot). It turns out that Murderbot was not to blame for the mass murder that happened in the past. The internal dialog that Murderbot records on these adventures is an interesting balance of snark, humor, irony, tech, and emotions. Despite not understanding or liking humans, Murderbot does an excellent job protecting his clients.
This book is for sci-fi fans, short-book readers, and socially awkward humans.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 3:21)
Rogue Protocol (#3)
In book three, Murderbot develops a theory about GrayCris, the corporation involved in the scandal from book one, and the massacre Murderbot investigates in book two. The theory leads him to an abandoned terraforming facility in orbit over the planet Milu. Murderbot thinks that there could be evidence that GrayCris is illegally and craftily digging into alien ruins on planets like Milu. To get onto the facility, Murderbot befriends a humanoid bot named Miki. Murderbot pretends to be a hired SecUnit on the facility to help secure Miki’s humans. The humans fall into a trap that is set to send the facility crashing to the planet to destroy evidence that GrayCris is hiding. Murderbot finds himself saving another set of humans from imminent death. Evidence in hand, Murderbot decides to visit Dr. Mensah, who freed him in book one. She’ll know what to do with the data.
This book is for techies, sci-fi fans, and adventurers.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 3:46)
Exit Strategy (#4)
Murderbot still doesn’t know what it wants to be when it grows up, but now it has a problem. The bad guys (GrayCris) discover Murderbot is investigating their past sins. They assume that Murderbot is working on Dr. Mensah’s orders, so they kidnap her. When Murderbot returns to give Dr. Mensah the incriminating evidence, the pieces fall into place, and he realizes how things have gone sideways, and it’s probably his fault. Well, it's not his fault that bad guys do bad things, but that he put Dr. Mensah in a bad situation, and the bad people are reacting in bad ways. Murderbot has to track down Dr. Mensah and her team working to negotiate a ransom agreement. Things get messy as soon as GrayCris lures Murderbot out into the open. Murderbot faces two other security bots and a combat security bot. It looks like the team has successfully escaped, but GrayCris is fully committed to killing Murderbot and Dr. Mensah, so they attack the gunship they are on with a raiding party and a violent cyber monster thing. Murderbot manages to trick the vicious attacker and save the crew, but he suffers a complete meltdown and takes months to recover. Murderbot still doesn’t like humans or having emotions about them, but it has a pattern of saving the ones that are good to him.
This book is for the snarky reader, the rushed reader, and sci-fi fans.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 3:46)
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (4.5)
This is a short story told by Dr. Ayda Mensah instead of Murderbot. The story shows the tension and recovery the doctor is going through after being rescued by Murderbot in book 4. Being held hostage as a bargaining chip isn’t the sort of treatment one just sleeps off. The short narrative also hints at the relationship Dr. Mensah is building with Murderbot as it protects her and learns to interact with humans as a person rather than being treated like a machine. Narrated from the doctor’s view, the language is much softer, less technical, and less sarcastic. The author also attempts to discuss the delicate blend of man vs machine in a world where the lines are extremely blurred. Are machines with human parts, people, or are they machines? How can we tell? Interesting questions as we advance in biotechnology.
This short story is for readers who have read at least book 4 in the series.
(Rated PG-13, Score 7/10, ebook, 20p.)
Network Effect (#5)
Murderbot stars in his first full-length novel. It’s just a longer story than the first four. It has the same snark, the same allergy to emotions, and the same saving the humans. Murderbot starts the story on a survey trip trying to save his humans from space pirates. The team escapes, killing a few of the hostiles, only to be captured by a different spaceship and dragged through a wormhole. Turns out the different ship is ART, the ship that helps Murderbot in book two, but ART is in trouble. ART’s crew has been kidnapped by alien-contaminated humans. Murderbot helps restore ART, find and rescue his crew, and destroy the alien construct that attacked the humans. During the adventure, Murderbot gets captured by the bad guys. ART, the humans, and a new rogue SecBot team up to rescue Murderbot. Murderbot is used to being expendable, so it has lots of emotions about being rescued. It hates having emotions. The interior dialog that narrates the story is hilarious, and the swearing is more prolific in this volume.
This book is for adventurers, alien-seekers, and jokesters.
(Rated R, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 12:47)
Book 6 takes place on Preservation Station, where Murderbot is protecting Doctor Mensah. The action kicks off when Murderbot finds a dead body. Still trying to gain the trust of the station security people, Murderbot plays nice and joins the investigation. Since Murderbot agreed not to hack any of the station systems, the investigation takes a lot more hands-on work. Murderbot scans the murder scene and finds that the body has been cleaned of contact DNA evidence, and also, the victim’s travel bag is missing. The station goes into lockdown, and Murderbot goes hunting for the transport the victim came in on. Murderbot stumbles into the middle of a slave trafficking ring and realizes the dead human was in charge of helping some former slaves who were being moved to freedom. Murderbot rescues the refugees, arrests some of the smugglers, and gets shot in the process. Finally, Murderbot confronts the combatbot, who is the murderer, and shuts it down before anyone else gets hurt. By solving the murder, Murderbot gains the respect of the station security chief and agrees to help if needed in the future.
This book is for space crime solvers, hackers, and humanitarians.
(Rated R, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 4:24)
Murderbot is finally back for book seven. Murderbot is a SecUnit, which is a hybrid robot/human construct designed to protect humans from all the dumb things they do to themselves and others, as well as all the things in the universe that can kill them. In this story, Murderbot is working with his humans and ART to protect a colony of humans from the evil corporation, Barish-Estranza, who is trying to round them up and make them slaves. The plot is pretty straightforward, but the way it is told through Murderbot’s thoughts/experiences makes it fluid and complex. The planet has a blackout zone where the colonists are hiding, which keeps Murderbot and his humans from using all their resources like ART and other equipment. The planet also has giant robots for agriculture that have alien contamination (they are now giant death machines), so that livens things up, too. Like the other books, I will have to reread this one to soak up all the nuance and complexity. I’ll probably go back and start at book one because these books are hilarious. The characters are complex, the dialogue (internal and external) is clever, and the story development is well-crafted.
This is for sci-fi fans and anyone who enjoys good banter.
(Rated R, Score 8/10, Audiobook read by Kevin R. Free, 6:36)
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