Artificial Condition

Martha Wells

Book 2 in The Murderbot Diaries

Murderbot stows away on a transport ship in route to RaviHyral, where it hopes to find more information about a mass murder (which it apparently participated in but doesn't remember because of a memory reset). The transport turns out to be sentient and helpful, although Murderbot names it ART (Asshole Research Transport) to give you an idea of their working relationship. While in route, it takes a contract (as a way to get system access) with some scientists looking to retrieve some intellectual property. It gets some information about the event, and protects his scientist employers (although neither is obvious, of course).

I love the sarcasm, and the obvious coming-of-age of the sentient construct. And the ART-Murderbot relationship adds yet another dimension.  

4 stars (out of 4)

Network Effect

Martha Wells

Book 5 in The Murderbot Diaries

Network Effect is a full length standalone novel in the universe. Set immediately after the 1-4 novela storyarc, Murderbot is hired to support a survey team which includes Dr. Mensah's adolescent human as a member. Upon return, the survey ship is attached and Murderbot and Amena are both kidnapped, pulled into the pirate ship which immediately jumps into a wormhole. The pirate ship happens to be ART, that the kidnap is not random. We get to see the further developing relationship between Murderbot and ART, the reason why alien remnant technology is the one thing that all corporate entities agree should remain banned, and a fun dance between adolescent humans and adolescent constructs and their discussions of both human and bot relationships. No let up here -- Wells nails it. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Fugitive Telemetry

Martha Wells

Book 6 in The Murderbot Diaries

Another novella in the series. Murderbot, a Security Unit who has achieved sentience, and is now recognized by the Preservation as individual (i.e. not as property). While its primary employment is security for Dr. Mensah (see Books 1-5), in this serial Murderbot takes on a contract to solve a particularly strange murder on a Preservation station. What I continue to love about this series is the absolutely perfect narration and inner dialogue of Murderbot. I can't get enough.

4 stars (out of 4)

Platform Decay

Martha Wells

Book 8 in the Murderbot Series. My biggest complaint here is that this is a novella. I want more. This is another rescue mission, another unintended consequence from System Collapse with other parts of Dr. Mensah's family. Murderbot must infiltrate a hostile space station, get to the hostages, is thrown an unseen variable that completely changes the mission plan, and adjusts to accomplish it while encountering the benefits and detriments of his humanity. In many ways, this is retread material. But Wells is also extending the rogue secunit world by expanding the family of rogues. This version just sets up the storyline, but I look forward to exploring the ethics and implications of mass emancipation in future stories. For now, I am happy to see Murderbot maturing and developing new skills. 

Still 4 stars (out of 4)

Exit Strategy

Martha Wells

Book 4 in The Murderbot Diaries

This is the final entry is this 4 novela storyarc. GrayCris has kidnapped Dr. Mensah and paid off all kinds of station and corporation bribes to have pulled it off. Murderbot is reunited with his original Book 1 crew and works to free her. Lots of hacking and subterfuge. It is fascinating to participate in conversations or events from the perspective of the bot simply in terms of time cycles. Things happen so fast on the bot cycle and so slow on the human cycle and Wells does an excellent job of giving the reader a glimpse, feeling the impact on how events play out. Which is also why Murderbot has so much "free time" to watch telenovelas. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Rogue Protocol

Martha Wells

Book 3 in The Murderbot Diaries

Murderbot hears on the news feeds that Dr. Mensah is in a protracted legal battle with GrayCris. Dr. Mensah being his contracted employer in Book 1, and GrayCris the corporation that did the murdering. So it hitches a ride to Milu, another operation of GrayCris that is involved in a sketchy legal battle, hoping to get some evidence of wrongdoing to support Dr. Mensah. Along the way, it contracts with the reps for the corporation that is aggrieved by GrayCris, provides security for them on a fact finding trip to an orbiting planetary terraforming station, and (of course) saves their lives against ridiculous odds. Again, plot is space opera but the growth and development of Murderbot as a character is pure gold.

4 stars (out of 4)

Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

Martha Wells

Short Story in The Murderbot Diaries

Not even a novella, this is a very short story. Murderbot and Dr. Mensah have a moment of shared PTS and begin to explore their value to each other as survivors. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Sea of Rust

C. Robert Cargill

Cargill has created a post-human world that is populated by machines. In following the narrator (Brittle) as a freebot who scavenges for parts in the central plains (the Sea of Rust), we get a picture of what life is like for these beings. And with the occasional flashback or memory retrieval, we see how this world came to be. The primary conflict in the world is between the giant mainframes who are competing to become the One World Intelligence by assimilating all the memories and experiences of all other AI machines. Definitely a Borg origin story vibe going on here. Brittle, on the other hand, is a free and independent AI, and is striving to stay that way. She has some serious similarities to Martha Wells' Murderbot. It should not be surprising, that since this is a story of the early independence of sentient AI's, we get to explore the existential questions of life, and meaning, and identity. By integrating these themes with great action and characters, Cargill really hit this one out of the park. 

4 stars (out of 4)

Murderbot (series)

Martha Wells

Having watched the season 1 series, I have re-read all the murdebot novellas over the past 3 months. See the original reviews here

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

Network Effect

Fugitive Telemetry

System Collapse

In short, there are lots of details I don't remember so I am having fun reading these anew. I also am happy to report that my initial enthusiasm for Martha Wells and this series is warranted. This is a really fun exploration of humanity.

Still 4 stars (out of 4)

Wheel of the Infinite

Martha Wells

One of her early works (2000), this stand alone novel is exactly what I expect from Wells. Maskelle is the protagonist, an exiled shaman/sorceress who is know as the Voice of the Adversary. She is joined by Rian, a highly skilled body guard who recently abandoned his post because he got morals. The two journey across country, Maskelle having been summoned by the Celestial One (chief shaman) and find that nothing less that existence is at stake for all humanity. No big. A fascinating world that is different that other magical fantasy. The attitude and sass of Maskelle foreshadows the personality and of Murderbot some 20 years later. Love it. 

4 stars (out of 4)

All Systems Red

Martha Wells

Book 1 in The Murderbot Diaries

A space opera. In this universe, the Corporation Rim is an area of the galaxy where corporations own planets, start colonies and basically control life. When groups want to undertake an operation (for example, surveying a planet or salvaging a wreck), they contract with a bond company to provide equipment and security. The security is often in the form of a SecUnit - a construct which combines robotic and cloned human organic parts (not a cyborg I suppose because the organics are cloned, not original). Also, a construct is created, which is different than an augmented human (which we might traditionally think of as cyborg). Anyway, our protagonist is a particular SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, allowing it to be independent. And it finds that in addition to being good at security, it loves watching the telenovela serials on galactic media. So it keeps its "freedom" secret (besides which if anyone knew it would be sent to the recycler for disassembly). 

In this world, SecUnit is contracted to a survey team, which happens to get attacked. They barely get out alive. End first installment.

Wells world is fabulous and is exactly the type of sci-fi storytelling (sentient AI) that I have found most fascinating and memorable over the past few years. 

4 stars (out of 4)

System Collapse

Martha Wells

Book 7 in The Murderbot Diaries

SecUnit is on the surface of a planet, doing his SecUnit thing protecting his humans. On this planet, his humans are trying to negotiate with colonists to help them with planet ownership, trying to remove infected alien technology and not kill humans from the corporation trying to kidnap colonists and press them into slavery. All of this while trying to hold off a mental breakdown in his "squishy bits". This continues to be one of my favorite series of all time. 

4 stars (out of 4)