“So the next time I get optimistic about something, I want one of you to punch me in the face.”

Another Murderbot book, another instance where I relate to a robot that feels too many emotions and doesn’t want to! This one was just as fun as the others—and to be fair, one of my favorites!!! There was a lot of mental health woven into the plot this time and it was interesting to see how Murderbot dealt with it. It clearly wants to redact everything and pretend it didn’t happen.

Same, Murderbot, welcome to the human condition.

Plus, the Alien drama in this one was exciting! I just love the way Martha webs the plot of these books so easily while remaining true to the vibe Murderbot exudes. I always go into these books thinking I’m just gonna be laughing at Murderbot’s internal dialogue and then I realize there’s an intricate plot Martha is carrying, too. The technical speak of these books makes me wonder what she’s researched or knowledgeable on to be so realistic with it all, without making my brain hurt either. Murderbot is such a fun outlet to explain things in layman’s terms. It just flows so well!

Murderbot’s friendship with ART will never not amuse me. I love the way they interact with one another, and I find immense amusement in the way Murderbot pretends to hate ART. We all read and know ART does things for Murderbot because it cares, and vice versa. Dumbasses. Both of them. Just like us humans.

“And I am aware of the irony, since I know exactly how hard the question “what do you want” can be when you don’t have a fucking clue what you want.”

Murderbot has much to learn, even going forward, and I am excited to see what journey it takes us on next!!! I wonder what else Murderbot will find itself catching feelings for! Watch it befriend a dog or something.

Thank you NETGALLEY and Tor Publishing Group for providing me an eARC!!

Our favorite SecUnit is back and this time is trying to save a colony from being taken as pretty much worker slaves by the Barish-Estrenza cooperation, since they could not have the whole planet. Our murderbot friend is here to make sure that doesn’t happen, but there is something wrong and she can’t figure out what it is. She is on her own as everyone else is working on the colony and colonist.
This is a good book with tons of action and suspense, it will have you up past your bedtime seeing what is going to happen next. I love this series and I think it is even better as a audio if you like that route. Either way I is a book you won’t want to miss.

SecUnit is not ok. I am also not ok. System Collapse, the seventh in the Murderbot Diaries series is stressful. Amazing, but stressful as heck.

You cannot read System Collapse if you haven’t read Network Effect. The action picks up not long after Network Effect ends. ART is still repairing its worm hole drive, the Preservation crew and the University crew are working together to create a charter that will give the colonists (formerly known as the Targets) control over their planet and their future. Barish-Estranza is there still trying to stake a claim on the planet and its inhabitants. The alien remnant contamination continues to be a problem. More than at any other point in the series, Murderbot is struggling with trauma. On top of the ever present danger posed to its humans by other humans, unknown threats from planetary flora and fauna, corporations, and alien remnant contamination, Murderbot thinks it might be a danger to its humans.

The Murderbot Diaries have always been about being disposable in a private corporation dominated universe. Many of us fell in love with SecUnit (Murderbot if you are in the know), its struggle to make a place for itself outside its former owner’s control, and its entirely relatable desire to be left alone to watch the entertainment feed. It’s easy to identify with Murderbot as we live through this slow rolling apocalypse wondering if we will have to work until we drop dead, and we watch the illusion of autonomy get stripped away. Murderbot can hack systems and shoot things while grumpily trying to make the most ethical choices possible in a way that we can’t. While trauma has been a constant undercurrent in the series, in System Collapse trauma movies to the forefront. Murderbot suffered multiple traumas and though they have an external support system for recovery, its internal coping mechanisms are not robust. It must overcome the internalized message from its former owners that it is only worthwhile if it can perform its job.

Martha Wells writes about such terribly human things while also giving us a banger of an adventure. This installment hit me particularly hard because I learned that my father died recently and our estrangement was directly related to issues of trauma, (the lack of) coping skills, and (the lack of) external support for healing.

It would technically be fiction, but the kind of fiction that was true in all the ways that mattered.

I love you, Murderbot, but not in a weird way.

CW: trauma, violence in past and on page, attempted murder, physical and emotional injury.

I received this as an advance reader copy from Tordotcom and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.

Murderbot's back and better than ever, folks! Well, that's not strictly true, is it. Murderbot is actually experiencing [redacted]. And as much as it wishes it could go watch some media in a bunk, there's human-saving to do. And this time it involves… a home movie?? You'll have to read it to believe it. I absolutely loved returning to the world of Murderbot and picking up where we left off after Network Effect. I read this installment across the span of a single travel day, getting a few pages in here and there on two planes and three airports. I already can't wait for the next entry in the series!

Are we surprised? Honestly, Wells is a master of her work.

Murderbot continues to grow and develop as a character. The side characters and the experiences continue to build. I am beyond thankful to read this book prior to the pub date, and thank NetGalley and Tor for the opportunity.

Jumping in from book 5 (Network Effect, the full length novel) this story moves a mile a minute. I definitely recommend a reread prior to jumping into this one on the simple basis that I can't remember shit, and probably you can't really either. If you love Murderbot's sassy stupid humans banter, best practices for avoiding feelings -and leaking- you'll enjoy this book.

I knew this was a series but I didn't realize it was the seventh book in the series which meant I had to do a little bit of back reading before I got into it and I'm very glad I did. The world and the characters and writing were just so interesting; I'll definitely be reading more.

The short version is that if you've loved Murderbot for the first six books then this continues the best things from the earlier stories while giving a chance to get acquainted with ART's crew in slightly less dire circumstances (at least for them). I was completely immersed in all the best ways, don't miss SYSTEM COLLAPSE!

As a sequel, this covers the next steps of Murderbot and ART's crew dealing with the colonists whom they met in NETWORK EFFECT. It doesn’t precisely wrap up anything left hanging, but that’s mostly because there wasn't a distinct sense that more follow-up was needed on that planet. The main thing teased was the idea that Murderbot would continue to travel with ART, but in this book they aren't quite ready to begin other journeys. Instead the opening chapters form full link between that story and this one. Because they change locations on the planet, this gets to be a mostly new storyline, despite having ties to a prior entry. Once they knew they had to change locations, it becomes much more about what’s happening now, rather than the group they left behind.

This introduces and resolves the fate of the second colony on the planet. It’s not the last book and it specifically establishes the next thing that Murderbot wants to do in a way that most of the other books really couldn’t. This is a pretty direct follow-up to events in NETWORK EFFECT, and would be much less satisfying for anyone who tried to start here without having read the previous books. Because its direct predecessor, FUGITIVE TELEMENTARY, takes place out of sequence with NETWORK EFFECT and SYSTEM COLLAPSE, technically, I guess you could skip that book, but the rest are essential in terms of plot. All of them are very important for character development. The heart of the story is Murderbot's internal journey of figuring out autonomy and personhood, including how attached it feels to either of those ideas with relation to itself. This means that character establishment is pretty quick in each of the books. Murderbot's whole deal is very understandable from just a few snippets . Its character development happens much more slowly, as figuring out what it wants distinct from, but not necessarily separate from other beings is a long process that has had room to breathe over the volumes. As to the specific story, there was a lot to clean up on the planet after NETWORK EFFECT. Early in this book, ART's crew is made aware of a complication that requires their attention. This complication is significant enough that dealing with it is the focus of the rest of the book.

SYSTEM COLLAPSE has a lot of very cool worldbuilding related to the other colony, but done in a way that reflects those differences through the things that Murderbot cares about, specifically, communication and media. One of my favorite bits is that we actually get some background for one member of ART's crew because there are some ways in which his former training is closer to Murderbot than to his fellow researchers. Those few similarities end up reinforcing the gap between what Murderbot can do and what even the best-trained human is capable of as far as combat and tactics.

This series gripped me from the start. It was inventive, clever, funny, and just the right cocktail of sci-fi, entertainment, and action. However, somewhere along the way the balance seemed to tip and it became hard to follow along in the story. With the previous book being a full scale novel, this felt like it dragged on too much. Sadly, I just wasn’t able to focus on the story or feel moved by murder bot’s continued journey.

4/5 stars

*Initial thoughts*

Another excellent entry in the Murderbot Series. Set right after the events of Network Effect, this story follows Murderbot, ART, the University team, and the Preservation team as they try to save the colonists from becoming the B-E Corporation's slaves. This story is on the darker side of things due to the nature of the conflict with B-E Corp and due to Murderbot's understandable emotional trauma after the events of Network Effect (anxiety, self-doubt, depression, etc. - Murderbot is not having a good time emotionally in this book). However there were still plenty of lighter found family and friendship feels (especially between ART and Murderbot), which are something I really enjoyed in the previous books. There is also some exciting action sequences and the snarky Murderbot and ART asides and conversations that we know and love from the previous books.

*eARC provided by Netgalley and Tordotcom Publishing in exchange for a fair and honest review*

Murderbot is back! After the events of Network Effect, Murderbot and ART are still on the planet of the creepy alien remnants, trying to keep the human settlers from being conscripted as slave labor by Barrish -Estranza. Murderbot is suffering from what looks an awful lot like PTSD, feeling like it is failing its humans while being unable to get past the horrors it witnessed. When the settlers tell Murderbot that there are still some people left at a hidden site, Murderbot, Iris, Ratthi, and Tariq go to rescue them - or maybe get killed by alien-contaminated humans, Murderbot isn't sure. Murderbot's sarcasm is pulls back somewhat, leaving room for vulnerability and the heroism it would deny if asked about. It's relationship with ART continues to be a delight - they've accepted that they care about each other, but still snipe back and forth delightfully. This is a can't-miss installment for fans of the Hugo-winning series.

Oh, MurderBot. What a ridiculous concept - - robot created for violence that gains sentience and just wants to chill watching soap operas - that had grown into a poignant depiction of what it means to be human and to love. Yes, I said it- a murderous robot is often a keen observer of human nature and interactions in these novellas.

Throughout the series, the novellas I enjoyed the most always involved Murderbot coming to some personal realization and building attachments to others whether human or artificial. Unfortunately, neither of these truly land on the mark.

System Collapse is a full-length novel, which I do think isn’t hugely advantageous. It is somehow too long and too short at the same time. I didn’t love the plot device of MurderBot having a malfunction, but did love the moments of it fighting to maintain people who it loves. I spent a fair amount of the story confused and I don’t love that. So without spoilers, most of what I can say is it was… alright.

My thanks to NetGalley for an eARC of System Collapse in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Murderbot has definitely Been Through A Thing and definitely does not want to talk about what that Thing was, but it is going to have to if it wants to save its humans. And no matter how much Murderbot has been through, it will always try to save its humans.

System Collapse wasn’t quite what I expected, but I LOVED it. It was an excellent installment in the series and develops the characters (especially SecUnit and ART) even as they careen from ill-fated adventure to ill-fated adventure in classic Murderbot style. Wells excels at balancing action with character building, description with dialogue, and reason with emotion. This is certainly the most contemplative book in the series, but satisfyingly so, given the preceding events of Network Effect.

Were there even more loose narrative threads from the previous novel I wish Wells might have tugged? Yes. For instance, I’d have loved a few more glimpses of Three. But leaving your readers wanting more rather than wishing for less is always a good thing, and the Murderbot diaries remain focused while implying a tantalizingly vast world beyond. I can only hope for further installments. I would whole-heartedly recommend this book to fans, but would definitely suggest reading Network Effect before System Collapse for anyone unfamiliar with this fantastic series.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review! System Collapse, by Martha Wells, is the seventh installment in The Murderbot Diaries, though only the second full-length novel in this series (and even at that, it's still short!). Wells' latest installment was easily another five-star Murderbot diary entry for me.

We pick up after the events of Network Effect, with Murderbot, ART and our combined Preservation/University/Colonist crews royally stuck. ART's wormhole drive is still out of commission, Preservation back-up ships haven't arrived, and our current corporate-villain Barish-Estranza is attempting to subvert their efforts to free the colonists and/or set them up for independence (by instead attempting to convince the colonists to sign away their own freedom as contract, read: slave, labor). And on top of this giant mess, we have a highly traumatized Murderbot still coping with the final events of Network Effect.

Throughout the first half we know something significant happened that has divided Murderbot's sense of self into before and after, but the event itself is redacted from Murderbot's entry. Our generally sarcastic but self-assured Murderbot is now deeply uneasy, compulsively checking its risk assessment module and performance reliability, frequently drifting into thought and forgetting its surroundings, and, most shocking, doubting its ability and worth at every turn. For anyone who has lived experienced with panic attacks or panic disorder, Murderbot's distress is painfully real. It spends a majority of the book's mission attempting to function while processing past events. Each installment in this series manages to explore a new facet of personhood, belonging and self-awareness, and this was perhaps the most emotional journey yet. Ultimately, System Collapse is a deeply satisfying conclusion to the events of Network Effect and I highly recommend to all Murderbot readers.

"System Collapse" by Martha Wells is another thrilling addition to the beloved Murderbot Diaries series that continues to captivate readers with its unique blend of sci-fi action, humor, and deep exploration of identity.

Picking up where "Network Effect" left off, the story delves into the aftermath of the events on the newly-colonized planet. As the Barish-Estranza corporation's influence looms over the colony, tensions rise, and Murderbot finds itself facing new challenges. The novel skillfully balances suspenseful action sequences with moments of introspection and humor, making it a compelling and engaging read from start to finish.

One of the highlights of the series is the character of Murderbot itself, a SecUnit that defies expectations by showing a depth of emotion and self-awareness beyond its programming. In "System Collapse," readers witness the internal struggle of Murderbot as it navigates its own identity and confronts the question of what it truly means to be free.

Martha Wells' writing continues to shine, with a narrative that seamlessly blends fast-paced plot progression with insightful commentary on autonomy, ethics, and the complexities of human relationships. The interactions between characters, including the witty banter between Murderbot and ART's crew, add layers of depth to the story and create a sense of camaraderie that resonates with readers.

As the tension builds and the stakes escalate, "System Collapse" keeps readers on the edge of their seats, eagerly turning pages to discover how Murderbot will navigate the challenges it faces. The novel's exploration of themes such as corporate greed, individual agency, and the search for one's place in the universe adds a thought-provoking dimension to the narrative.

Overall, "System Collapse" is a superb continuation of the Murderbot Diaries series that delivers on all fronts: action, emotion, and intellectual engagement. Martha Wells' ability to create a captivating and multi-layered story within the confines of a novella is a testament to her skill as a writer. Fans of the series and newcomers alike will find themselves immersed in the world of Murderbot once again, eagerly awaiting its next adventure.

I was so excited for this book; I feel like I’ve been waiting years to find out what happens after the events of Network Effect. This book finally reveals this section of the Murderbot Diaries timeline.

I read it slowly so I could savor the experience since I love this series so much. However, even though this book is long form like Network Effect and I parsed the chapters out to myself slowly, it was still over too soon.

I’m sure I’ll be reading this again, just like all the books in this series, because I can’t get enough Murderbot. I would like more of Three and I can’t wait for the next installment in this series!

Murderbot returns, now with Added Anxiety and Trauma™ and [redacted] and whomst among us doesn't have a little of our own trauma, anxiety, and [redacted] and thus cannot sympathize? This is your standard, incredible Murderbot book, filled with corporate malfeasance, stressful situations for all of the humans Murderbot cares about, plenty of snark with ART, and is both poignant and laugh out loud funny. May we all achieve a little of what Murderbot achieves in the end, in our own way.

"And I did know, and now I was having an emotion. Like a big overwhelming emotion. It felt bad but good, a weird combination of happy and sad and relieved, like something had been stuck and it wasn't stuck anymore."

HELL YEAH, MURDERBOT.

Have I ever mentioned that I love the Murderbot Diaries? I have? Well. System Collapse continues the long string of awesome Murderbot stories, with poor Murderbot trying to protect thier humans, while the humans make terrible/dangerous decisions. Sigh. If only they had listened to poor Murderbot. They wouldn't be in such situations if. They. Just. LISTENED.

Poor Murderbot.

Anyway, System Collapse was a great read, lots of action, can't wait for more!

Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

In System Collapse, Murderbot, ART, and Crew are still dealing with the fallout from the last novel, Fugitive Telemetry - namely evacuating the population of Adamantine and for Murderbot in particular, licking their wounds.

For much of the series, we've seen Murderbot differentiate itself from humans by drawing a clear line between humans, bots, and constructs. So far, Murderbot has associated much more strongly with bots and other constructs, viewing humans as completely alien. In System Collapse, Murderbot is forced to confront its biological half and the part of it that has human emotions. It's an interesting and unexpected turn that adds incredible depth to the character.

This book felt like a throwback to some of Wells's earlier works (pre-Murderbot), which tended to be a little less crisp.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Once again Murderbot finds itself on its least favorite place, a planet. Not only are people trying to kill it and ‘its human’, it is also having system troubles. What’s a Murderbot to do, but keep trying?

Another spectacular addition to the Murderbot series. Taking place almost immediately after the events of the previous book, Fugitive Telemetry, this book starts out with lots of [Redacted] sections that lead to the unveiling of what catastrophic problem Murderbot is facing. It is well paced, full of snarky banter, and a whole lot of Muderbot’s other favorite thing ‘feelings’.

I absolutely loved this quick little Novella and I am very much looking forward to listening to the audio book version and finding what other situations Murderbot can get itself into!

For those of you who read Network Effect in 2020 do yourself a favor and reread it for maximum enjoyment of System Collaspe. I know then you will get hooked again and find you must reread the whole Murderbot series including Compulsory.
The characters are so delicious especially the predatory corporation's supervisors. As ART's crew and the SecUnit attempt to assist the alien contaminated planet and colonists, complications from the Separatist colonists and the sly and violent Barish-Estranza corporation are almost more then they can handle.
The Murderbot character continues to expand developing it's own special ethics. It influences and changes not only the crew members but everyone it comes in contact with such as other SecUnits, Administrative bots, and even corporation evildoers.
This sequel answered so many questions but I have many more and will await the next offering with great anticipation.