My entire NetGalley account was a ploy to get this book so I suppose I owe it a review that is at least semi coherent! So let’s ride!!

Why I Love Murderbot: Or, The Freedom In A Story That Doesn't Give Two Flips: An Unhinged History

-all other snarky protagonists WISH they were Murderbot

You know the ones. Sometimes they are great. Sometimes they are grating. Sardonic, exhausted, smarter than everyone else in the room. Here's how Murderbot shines: it's not just the dialogue, which is phenomenal, it's the entire book. These are the Murderbot Diaries - the whole setup is meant to be Murderbot's direct POV. So you get gems like

I went down the stupid tunnel towards the stupid danger.

It wasn’t dead, it was just catastrophically damaged. (I know, who isn’t?)

"Good job, SecUnit."
Ratthi sent me a glyph of a Preservation party sparkler exploding. I didn’t say anything. (I know I get pissed off when humans don’t acknowledge my work, but why is too much acknowledgment also upsetting? Sentience sucks.)
On our private feed connection, Ratthi said, How are you doing back there?
I am absolutely fine, I told him.


7.75 books later, Martha Wells has only ever committed to the bit.

-are we human, or are we dancer? constructs carrying the burden of sentience?

I love (L O V E) “AI has a soul” literature and this is probably the most interesting version of it. Because here’s Murderbot’s situation: it is an AI construct, yes, but it also has organic parts (including neural tissue). So as it learns to wrestle with things like empathy and compassion and anxiety and depression and trauma, it’s also trying to parse out whether those things are only developing because of the organic material, or whether they are innate.

These questions are made better by the constant inclusion of ART, an unhinged, fully-AI ship mind, who is unbelievably hysterical and shares some of the squishiest moments with Murderbot (mostly around not knowing how to help it besides offering to watch tv with it). ART also cares so, so deeply for its humans from the first moment it arrives on scene, a fact Murderbot struggles with as it tries to figure out if it wants to care at all.

I also love that Murderbot’s end game is not to be human (with some undertones of, to be human is inherently to be governed, which it’s frankly not interested in). Instead, it just wants to be.
This isn’t really a spoiler, but one of my favorite interactions earlier in the series essentially boils down to:

Human crew member: do you want rights?

Murderbot: not really

Human crew member: what do you want?

Murderbot:

Murderbot: cash money


-a catch-all of other things

Super fun world building. A constant rail against capitalism. The varying lengths of the works (from short story to full length novella) give the different stories fun flavors, since they can accomplish different things. All of the stories are about the cones. Murderbot interacting with children is always gold tier. Murderbot interacting with ART is diamond tier.

7.75 books later, I love that Murderbot is still a complete mess (I know, who isn’t?) but it’s still trying. Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan for gifting me the greatest of all treasures. Please write these books forever, Martha Wells!!

This was the Murderbot book that I had the most trouble getting into, because it felt like I was missing large swaths of context -- at this point, the cast is so big that without a primer it's hard to remember who was whom from the previous book. That said, once I got into it, I enjoyed it as always.

Good, as all Murderbot books are, but - for me - not as good as the previous volumes. (Still a 4 star read, so make of that what you will!) Martha Wells is a joy to read.

Murderbot always delivers without fail. Martha Wells gives us yet another adventure with our favorite chronically sardonic SecUnit, with an entire planet and its people at stake, taking place where Network Effect left off.

I love Murderbot.
This is another wonderful installment in its journey, a direct sequel to Network Effect that wraps up what happens with the colony and the corporation trying to take over.

First of all, I felt a bit betrayed by this being called "another full length" novel, when Tor.com are well aware they have published novellas with the same page count before. To be fair, System Collapse is a good 100 pages longer than the Murderbot novellas, but it is also a good 100 pages shorter than Network Effect.

System Collapse felt a bit more existential than the previous books, with Murderbot still feeling the aftereffects of a [redacted] event. Because of that, the beginning felt a bit more heavy, but as Murderbot deals with its feelings, the plot gets rolling, and the characters more familiar, it sucks you right in again.

In true style of the series, this book puts Murderbot with a mostly new group of humans, with old familiar faces still in the background. While I appreciate the new characters, and their backstories matter a lot to the plot, I would have loved to see more familiar faces. Especially Three and Amena felt really weirdly pushed into the background in this one.

I also wish the ending would have been a little longer, and wrapped up a bit more conclusively. Some elements that become prominent towards the end just get forgotten in the last chapter.
But to be fair, the Murderbot books never had elaborate epilogues.

I love Murderbot, but this is definitely not my favourite installment. It felt very surface level in a lot of aspects, and I wanted more depth from the plot in particular. Murderbot's emotional development was great in it though and I can't wait to see its next mission - and I'm especially curious where all its work in freeing SecUnits is going to head.

Murderbot fans, rejoice! System Collapse pick up right where the last book ended, with our favorite SecUnit and team on a planet home to several factions of a colony and a corporation group intent on taking them all for enslaved labor. The team makes plans, things get complicated, more plans are made and abandoned until finally things come together--at least partially. And that's not taking into account a surprise appearance from Murderbot's memory--it's flesh memory. Go read it--it's an exciting, sarcastic, wonderful read that ends with a decision on Murderbot's part that promises new adventures.

Welcome to another rerun of Sanctuary Moon! Well, no, not really. This is another chapter in the Murderbot diaries, and while it is numbered with the mystical, magical 7, it really comes immediately after number 5, Network Effect. That's because number 6 - Fugitive Telemetry - immediately follows the events of number 4, Exit Strategy, which happened right before Network Effect. I know, I know, it's like George Lucas was responsible for the numbering. Oh, well, it is what it is, and at least we're back in the original timeline after that little Sherlock Murderbot stunt in the last novella. (Which I enjoyed tremendously.)

Which is my way to say that you should probably read / re-read Network Effect before System Collapse. Or maybe the whole series, because why not?

*****

Alright, confession time: I was recently diagnosed of probably suffering from dysthymia, sometimes also called a high functional depression, which really removes the fun from functional. It sounds way better than it feels. I'm putting this here because that diagnosis made me realize stuff - about myself, but also about Murderbot. Or my inner Murderbot, if you're inclined to call it that. Because Murderbot knows it's not human, but if you go back in the series, it is really clear that Murderbot starts with a pretty low self-esteem. It is showing signs of anxiety, and with hindsight, a lot of depression.

And it's still doing its job. That's how we meet Murderbot, back in All Systems Red, and I now finally know why I felt so connected to it all along: because that's me. I'm Murderbot! Well, minus all the shooting and stuff, but basically, were the same. And while Murderbot starts a rerun of Sanctuary Moon when it is depressed, I start another reread of Murderbot!

Those mental issues are going on through System Collapse, and that has to do with redacted. Yes, that's actually part of the text, and no, Martha does not explain it, at least not in full. I am a lucky person in that I'm part of a Murderbot discuss group on Goodreads, and we had a lot of discussions about that redacted thing. PTSD was one thing that has been thrown around, for example, and I concur.

I wasn't telling you about my own depression earlier on because I'm looking for sympathy (I'm not), but to make a point here - about this incredible feat Martha Wells delivered: Murderbot is the most humane and relatable protagonist I've encountered for a very, very long time. It might look near invincible (after all, we've seen it enduring a lot of damage and surviving), but it is pretty vulnerable on the inside. And I like to think it is more humane on the inside than it might give its organic parts credit for. And that's the reason behind this series success - because after all, not only is Murderbot much more human than it wishes to be.

But also there's a Murderbot in every one of us!

Disclaimer: I’ve received a free Advanced Reader’s Copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this new foray into the world of murderbot. I've really enjoyed this character and it's unique voice and humor over the course of the series. From reading the other books in 2021 to reading this new installment in 2023, some of the specifics about periferal characters had faded a bit, so it took a while to get my bearings and be pulled into the story, but once I remembered those details it was a fun and quick read with quipy sarcasm, and difficult decisionmaking.

Warning: This book picks up DIRECTLY after Network Effect. If you are like me and read these books the minute they are released (or are lucky enough to get an advanced reader copy– many thanks Tor and Netgalley, and I will now proceed with my completely biased review because I feel that I would be first in line to give Murderbot a hug if they would ever, ever permit it), then you should probably go back and refresh yourself if your organic parts are at all suspect. Although Wells is an author prone to detailed world-building, ‘Bot is not a being that particularly cares about such details (“I asked because the humans would bug me for the information; I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious”) and as such, is often prone to gloss over details in favor of snarky commentary.

Aren’t we all?

BUT, as I was saying, Wells does drop us in the action (as usual) and ‘Bot is struggling with (redacted). Literally. That’s not me redacting anything–that’s ‘Bot doing it, leaving the reader wondering what exactly is being redacted. Specific events from Network Effect? The alien intelligence? Murderbot 2.0? Who knows, because (redacted).

“I was supposed to ‘check in regularly with my emotions’ which I pretended was a thing I had any intention of doing… I had fifty-seven unique sources of concern/anxiety, speaking of checking in with my emotions, but nothing I could do anything about right now.”

Me too, Murderbot. Me too.

Eventually, of course, all will become clear, but that’s why it helps to have recently refreshed recall of Network Effect. I mean, we all have our favorite episodes, right? All Systems Red and Exit Strategy are my equivalents of Sanctuary Moon, so those don’t need much refreshing for me.

Because of that delay, I spent part of this story more confused than I generally appreciate. I was also a little frustrated with ‘Bot’s indecisiveness. But that’s growth, isn’t it, and that is the wonderful thing about Murderbot; how they have gone from a murdering being (so they say) to a being that just wants to numb themselves on the entertainment feed, to a being that has so many friends they need to categorize them by groups.


Many, many thanks to Tor and Netgalley for feeding my ‘Bot addiction providing an advanced reader copy that I could review in a completely unbiased manner.

System Collapse takes off right after Network Effect. It still has all the things I love about the series, the amazing characters, the intriguing world-building the sarcastic funny loveable murdermachine main character. Unfortunately even with a foundation as amazing as this, sometimes you just have to do your taxes. Or in this case figure out the legal case to not have a planets population abducted into slave labour.
To me, dealing some more with the corporates was the most boring story line we could have followed after the end of the last book. Network Effect left so many cool story strands open: the alien contamination, the whole thing with three, the new mission peris crew was mentioning. That whole corporate thing could have really been a small part if Network Effect.
The redacted parts posed an intriguing mystery to the story, while murderbot worked through a traumatic event and dealt with feelings of “Im broken” and “Im not good enough”.
Despite being a bit bored during the first half of the book, when I finished I was desperate for more. When you start this book you should know this isnt something new and different and unique, its essentially the B-Plot of Network Effect, but thats not a bad thing because Network Effect was amazing.
My overall enjoyment of this book kind of hinges on what happens next in the series, because on its own the story of this book was a bit boring and slow but as a short stop in the middle of the series I wouldn’t complain about it. Now, this all might sound very negative but I have to literally compare it to its predecessor, one of the best books Ive ever read. Its still a Murderbot book which means its still an amazing book and 100% worth your time.

Murderbot is, as always, the most relatable character around. (Seconded by ART, whose snarkiness and sarcasm we can only aspire to.) I've loved watching Murderbot grow over the course of the books and this one is a great example of how far it has come. Who would have thought that Murderbot from All Systems Red would ever admit to needing companionship and support? (Ok, "admit" is a strong word, but it didn't deny the fact either, which is a start.) Watching Murderbot work through its trauma, especially after the events of Network Effect was a really rewarding experience as we join it on its journey, while also keeping its humans alive and intact. I loved the interactions it has with ART and also Ratthi. Overall, a wonderful addition to Murderbot canon.

Who would ever guess that an (ex) murderous robot (construct) would be one of the most relatable characters as far as anxiety, trauma and purpose go?

The humanity that Wells writes into SecUnit is tangible. It’s experiences we have all had and, pun intended, have had to process on our own or learn to ask for help with.

The development of Murderbot from book 1 to this latest iteration is astounding. As each book passes he becomes less robotic and even more human.

Murderbot may hate planets but unfortunately for him I love reading about him on them. Wells is a master of world building and the planet in System Collapse is her at her best.

I have no idea where the story will take us next - but then again neither does Murderbot. After this installment, as with every previous one, I can not wait to find out. This may be my favorite in the Murderbot Diaries yet.

Wow... somebody needs to get this construct some Lexapro, stat! Jokes aside though, I loved it. I will never get tired of Murderbot, its anxiety, and its begrudging interactions with other beings. And ART!

It’s been over two years since I read book 6 and so it took me a minute to jump back into the story but once I did, I loved reading about Murderbot. I’ve always felt like a huge part of the story was how Murderbot is evolving and growing and this book was the same. I appreciated how the author talked about mental health, maybe not directly, but still there. And of course the other plot of saving a group of humans from becoming indentured slaves to the big corporation that doesn’t care about them. Basically if you loved the previous books you’ll love this one too.

Murderbot is still trying to recover from the traumatic events that occurred during Network Effect, and would like nothing more than to just sit back, relax, unpick (or dutifully ignore) the multitude of messed up things that happened to it recently, and maybe watch some media with ART. Unfortunately, the corporates who were so narrowly outmaneuvered at the end of the previous book are still trying to recoup some of their investment from their failed venture, and their target is the remaining colonists on planet. Where Murderbot and the Preservation Survey look at the colonists and think "people" the corporates see a "free labor source." It is up to Murderbot and company to foil the plot to trick the colonists into signing away their freedom, and Murderbot will need to give everything it has to keep everyone safe and out of corporate slavery.

System Collapse is another winning entry in the Murderbot Diaries, with the continuing story of it coming to terms with itself and it's place in the galaxy and among the people it is reluctantly growing to care for against a backdrop of corporate skullduggery and malice still hitting just as hard as it did in previous entries. As a follow up to Network Effect, this book does a nice job of hitting all the notes I'd expect and surprising me with a few narrative beats. Great characters, fun sci-fi adventures, and more Murderbot is always going to be a win in my book.

Murderbot doesn't like planets. It especially doesn't like planets when some of its squishy humans are on a planet. Especially especially when there's an alien contagion infecting people and bots. And, especially especially especially because of [redacted] Murderbot is not 100% itself, but it has to protect it's squishy humans and the local colonists. And Barish-Estranza just sent in an armed shuttle.

Sigh! All Murderbot wants to do is watch media with ART.

I love the Murderbot diaries – they literally helped me get through the pandemic and post pandemic, and that is not an exaggeration – so I feel somewhat traitorous in saying I didn’t love System Collapse.

I found the beginning extremely confusing, even after reading the book for a second time. Also System Collapse comes directly after Network Effect, not after Fugitive Telemetry, so I actually set System Collapse aside and reread Network Effect (which helped, but did not clear up all the confusion).

While I’m happy to see more of ART’s human crew, everyone was just – less interesting this time around. Including Murderbot. Maybe we’ll get more development of Three in the next book? Or maybe Murderbot is going to be leading a whole crew of SecUnits whose governor modules Murderbot has helped them disable? I don’t know, but there weren’t nearly as many fun moments as I’ve come to expect.

My two favorite lines: “I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious” (chapter 6 – I often feel the same, Murderbot) and “Is that actually a SecUnit?” (chapter 11 – haha, SecUnit is spending too much time with humans, even other humans are unsure).

I very much appreciated the opportunity to read an advance reader copy of System Collapse from Netgalley. Oh, and exposure to a new word. Phatic: “denoting or relating to language used for general purposes of social interaction, rather than to convey information or ask questions.” An excellent word for Murderbot to know and use.

Of course I’ve already pre-ordered System Collapse, and let’s face it, of course I will read whatever the next installment is. Can’t wait.

(I really feel like this book deserves no more three stars, but I just ... can't. I'm going to assume it will get better with subsequent rereadings.)

Thanks to Tor and NetGalley for letting me have this early! Discovering this series has been the reading highlight of my year so far and it's so great to not have to stop and wait, though of course now I want to reread them all anyway.

This chapter, which is short-ish novel-length, directly follows the events of Network Effect - on the same planet, even, following up on what to do about the long-forgotten settlers there and the corporation trying to claim them as workers. There are scary bot fights! Spooky caves! Corporate greed! Tense negotiation scenes! Ethical dilemmas! But the most prominent plot point is the thing Murderbot doesn't want to admit- years of trauma are finally starting to affect its mental health uh, processing. Murderbot hates talking about its feelings or even acknowledging that it has those, and struggles with the fact that it isn't invincible and might need help to recover. Yes, feed it to me slowly, like grapes. Loved every minute of Bot Feelings. I hope to have this thread continued in the next book too!

The tiny details that the narration barely glances over (Murderbot has its own priorities in storytelling) are some of the best parts. Like, it's not even in the same room as Three for this story but from the brief glimpses it seems like an absolute sweetie, the complete opposite of Murderbot, and if it had its own book in this series I'd love to read it. The way ART micromanages its crew and is such a big know-it-all, a few mentions of Amena that are cute, the humans trying to be supportive of Murderbot while respecting its boundaries, MB casually dropping even more horrible things about its past life that make you want to squeeze it (BUT DON'T!), all that stuff has me wanting to read it again immediately. Maybe a little slower this time now that I'm not too excited. Also MB's relationship friendship mutual administrative assistance with ART gets a lot of growth in this book and I'm so happy they have each other even if they still have big Divorced Energy sometimes.

5 stars A+++++ I enjoyed this one just as much as Network Effect, so it's tied for best book in the series yet.

The original four novella-length stories telling the tale of the self-manumitted partly-human (he’s a “construct”) Security Unit who refers to himself as “Murderbot” brought Wells a large coterie of enthusiastic fans. The first full-length novel, "Network Effect," solidified her position as one of the best writers of “hard” science fiction working today. Following that was a sort of standalone novella (basically a murder mystery) set after the first four, but she’s also contracted for three more novels and this first one of those is due out around Thanksgiving, but Tor sent me an advance reading copy.

Believe me, it’s going to be worth the wait, but there’s a caveat: Wells is not one of those authors who screeches to a halt for a big info dump to let the reader know everything that came before, so if you haven’t already read the six preceding books, you will have no idea of who the characters are or what the world is like in which they live. This is especially true if you haven’t read "Network Effect: yet, because much of the background of the plot and many of the characters are carried over directly from that.

It would be impossible at this point to even begin to summarize the complex and multi-layered backstory of SecUnit’s evolution from unthinking robotic killer to something approaching a real person with a thoughtful outlook on life. Suffice it to say that he hacked his own governor module (which held him in tight control to his corporate handlers) and eventually became an independent security consultant to the liberal-minded, anti-corporate humans of Preservation, one of whose gigs is to evaluate colony worlds, usually abandoned, that have become infected by a leftover alien virus that can infect both organic minds and A.I. consciousnesses, which can make life very difficult for anyone left on that planet. They’re trying to do that on a world that didn’t get very far in its development half a century before before the virus turned up and the project was abandoned by the developing corporation -- which, of course, didn’t waste its resources by evacuating the few thousand colonists they had brought in.

Barish-Estranza, another corporation whom we have met before (they’re very, very bad people) has arrived as well, is trying to convince the colonists to sign labor contracts that would make them essentially slaves, and the Preservation team is trying to explain to them the dangers of listening to B-E’s pitch and the need to leave the planet and move somewhere more survivable. Having been isolated for two generations, the colonists have no experience of this stuff, and no reason to trust anyone, so it’s a hard slog. The entire story takes place within a week or two, and Wells dumps us right into the midst of things, as she always does, so you’ll really have to pay attention in the early chapters.

Also as always, the best part of the story is SecUnit’s attempt to be what his humans need him to be and to see the world from both his viewpoint and from theirs. This time, he’ also hampered by what may have been an emotional breakdown caused by the stress of a specious memory, which led to a hard reset of his internal systems, and that scares the crap out of him. What if it happens again when he’s in the middle of something important? It would take only a few tenths of a second for everyone to die and it would all be his fault. Maybe he needs therapy? Anyway, Wells’s storytelling and ironic/sardonic narrative style continue at its highly enjoyable levels and I’ll be waiting impatiently for SecUnit’s next adventure.

Another fantastic Murderbot Diary! SecUnit and the gang are still trying to get the colonists off the contaminated planet when they find out there are still more colonists in an isolated outpost. They must get to them before the Barish- Estranza manage to convince them to work for them aka become slaves. What can SecUnit and ART do to convince the colonists that they are the good guys?
Loved it- thanks Netgalley for the ARC. My opinions are my own.