Maura (maura853) - , reviewed on 12/27/2021 + 542 more book reviews

Wonderful character, poorly served by a format that offers little possibility for depth and development.

Now, let's get one thing straight -- I love Murderbot. (For proof, see my review of All Systems Red, volume one in this series of novellas ...)

What's not to love? Snarky, yet touchingly anxious and unsure of itself. Loyal to its human charges, in spite of their frustrating insistence on making poor life choices, and putting themselves in harm's way. Addicted to binge-watching Sanctuary Moon, the long-running space opera that, for one stressed robot, puts the mellow into drama ...

All this is still true, and makes it a reasonably enjoyable, quick read, just for the opportunity it offers to spend time with the voice of Murderbot (or "Eden," the alias it take from one of its favourite Sanctuary Moon characters), as it goes undercover as a "real boy/girl/other" in an effort to solve the mystery of the shocking episode that has shaken its faith in itself, and caused it to think of itself as an untrustworthy "murderbot."

BUT .... perhaps it's "second story in a series syndrome," but this is a lot less satisfying than All Systems Red. Almost the first half (of only 150-odd pages) is Murderbot engaging in "witty" repartee and begrudging bonding with the AI of a mysterious transport vessel on which Murderbot has hitched a ride. Almost half of a 157-page novella in which -- let me be clear about this -- nothing happens. Leaving the remaining pages to deal with the TWO plot threads of this novella: Murderbot's efforts to protect a group of naive young geologists, whose research has been stolen by a former employer -- and who just don't seem to understand the lengths that said Evil Employer will go to hold on to that research. And Murderbot's efforts to discover what actually happened in the episode that resulted in the massacre of a group of its previous clients -- and whether, as it fears, it was responsible.

Having 75 pages in which little more happens than slightly repetitive character development (I get it; it's snarky, it's socially awkward, it's tortured by the possibility that it might have murdered humans it was supposed to be protecting. Point taken, let's move on ...) and some charming jokes and world-building would be okay (just about ...) in a full length novel, but this is not a full length novel, this is a novella.

And there, in a nutshell, is one of my major problems with the Murderbot series -- it's a bit of a desperate ploy to wring blood (cash) from a stone (readers), isn't it? This is annoying, because having (Sanctuary Moon-style) become hooked on Murderbot, I am now waking up to the fact of the financial outlay I have committed myself to (myself, or indulgent family members, who want to make me happy at Christmas on on my birthday ...) For slim volumes, these are damned expensive.

But my annoyance (and the 2-stars) are not just about the sense that I'm being exploited by Ms. Wells' publishers, but the fact that I honestly feel that the Murderbot chronicles could have been much, much better if the episodes had been structured as a traditional novel, or series of traditional length novels. If the events of this novella had followed on directly from All Systems Red, no one would have felt the need to spend of lot of time re-introducing the reader to Murderbot -- we could have gotten right into the action of Murderbot's quest to solve the mystery of its past, and its efforts to save its new clients from themselves. There could have been more development of both of those threads (neither of which, imho, is really very satisfying at all.)

Some great (and not-so great) SF novels have been developed from short stories and novellas that introduced the characters, sketched in the world of the story, and hinted at its bigger themes. Martha Wells (and Tor) seem to have hit upon the wheeze of publishing the introductory story, and then not bothering with the full-length novel that would have expanded it ... if Artificial Condition is anything to go by, the introducing, sketching and hinting will just go on, and on , and on, as long as the Reader is willing to pay for it ...

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