I’ve written previously about how much I enjoy the Murderbot series. Since then, I’ve read the novel, and I absolutely jumped on the latest novella when I realised the audiobook was already available! So I thought I’d give it its own review.
The Story
No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.
When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)
Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!
The Review
I had so much fun reading this audiobook! It’s once again narrated by Kevin R. Free (who also played Kevin in Nightvale), and the snark is oozing through as always. This one is a bit different from Murderbot’s previous adventures, though, because it’s a murder mystery.
You read that right, Murderbot, armed with a nonnegligible amount of crime serials in its memory archives, attempts to solve a murder. The novella references previous events from the series but I’d say it’s mostly a standalone. Yes, all your favourite characters are there, like Mensah and Pin-Lee (I f*cking love Pin-Lee!). You’d probably need some context from the earlier novellas, but not necessarily the novel, if you’ve not read it yet.
Murderbot’s trying to get integrated into society and, well, other security people don’t really like that, on account of it being a SecUnit. So as it tries to solve this issue with/despite them, there’s a lot of entertaining internal conflict, in true Murderbot fashion. Humans are just so, so stupid! The usual references to media tropes, the usual snark and Depressed-Bot remarks. I just love it!
It was fun to read a Murderbot murder mystery, as it were, and made me realise I’d read any genre with Murderbot (except romance! it’d object to that!) and I’m happy to read as many Murderbot books as Wells will write. As many as there are episodes in Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon, if she’s willing!
The Links
Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Waterstones | or listen to it on Scribd*
*these are affiliate links, I may receive a small commission (or a free month on Scribd) for purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you
