“You’re stalling, ART-drone said. I am not. I can stand here and be useless without any ulterior motives, thanks.”
Am I making it worse? I think I’m making it worse.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.
But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!
Yeah, this plan is… not going to work.
I have been waiting for this book for a quite a while and I’m so glad it finally came.
Everyone’s favorite socially awkward cyborg is back in action, and I am so here for it.
Once again, I find it funny that somehow a freed half robot security unit that is struggling to understand what feeling are is somehow more relatable than 90% of book characters that are actually humans.
There has always been something so comforting about reading these books. I love the mix between murderbot wanting to have nothing to do with all the dangerous stuff that is going on, but at the same time will put himself in any situation if it means he can protect his humans.
On top of Murderbot being a great example of social anxiety and awkwardness, in this book we also get to see him experience something similar to ptsd, which according to ART and murderbot isn’t something that should really be possible.
As much as I love the fun story and characters, I think the most moving part of this series so far is just to see the personal journey that Murderbot is on throughout the books. We see the struggle and hardships that he goes through as he tries to figure out how he fits in the world as this anomaly of being a free SecUnit.
It’s always funny to remember that he is essentially a robot with biological components, because his struggle feels so human and real. I think I’ve mentioned this in every “review” I’ve done of this series, but one of my favorite quotes that’s I’ve seen about this series is that it is somehow manages to be the most human experience even though it is about essentially a machine.
Anyways, I think it’s clear that I loved the book and cannot wait for the next one.
The Shadow Library 