Cover Image: Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy

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Member Reviews

My heart 😭😭 I can see that these are getting... established, now. This one is, like the previous books, fast-paced, snarky, emotional, full of exciting action scenes... And I'm fine with it 🤷‍♀️ I love Murderbot, and I'm glad it isn't over yet. There are just some series that I'm happy to read to death - like the Wayfarers series, and the Invisible Library books - and this is another one.

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I honestly cannot get enough of murderbot! No matter what scenario they end up in it's so continously enjoyable!

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Murderbot is simply the best! Everyone should read the series, science fiction fan or not. Wells has created a memorable and engaging character that speaks to the introvert soul with sympathy and understanding.

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These books were just what I needed right now, with all of the craziness going on in the world. I 100% sympathized with MB, who just wanted to watch their shows in peace. Substitute reading my books for watching my shows, and I am THERE. I feel ya MB, I feel ya.

As is usually the case, this is the final book of the novella series, and you really need to read them in order to get the full effect and understand what is going on and who all of the characters are.

I love all of the characters, mostly MB, but the others are good too. The Big Bad is decidedly and believably bad. The setting is awesome and while there is science and tech, it made sense to my less-than-scientific brain. Professionals in the field might catch issues, but nothing was so glaring that it stood out to a rather big tech impared human.

I don't want to spoil this for ANYone, so this is going to be short. Other than saying, 5 stars and everyone really should give these books a try, I will try not to gush too much. These books were just what I needed right now and I can hardly wait for the full-sized novel of MB. SO EXCITED!!!! Highly recommended!

My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for an eARC copy of this book to read and review.

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MURDERBOT! MURDERBOT! MURDERBOT! Seriously, if you're even remotely into sci-fi, then you will love Martha Wells's Murderbot novellas. I need more Murderbot in my life, post-haste! Can't wait for a full-length novel!

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I absolutely love this book, and the whole series! I love a good AI story, and Murderbot's snarky, dry sense of humor makes me laugh. I've recommended this series to lost of people and can't wait for the full length novels to be published!

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This whole novella series has been amazing, and this last book is no exception. Murderbot is the perfect blend of snarky humor and lovable characters. I am thrilled to hear Wells will be writing more in this world with a novel coming out at a later date. Until then, these make the very short list of books I will reread over and over again.

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I have enjoyed this series immensely. This was a wonderful end to this adventure of Murderbot as he/she/it learned not all humans are bad and not every media is worth watching (although I am a little envious of exactly how much media Murderbot can store for later watching). I have never related to a character more. Looking forward to future installments of Murderbot’s adventures.

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Murderbot reunites with Dr. Mensah and the team they protected during the first novella, with the usual action and space soaps peppered throughout, in this final installment of this particular story arc.

I've been a fan of Murderbot since a coworker pushed the first novella into my hands a few months ago, and was eager to see how the series ended. It doesn't disappoint! I'm not a big sci-fi person, and the larger tomes usually have me searching for other books or genres to read. The short novella style of this series has been fantastic, and Wells' storytelling works well. There's still world building happening in this installment, but not as much as were in the first of the series. This nicely wraps up the current story arc, and it felt realistic - as realistic as a Murderbot can be, at least!

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I read and enjoyed the first three novellas in this series, and this fourth (and final, for now) installment equaled the others in quality. As always, I appreciated the understated introspection of a self-described Murderbot working out how to navigate difficult and deadly situations while keeping everyone alive.

There are rumors of a novel length entry in this series coming in 2020, and I can't wait.

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Once again, Murderbot is the most delightful and relatable construct in fiction. This book is absolutely the culmination of the previous novellas, and as such it's hard to sum up the plot. It's also rough going for the first few pages if you haven't read the others recently: I'd recommend a binge-read to get caught up. But the action is good, the emotions are real (if complex and difficult to understand), and I cannot wait for next year's full-length novel.

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Martha Wells concludes the Murderbot novella series with Exit Strategy in which SecUnit Murderbot returns to rescue Dr. Mensah, former owner and saviour, from the machinations of Grey Cris Corp. Murderbot cares for humans and wants to save them from the soulless corporation. Lots of action and irony.

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I love Murderbot and the universe Wells has built. I was a bit disappointed, since Murderbot sees only slight character development in this book -- I found that to be the best part of the earlier entries in this series. All in all, this book, while competent, feels more rushed than the rest of the series, and there not enough feeling of story resolution.

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I really can only say its a excellent end to a great series of novellas. I hope too read more Murderbot stories someday.

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It's no secret that I freakin' LOVE Murderbot, so one can hardly expect a fair and unbiased review here. That said, I'm of the opinion that the first ("All Systems Red") and third ("Rogue Protocol") installments of this series are the strongest, with the second ("Artificial Condition") squeaking in just behind. I in no way dislike "Exit Strategy," but it does seem to rush some of the things I would have liked to enjoy un-rushed.

Maybe I'm just grieving the end of the Murderbot Diaries series. After all, this series was my introduction to Martha Wells, and has become one of my go-to recommendations to readers looking for their first taste of contemporary science fiction and fantasy, along with Kij Johnson's "The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe," Sarah Gailey's "River of Teeth," and Nnedi Okorafor's "Binti." They're here, they're queering the genre, they articulate nuanced notions of gender and identity and craft, and they're sharply written to boot. What does it mean to *become*? Ask Binti. What does it mean to *discover*? Ask Vellitt Boe. What does it mean to make a family? Ask Winslow Houndstooth. But when it comes to questions of what makes a person a person, what makes for a good Murderbot, and all the shades of bonkers entertainment, there's no better author to fill in the blanks than Martha Wells.

This series had better come out in a combined volume, as Gailey's American Hippo series did. BECAUSE I WANTS WHAT I WANT. And in addition to wanting a combined volume of all the Murderbots, I also want a novella or five about the making of "Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon"—Murderbot's favorite entertainment program. Make it happen, Martha Wells! You made me want this! I will to go my grave wanting to read that book, so make sure I go to my grave happy, okay? Graves are serious places. They deserve a little joy in them.

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This novella wraps up the Murderbot series, although it looks like a novel is in the works. I'd rate it about a 3.5 .

In this book, Murderbot finally returns to Dr. Mensah and the crew from the mission in the first novella. Murderbot has gotten incriminating evidence against Graycris, the corporation that has been looming behind the scenes for most of the series. However, Dr. Mensah has gone missing, and it looks like Graycris has grabbed her. Murderbot must travel to the station that is likely to be where Dr. Mensah is located, and finds that the her other friends are also there to try to negotiate a ransom.

I don't want to get too much into the plot details, so I'll just cover general impressions. In this one, Murderbot must manipulate drones, cameras, security systems, communications systems and transportation systems. It has such control of all of these things that for most of the story there wasn't a lot of suspense. At the end, things did get a bit dicey, but I worry that giving Murderbot the aptitude to pretty much infiltrate any of the IT systems that run the universe make it a bit too powerful. The action scenes were good, but a lot of the computer details felt a bit dry to me.

I did like that the humans who know Murderbot have figured out that it does not like direct eye contact, to be touched, or even to be noticed much. They work with these issues even in high crisis situations. Murderbot is still filled with a lot of self-loathing and deals with both anxiety and depression. In this book it's spelled out a bit more that Murderbot loves media because it's a safe way to connect with emotions and it can feel less alone without having to actually having to interact with humans.

I'll be curious to see how a novel about this being works. The author is going to have to be careful not to give Murderbot too much power. What I enjoy most is seeing Murderbot figure out how to interact with creatures that it likes (whether or not it admits that) and I hope for more of that in future books.

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The Murderbot diaries are a must read. I was a little worried that Exit Strategy wouldn't live up to the previous books, or that we'd be left with some trite, condescending ending. I am grateful to say that Exit Strategy is Just as good, if not better than, the preceding novels
Nor will you being disappointed by Murderbot's journey.

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Murderbot is one of my favourite characters. Murderbot is shy, snarky, and brilliant with an enormous sense of right and wrong. Murderbot has been figuring Murderbot out, while navigating adventure after adventure.

This series has been a joy to read, and Murderbot a new character to adore. I look forward to full length Murderbot adventures (so far, these have been small novella snippets).

More Murderbot, please.

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"Exit Strategy" is a solid ending to the current arc of Murderbot's story. In this installment Murderbot comes full circle as it returns to help its former "owner" out of some trouble. There is more action, more media watching, and more of Murderbot being confused and aggravated as it tries to figure out how to deal with other people.

I love the way that Martha Wells has written Murderbot's character development. Throughout this series we can see the narrator becoming more and more "human", while at the same time having no idea that this is what's happening. Through the viewpoint of an AI that has become an individual Wells manages to give us a fantastic portrayal of social anxiety and personal responsibility. Most narratives about artificial intelligence involve the AI having to convince humans that it is actually a person; in this case it's almost as if the humans around Murderbot have to help convince it of this.

After reading all four of these novellas pretty much right in a row I have to admit I was a little tired of all of the action sequences; I tended to prefer the deeper character moments. I am interested to see what Wells will do with a full length novel set in this universe, so I'll definitely be picking that up when it is released.

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This has been such a great series of novellas, with this fourth one being a fitting and highly satisfying conclusion to this series arc. I've basically loved everything about these books - the humour, the world building, the singular MC, the gentle look at philosophy. There's a rumour a full length novel may be in the works and I really hope so because I'm not ready to get off the ride yet. This is what sci-fi should be.

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