As the sixth installment of the Murderbot series, and the fifth novella, this was an excellent edition to the shenanigans that Murderbot is classically known for. Just as funny, just as snarky, and just as heartfelt as all the others, Fugitive Telemetry is a quickly-read whodunit with iconic Murderbot flair. I'll be posting the full review closer to publishing date. Thank you Macmillan-Tor/Forge and Netgalley for this eArc in exchange for an honest review!

What a great addition to Martha Wells' murderbot series! I really enjoyed all of the other books in this series, so my expectations for this book were really high. Happy to find this book was just as good - and maybe even better than the other ones in the series. I ended up reading this short book in a single night, as I just could not put it down. While one can read this book on its own, I would highly recommend that people read the other books in the series (at least the first four) before reading this book, as you will get a lot more of out it. I will recommend that my library purchase a copy!

Thanks to Tordotcom and NetGalley for providing an early copy for me to review.

"The New York Times bestselling security droid with a heart (though it wouldn't admit it!) is back in Fugitive Telemetry!

Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it's "one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I've ever read") Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today.

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!

Again!

A new standalone adventure in the New York Times-bestselling, Hugo and Nebula Award winning series!"

I am SO here for more Murderbot!

A light and frothy read, especially for fans of the Murderbot series. It is a little bit of a departure from the excitement of the last full novel and reads like a police procedural, mixed with a murder mystery, with scifi elements.

While it was fun and you get lots of great Murderbot dialogue, it lacked movement of major plot points and character development.. I mean none, no GrayCriss, no ART, not even any real interaction with other beloved characters other than a few throwaway lines. It felt single note, focused on the mystery. While the mystery was an engaging one and I enjoyed reading it, I'd only recommend this book for fans of the series, but it's not a good place to start reading about Murderbot for a new reader.

I feel like it was intended to set up Murderbot as some sort of PI character and it fell flat. She already had a great start with the security consultant gig as Rin. This felt over the top and not a great fit. You can do security work and solve crimes, but this felt a little forced.

I will say I am looking forward to another book, but this one has a distinct filler/appetizer flavor to it. I'm hoping for a much more substantial storyline in the next one or my disappointment will outweigh my enjoyment of the series as a whole.

In this book, we get to finally see Murderbot in a sort of home. He doesn’t really know what he wants to do, and he doesn’t really know what he is feeling, but while he is trying to sort things out, we get to see him investigating a murder. And even if my favorite part was Murderbot himself because he is his usual quirky and sarcastic self, and reading his thoughts is priceless, the mystery part is pretty good. And seeing him interacting with new people and bots was pretty good too.
It is maybe less action-packed than the previous books, but it was a ton of fun nonetheless because Murderbot is his usual lovable self

Trying to get humans not to touch dangerous things was a full-time job

and he is always ready to underline all the humans' things that made us humans, but that do not make sense, at all!

It had rotated it to “watch” me walk through the lobby, a behavior designed to make humans comfortable (its actual eyes were sensors that were all over its body.) (I don’t know why bot behaviors that are useless except to comfort humans annoy me so much.) (Okay, maybe I do. They built us, right? So didn’t they know how this type of bot took in visual data? It’s not like sensors and scanners just popped up randomly on its body without humans putting them there.)

When I started this series I didn’t fell immediately in love with this series. I think I was expecting something more, and even if I enjoyed the first book, I didn’t love it. But, luckily, I decided to continue the series, and from the second book onward it really was love. Murderbot is a magnificent MC, I love his voice, I love his point of view on humans, and I love to read about his adventures. And I cannot wait to read the next book in the series.

I had a great time with these short stories (yes, Home is the really short one, but the two books aren’t long, either), and I enjoyed the time I spent with them. So I cannot recommend them enough. If you are a fan of the series and haven’t yet read these ones, you would not be disappointed. And if you have not yet started this series, well… what are you waiting for???

Another excellent Murderbot Diaries book. After reading this, I went back to listen to the first book to discover why I love this series. There's a comfort to this world. The people are smart and kind. Usually, you have one but not the other. People are still wary when they first meet Murderbot, but they do want the best, so their distrust doesn't blind them when Murderbot does help.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

Murderboy is back again and it has to interact with humans and help them! And these aren't even the humans it actually likes!
I love Murderbot and I love how it just sighs and still helps even if it wants to just protect Mensah and watch tv shows.

The writing as usual was captivating and the mystery wasn't obvious, at least not to me. I enjoyed every little detail and laughed at Murderbot being sassy. The humans who didn't know it were so surprised, it was hilarious!

I could read 100 more Murderbot books and never get bored!

My thanks to NetGalley for making an eARC copy of this book available to me.

Murderbot is back, and with his usual attitudes toward humans and his snarky running commentary about every little event that occurs during this book. He even manages to aim some of that snark at himself. This book details our hero's involvement in investigating a murder on the space station where he resides. More people have become aware that he is an ex-SecUnit, and their automatic negative reaction to him is pretty much as you might expect. He is progressing somewhat towards "works well with others", but still manages to often find ways to just do things his own way. While you could read this book as a standalone and enjoy it, you really should do yourself a favor and read the entire series starting at the beginning.

Murderbot is always awesome! Murderbot is also a misanthropic jerk but if Murderbot says it’s going to help you it will do so even at risk to its own safety. It’s hard not to love Murderbot. This one is a murder mystery and my second favorite genre is mysteries so what’s not to love?

Murderbot, aka SecUnit, has been on Preservation Station for awhile now, keeping Dr. Mensah safe. If not for all these annoying humans, he might feel it’s an improvement over working on cargo ships and mining colonies.

Unlike the near Wild West of most of the universe, Preservation Station is an entity of laws and rights. That’s why it’s such a shock to have a murder victim found in a passageway. Murderbot has a lot of experience with violence, and big giant analytical and tactical brain, so he’s a natural for the investigative team. Well, aside from the fact that most humans think of SecUnits as one tiny step away from murder-and-mayhem machines, and senior investigator Insah is one of them.

As usual, Murderbot’s tart observations about humans hit the mark, and it’s exciting when things get rough and he deploys both his cracking brain and crushing brawn.

Like most of the Murderbot books, this is short, more live a novella. It’s a quick, fun read. It’s strongly recommended to read the series in order, so that you get to know Murderbot and to see his slow integration into human society. People come to respect and care about him, then more people warm up to him. He hates it. Doesn’t he?

Normally I spend the first paragraph of my reviews talking about why I was interested in checking out the novel/novella I'm reviewing, but Fugitive Telemetry is the 6th Murderbot story (5th chronologically), so I really shouldn't have to explain much. Murderbot, the socially awkward construct/SecUnit who just wants to watch media in peace and ends up having to save stupid humans and maybe feel feelings, has taken the genre world seemingly by storm, and well, it's pretty well deserved. I'll honestly be shocked if the most recent Murderbot novel, Network Effect, isn't nominated for a Hugo.

And well Fugitive Telemetry is more Murderbot, which is to say it's pretty great, featuring an adventure in between the original novellas and the novel, as Murderbot gets involved with Preservation security to investigate a mysterious murder. Needless to say, snarky internal dialogue ensues, as Murderbot deals with humans who don't know how to deal with it and have their own opinions and emotions as it tries to figure out the mystery, which once again has to deal with corporate scummery. Still, while the dialogue and action and plot is classic Murderbot, Fugitive Telemetry is a bit of an oddball - coming in between stories it can't really develop Murderbot's own character and feelings too much, and thus doesn't quite have the same impact of any of the other 5 stories.




Plot Summary: Murderbot's stay on Preservation has been contentious - Mensah and her crew have fought for Murderbot to be treated like practically any other person, but many others in Preservation leadership see it only as an untrustworthy weapon. But when a murder occurs on Preservation Station, an event pretty much unheard of, Murderbot is forced to team up with a senior security officer who once argued against Murderbot's presence to solve the mystery. And so Murderbot once again has to help humans who don't know enough for their own good, all while trying to follow the rules limiting what it can do on Preservation territory....but it might not be enough to solve the mystery once it becomes clear that Corporation Rim interests are involved....

Thoughts: Fugitive Telemetry is on one hand a classic Murderbot story. You have Murderbot dealing with humans who don't trust it out of silly prejudice/paranoia, and trying to help them despite their best efforts. You have Murderbot's incredibly fun internal dialogue, which continues here, as it awkwardly tries to deal with it all along with the attention that it absolutely hates. You have a creative mystery featuring Murderbot's trademark action and hacking skills, complete with interactions with other non-human beings - bots of different kinds in this case - which Murderbot isn't quite comfortable with. And you have the contrast between Preservation - a fairly socialist and idealistic future society - and the Corporation Rim, where capitalist corporations care only about money and anything, including people, can be for sale. All of this works really well and is written in a very fun way that is hard to put down.

On the other hand, Fugitive Telemetry is kind of lacking in some of the best parts of the Murderbot stories - Murderbot's own character development. I'm sure a lot of this is due to this novella's placement between Exit Strategy and Network Effect, as Murderbot can't have character development that doesn't fit where it was in the novel that takes place after this story. But no matter the cause, the mystery and humans involved here don't really provide much grounds for Murderbot's own personality and interactions with people to develop as much as humans we've never met before learn to deal with it. Adding to this problem is that one part of the mystery - the culprit behind the murder - that is clearly meant to deal with some of that emotional investment just kind of falls flat, since the culprit is a character without much time in this story for us to get to know them. And the result is that this Murderbot story, unlike the other four novellas and the novel, doesn't quite have the emotional impact as the others - there's no Murderbot dealing with humans who know what it is and want to help it moment, no Murderbot on its own for the first time dealing with humans begrudgingly, no Murderbot dealing with another bot that wants to be helpful to humans moment, no putting it all together moment, etc.

Again, I don't mean to sound too negative - it's still plenty fun and I devoured it pretty damn quickly because well, Murderbot is still great and its (Wells') writing is still tremendous. But the series has just set such a high bar, that this one can't quite clear.

Great fun. Murderbot being Murderbot it is not easy for it to interact with humans. But it has to find out about the dead human. So, it's playing Sherlock on a space station.

From the publisher: The New York Times bestselling security droid with a heart (though it wouldn't admit it!) is back in Fugitive Telemetry! Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe, Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today.
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! Again!
***
Murderbot is a rogue cyborg Security Unit doing adventures in space. I love Murderbot and eagerly look forward to each new adventure. I started Fugitive Telemetry, then I put it down and re-read the first four Diaries before continuing. I didn't love Fugitive Telemetry quite as much as I did Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy, but it's a solid 4.5 stars for me. Not enough interaction with SecUnit's "human friends" for my liking, but I especially enjoyed the scenes with Ratthi and Gurathin. Good character development for our beloved SecUnit, and a new (and uncomfortable) situation as well. And I did not guess who the bad guy was.

I don't buy many books, but this whole series is on my eReader. Can't recommend it enough for rollicking fun in space. (Start with All Systems Red.) The snark really hits me in the feels right now (during the covid-19 pandemic). (Hmm, is there a reason why my two go to series for entertainment at the moment are The Murderbot Diaries and The Mandalorian?)

I read an advance reader copy of Fugitive Telemetry from Netgalley. It is scheduled to be published on April 27. The Galesburg Public Library owns the entire Murderbot series as books and ebooks.

Murderbot is adorable!! Okay, granted, it's a trained SecUnit, a rogue, it's suffered terribly and harbors both rage and anxiety. Well, how is that different from us humans? Other than we're not partially mechanized. Its snark is to die for, and the humor of its mental interjections and asides is hilarious and just makes it that much endearing, as does its moments of indecision and vulnerability. Martha Wells is a great author and FUGITIVE TELEMETRY is a fine addition to the Murderbot universe.

Murderbot is back in this novella set between Exit Strategy and Network Effect. Murderbot is in the Preservation System and Dr. Mensah is trying to get it to play nice with new humans. What better way to do that than to assist station security in solving a murder? Plus it can never hurt to be in a position to protect its friends from possible GreyCris assassins.

Fugitive Telemetry is just as action packed as the first 5 books. (Martha Wells's action sequences are incredibly written - somehow we always know exactly where Murderbot is and are just as wowed by the fight sequences as we would be if we were watching them on-screen.) As usual though, the charm of the book lies in Murderbot's incredibly snarky interior monologue... and exterior dialogue... and general demeanor... This entry in the series is especially fun because in addition to chronicling Murderbot's continued efforts (or "efforts") to communicate meaningfully with humans, here it also needs to rely on bots for assistance.

Possible spoilers: we loved the reveal of the actual villain! Since this is set before Network Effect, we know that Murderbot's paranoia about GreyCris sending assassins after Mensah is completely justified. For most of the book we were expecting a buildup to the action sequence we see in flashbacks in Network Effect. The reversal of expectations for longtime fans really pays off!

In conclusion: this is another solid entry in the Murderbot Diaries. Fans of the series won't want to miss it!

AH! Murderbot with its sarcastic quips and dry humour! How I have missed you!

Should I start with how much I love Murderbot? Seeing that I have talked about this series countless number of times I think we can skip past that, yeah? I was surprised when I picked this up that Fugitive Telemetry is a novella rather than a full length novel like Network Effect. I was a little sad, mostly because I'm always greedy for Murderbot, but we will take what we can get.

I loved everything about this book - Murderbot being Murderbot made me laugh so much (also why do I relate to a robot so much more than I relate to human characters?), the murder-mystery plot was interesting and I just really loved being back in this world. I missed ART (who doesn't?) and I'm hoping the next book sees Murderbot and ART together again.

I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this book and this series to anyone who loves sci-fi and also to anyone who just wants a good laugh.

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Note: I will say that you could potentially read this book as a standalone, but you would miss out on some of the details/characters/organisations being mentioned. But you *could* read this without reading the previous books.

4.5 stars

Fugitive Telemetry is the latest installment in the murderbot diaries, and holds up to all its predecessors excellently. Murderbot as a character has so much personality and truly carries the series from start to finish, it's dry sarcasm and general hatred of the world whilst still having a secret heart of gold is such a joy to read.

The plot of this novella is one of the strongest in the series in my opinion, we have a murder mystery set up as Murderbot and some of Preservation station staff, including the Senior of the station with whom Murderbot has a fraught relationship, discover a dead body and from there have to investigate and stumble upon a conspiracy involving refugees, sabotage and typical space antics.

The relevations and twists were very well paced through the novella, I thought the length worked perfectly, every word on the page felt like it had a purpose and I read it in basically one sitting as I was so invested in wanting to find out what happens next. The action is also incredibly well written in this book, sci-fi action scenes are so hard to get right but when they are done well they are always amazing, and these ones I could perfectly visualise what was happening and it felt so badass.

I always love the exploration of the themes in the murderbot diaries, especially around the idea of setient AI, and their rights and agency. Also Murderbot slowly and reluctantly learning that maybe all humans aren't so bad in every book in the series always gets me in the feels. And the solidatarity between bots in this novella was really cute, every interaction Murderbot has with another AI was so precious, the only one missing was ART :'(

Side note: I still don't know what telemetry is lol T_T

In conclusion this is such an enjoyable series to read, and a great standalone installment in the series, especially if you are looking for some fun light-hearted sci-fi that will leave you feeling very satisfied yet still wanting more in the best way.

Fugitive Telemetry has all the trappings of a classic Murderbot story – trademark snark, funny situations, a compelling murder mystery, and a seemingly unfeeling security robot that feels feelings. Murderbot is back and just as good as ever.

I really enjoyed reading these two stories! I just absolutely love Murderbot, it's such a fantastic character, and this world with the ultra-Corporate sector with such grim chances and choices. Murderbot is just so hilarious as a narrator, the resignation in dealing with humans is just so hilarious, given how often it happens!

Loved reading Home, being in Dr. Mensah's head, in the aftermath of her kidnapping and the PTSD that she avoids thinking about, or acknowledging it exists besides thoughts that poke at her "it doesn't exist" headspace. And while it doesn't resolve (you can't fix mental health that quickly) it does give an overall impression that she's going to seek help, she's going to heal, which is a really great message.

I'm a bit conflicted. I know that some people didn't like Network Effect-the first (and hopefully not the last, given the reception that it got) but I really enjoyed it. And then going back to this novella, well, I would've liked a little bit of the fallout from Network Effect, but this is a novella, and there's space constraints, so you can see why I'm conflicted, I have opposing wants.

This was a really fun novella, I really enjoyed Murderbot's investigation. And it was so very, very tricky! How it all went down, all the moving pieces, and the hidden parts, it just worked out beautifully, and it was another fantastic installment in this series!

These were really great reads, and I can't wait for more from this series!

Murderbot is back in action, this time for a change of pace—a rare murder mystery presents itself on Preservation Station. Our reluctant hero is hesitant to engage, but once on the job, events of course become more complex and interesting! Some familiar friends appear as the story unfolds, and new characters show some potential. More, please! (This review is based on an ARC graciously provided by the publisher)