Wells has done it again.
Murderbot’s journey continues with the perfect amount of intrigue, action and sarcastic humor. Murderbot always approaches problems with just the right level of analysis and, despite its best efforts, emotion. This time controlling its emotions is extra hard because [redacted], which is the last thing it’s needs if it’s gonna manage to protect the Preservation and Perihelion crews.

This book picks up RIGHT where Network Effect left off, so I highly recommend either rereading or refreshing yourself on that book before diving in here. I feel like there's not a ton I can say that is not spoiler-y, so I'll just say that this is the first book where we see Murderbot processing their feelings and the trauma of what all they've been through with the support of their humans and ART. Thematically, this is very salient as to where we are re:late stage capitalism and worker exploitation

Wells hit it out of the park again!

I just love Murderbot and following it’s journey through this story was everything I’d hoped for - and a little more. The way it wrestled with feelings and emotions - coping with Sanctuary Moon! - is just perfect. Wells captures something about humanity in this SecUnit!

I also LOVED the addition at the end (the “resolution Murderbot comes up with) and felt like it was exactly what the story needed.

As I always feel when I come to the end of a Murderbot novel…I want more.

Note: There is quite a bit of swearing that I really wish wasn’t there…it’s the only negative about the books because if feels off to have bots and ships cussing…but I read past it.

My rating: 5*

—-
Thanks to NetGalley for this gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

I love the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, with my favorite being Network Effect, which truly kicks ass. (My least favorite was Fugitive Telemetry, mainly because I didn’t think the whodunit format worked all that well. And Network Effect is a hard act to follow!) So I welcomed the opportunity to review an eGalley of the newest Sec Unit tale, System Collapse, due out in November.

Where does System Collapse fall between the last two, in terms of strength of story? Much closer to Network Effect, though it picks up the story-line of Preservation’s encounter with the unscrupulous Barish-Estranza corporation.

On one side are the humanitarian Preserveration folk (along with our favorite SecUnit); on the other side, the ruthless Barish-Estranza corporation. Both sides are vying for the hearts and minds of colonists who are also dealing with dangerous alien-tech-contamination. Moreover, the Preservation team finds out about a separatist group of colonists who are even more clueless about what’s happening. Naturally, having no history with either side, these colonists have no idea who to trust—or who to fear! If they make the wrong choice, they’ll end up as slave labor for the rest of their natural lives. Complicating matters, SecUnit can’t trust itself after a hallucinatory episode and an unexpected shutdown.

SecUnit has always been the model of competence and efficiency, in terms of security, keeping its team safe from outside threats and, sometimes, from their own ill-advised choices. Introducing self-doubt is a significant problem when every choice becomes a life-or-death decision, adding another layer of suspense to a situation that is already tense. The reason for the eponymous “system collapse” is never fully explained, so I wonder if that will be the subject of the next Murderbot Diaries installment.

With SecUnit’s unexpected (and certainly unwelcome) layer of fallibility in the mix, System Collapse builds to a nail-biting conclusion, since any mistake, any hesitation can lead to fatal results for SecUnit and its team, and a life of misery for the colonists they’ve been sent to rescue. It remains to be seen if the “system collapse” is a one-time fluke, something SecUnit will completely recover from and be forgotten… or if it signals another step toward greater humanity for our beloved MurderBot.

Murderbot realizes it has to deal with it's PTSD, the novel! Very much a sequel to Network Effect and does not stand alone without reading Network Effect. It's a delightful novel for longtime Murderbot readers featuring new and old friends (Mensah, ART, Ratthi, etc). The series could end here, but the ending has me wanting SO much more!

This is one of the best entries to the Murderbot Diaries series. If you liked Network Effect, you're going to love System Collapse. This novel starts where Network Effect left off. Murderbot and the team are dealing with the fallout of their previous adventure, and discovering a new adventure (and many many problems) along the way.

It has everything that you've loved about Murderbot books in the past: pessimism and sarcasm, our bot trying to deal with its anxiety and trauma, deadly fights, a love of media pervading the plot, and musings on what it means to be human.

The strength of this book is in how it shows Murderbot dealing with its emotional issues. For many books of this series, Murderbot has been avoiding doing just that. In this episode, we start to get some real forward momentum.
It also avoided the common pitfall of this series by narrowing down the cast somewhat. For most of the novel, we only had 3 sidekicks.

A video review of this book will be on my Youtube channel in the coming weeks, @ChloeFrizzle

Thanks to Netgalley and Tor for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

System Collapse begins hours after Network Effect ended. You really should not read this first. I found the first third a bit hard going because Murderbot did not "sound" wholly like the Murderbot of previous stores to me. I trusted Ms. Wells to lead me thru the store and indeed she did. The alteration in Murderbot's manner was revealed and made a whole lot of sense. By the end I was hooting out loud.

Related to Murderbot. I only found out about a short story Ms. Well's wrote for a charity project "Take Us to a Better Place", a few days ago and read it immediately after System Collapse.. Her story is "Obsolescence". It is poorly indexed at Amazon (as many things are there, how their search engine has fallen). One will not find it by searching for Martha Wells but you can find it by searching for the title of the anthology. It is set in a much earlier time but is well worth reading.

I love Murderbot. These novellas are just so great. I'm not a huge scifi fan & it doesn't even matter. This installment tackles mental health in a good way too. Sometimes the scifi-ness gets a little weedy but the relationships are so well done that it's compelling nonetheless.

System Collapse by Martha Wells In this fun installment of the Murderbot Diaries, Murderbot is doing what it does best. As always there is action, corporate skulduggery, and it's darkly comic struggle with diminishing mental health. Very good addition to the series.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to preview the book.

I really don’t know why I’m here. At this point, more than five books into the Murderbot series, you’ve made a choice about whether you’re in or out. I love Murderbot with all my heart and soul, and if you’re a Murderbot stan, I promise that this new entry into the extended Murderbot universe will not disappoint you. And actually if you were more lukewarm on the latest Murderbot, this new novel (yes, novel, not novella--and there was much rejoicing) is a pretty direct sequel to Network Effect. It’s full of Murderbot doing Murderbot things--fun action, corporate skullduggery, and Murderbot feeling uncomfortable about emotions.

If somehow you’ve been living under a rock, and you aren’t familiar with our lord and savior Murderbot, let me give you a quick pitch for why you should be interested in this series. (But if you are, start at the beginning with All Systems Red, not here--this one will make no sense.)

Murderbot is a SecUnit (Half-human half-robot designed to provide security), living in a corporate dystopia. Murderbot has hacked its own governing module, and would like to be left alone to watch it’s trashy TV shows, but unfortunately self awareness also means Murderbot has emotions, and those are inconvenient. If you want to read about a cynical sassy android that is maybe the world’s most relatable robot--get you to Murderbot and you can thank me later.

I received a free Advance Reader Copy in exchange for this honest review.
Will Post November 1.

I am so happy that I received this audiobook. The narrator did a great job and I love being back in the Murderbot world. You will not be disappointed!!

Another exciting, fun entry in the murderbot diaries. This opens en media res and the action rarely stops.

MB and it's close friend ART are a fun, playfully antagonistic pair with a high regard for the protection of their humans, and maybe the mission too

MB is growing as a real, feeling being and it's nice to see it grow and realize it needs help sometimes, both physically and mentally. MB's mental health and PTSD is a constant subplot as it's story progresses.

When's the next book out?!

New Murderbot! This one starts right where the last one left off, which was honestly a bit of a problem for me - the book does a perfectly good job of reminding you what happened, but I always feel that I'm missing things if it's been awhile since I read a previous book that leads directly in. This one also has the issue that there are a bunch of new humans (ART's humans) to keep track of. I enjoyed it very much, of course (it's Murderbot!) and it definitely started to hum at the end, but there's rather a lot of buildup in this one.

System Collapse picks up where Network Effect left off—with Preservation Alliance and Pansystem University of Mihara and New Tideland working together to prevent the planet from falling into Barish-Estranza’s control (and the surviving colonists from a fate of indentured ‘employment’). Faced with distrustful, fractional colonists with little knowledge of the Corporation Rim, the team needs to find a way to show the truth behind B-E’s corporate propaganda. And to top it all of, Murderbot isn’t doing so great…

In this installment, Wells takes a closer look at the persuasive tools of the Corporation Rim and how disinformation and desperation erode fundamental rights to autonomy. While the narrative climax can feel somewhat corny, Murderbot’s pessimism and dry commentary balances the message, allowing for a explosive and entertaining finale without flattening the politics. The highlight of the novel is Murderbot’s relatable and darkly funny struggle with declining mental health. As always, Wells handles this topic deftly—giving an accurate and empathetic depiction that doesn’t bog down the narrative by wallowing in trauma.

I have loved the murderbot series, and I never believed I would relate so much to a - well, murderbot. This series is so witty and relateble, I was over the moon when I got accepted to the ARC of the latest installment, and this met all my excpectations. The writing is impeccable, fast pased and I found myself constantly chuckling.

I will update when this review is posted on other platforms closer to release-date.

Murderbot is having a crisis. Is he a killer, has he lost his marbles, or is he having a mental breakdown? Can a robot have a breakdown? The latest entry in the Murderbot saga picks up directly after Network Effect and continues the story, While we expect Murderbot to save the day, he's got to figure out what's wrong with himself first and before things go south.

Another fun short jaunt through space with the beloved Murderbot!

The Murderbot Diaries are tales of a SecUnit as it travels through space carrying out dangerous missions. Part robot and part human, this particular SecUnit has gone rogue and hacked its governor module, escaping from its slave-like corporate existence.

System Collapse takes off with a bang and doesn't slow down, picking up right where Fugitive Telemetry left off. Murderbot and company have set out to rescue a colony of humans from a planet that has been exposed to alien contamination. But of course, nothing ever works out as planned. The nasty corporation, Barish-Estranza has their own plan for these colonists and they always fight dirty. To top it off, Murderbot has an operational problem so big that (redacted).

Once you pick up the first book in the series, you will forever be a fan. The lovable and very lethal SecUnit known as Murderbot reels you in with a dry-humored, cynical look at the world from a robot's point of view.

"I could have asked what "or worse" meant but there was only so much I could take and I thought I'd hit my limit about, I don't know, four years ago."


I think what resonates the most about this series is the all-to-real, human emotions that Murderbot experiences as it gets more and more in touch with its human side. Murderbot has gone from murdering people to saving them and now it has so many friends that it has to categorize them into groups. Processing the emotions that come with this new life can certainly be stressful. And with so much to do, will Murderbot ever have time to get back to the next episode of Sanctuary Moon?!

I want to thank the publisher (Tor Publishing Group) for providing me with the ARC through Netgalley for an honest review.

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!

I like this series so much! I have never read any other book being told from the diary of a self aware robot. Having things from the nonhuman point of view makes this one of the most interesting series I've come across.
Recommended for those who have read the rest of the Murderbot Diaries.

Before I get into the review, a quick thank you to both NetGalley and the publishers over at Tor giving me access to one of my most anticipated releases of the year in exchange for an honest review. If you've been here for any length of time then you already know about the Murderbot Diaries, but let me give you a quick series synopsis. In the series, we follow a Security Unit (SecUnit) who has hacked their governor module and all it wants now is to do its job while watching its shows. But SecUnit finds itself getting attached to humans as it travels the universe which inevitably leads to more danger and drama and dealing with more Corporation Rim companies than it would like. In this one, we follow SecUnit and its 'friend' ART who must protect their humans and some how prevent a company from seizing a colony of humans for their own selfish reasons. If only SecUnit wasn't starting to malfunction. This is the seventh in the series and it comes out on November 14th. Available for preorder now.

Discussing Murderbot with people who haven't read the series is hard, especially now that we're on number seven in the series. But we all know the basic premise, right? A SecUnit has gone rogue because it wants to not be controlled by a system that can kill it for disobeying. Oh, and so it can watch its shows. I will always enjoy getting back into this world. I think the author does such a great job with both the human characters and the constructs that always draws me in. This one actually made me like Ratthi way more than I did before which came as a huge surprise and showed me just how good of an author Martha Wells really is. At times I hated that something was wrong with Murderbot and that they weren't on top of their game the way they usually are. But we also got to see how trauma has impacted them and what happens when trauma just keeps getting compounded without any sort of treatment. The thing that I LOVED about this one was that we got both Murderbot and ART while also getting all of their humans. I love that the teams were mixed together based on task and ability instead of who came from where. And I loved that by the end Murderbot found itself attached to all the humans not just the ones it knew before meeting ART.

There were a few moments that felt unclear in the action. There is usually a decent amount of fight sequences/action scenes in this series and usually I can follow them pretty well, but in this one it felt more muddled. I think it might actually be me and not the book. I have a lot of real life stress going on at the moment so I feel like my focus has been pretty split. I'm willing to say it might not be the book's fault here. Just my attention span at the moment. I also wasn't 100% sure where this fit timeline wise for the series. It seems like it would fit after Network Effect and not the latest novella which is Fugitive Telemetry. Please correct me if I'm wrong here.

Overall, it's Murderbot and you cannot go wrong with reading some Murderbot. I will always sing this series' praises. Probably not my favorite but up there for sure.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an eARC of this book, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

This was another fun romp with Murderbot, taking place directly after Network Effort. Murderbot is back with its best friend ART and of course its humans. They're trying to thwart more nonsense from the corporate rim, stay alive, and help the colonists that they helped in Network Effort.

Fans of this series will enjoy this installment as well. It has Murderbot's humor, action and adventure. However, it didn’t feel like it really progressed the overall storyline that much. Not that I really care. I'm here for the banter.