This was not my favourite Murderbot book. However, even my non-favourite Murderbot books are still very good books, and I will probably reread this two or three times before its official release later this year.

My biggest problem with this was that it felt insubstantial as a novel; it was only 60% of the length of Network Effect, and it was set in roughly the same place with a lot of the same characters, so it didn't feel like it was treading new ground. If the first four novellas were a single character arc for Murderbot, then Fugitive Telemetry through this one are a second one; this is good from a character-building point of view, and it probably was what was needed to make sense of some of the emotional arcs, but it meant that this book was less explosively new and exciting.

Fundamentally, this book has the issue of how to make the outcome uncertain and thus the plot interesting, given that we've seen Murderbot kick ass in a similar set of circumstances to this one in the previous book. Wells solves this by introducing internal complications for Murderbot, who has to deal with the redacted. This works, and I think it will be really good for future emotional arcs, but it is just slightly less fun to read about. I missed the homicidal sarcasm, which was somewhat hampered by redacted.

I highlight my quibbles because they feel a little notable in comparison to Network Effect, which I think was probably the strongest entry in the series since the first. Fundamentally, this is a series that I love, and I think that the bar has been set incredibly high. There are some great structural flourishes here, including the use of redacted, and I'm impressed by the ways that it doesn't feel stale or repetitive. This doesn't quite meet the dizzying heights of its chronological predecessor for some structural reasons that I don't think could have been avoided without telling an entirely different story, but I still loved to read it and tore through it from the second I got access to it until it was done.

I'm enamored with this entire series, and this installment was no expection. Murderbot remains one of the most underrated series and relatable characters I've encountered. How does one relate so strongly to a nonbinary construct, self-named "Murderbot," who cares so much and little, and also doesn't understand emotion? Beats me, but Martha Wells has that secret sauce.

My only hangups at this point, I didn't fully grasp the implications of the "redacted" moment, though it was very in character to feel so embarrassed about something that it pointedly avoids it so hard it actively redacts the information until we can't continue without it. I also found the climactic solution moment of making a movie together to convince the colonists a little over-the-top corny. Yes, media and entertainment has power outside of staving off boredom, but since Murderbot's entire existence seems to add that undercurrent to the story as it is, making it the main point was a bit cheesy.

Even so I was thrilled to be back with ART and Ratthi on the contaminated planet! I was itching to know what happened and feel so satiated to find out. 4.75/5

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Murderbot and her crew continue to explore a world affected by alien contamination - racing against a corporation to contact a group long separated from the rest.
Review
I’ve said repeatedly that Tor and Wells erred in making this a serial, episodic novel rather than a standard big book or series of novels. It’s uneven, with occasional stronger, longer pieces bolstering shorter, more muddled episodes. The main story is hard to keep track of; I read the last iteration just two years ago, and struggled for most of this book to join the pieces up. And because Murderbot, while engaging, does similar things each time and has pretty much the same sardonic attitude throughout, it’s hard to tell the episodes apart.
Here, Wells, lays down some markers for Murderbot’s character development, but presents them in such a muddled form – first redacted, then, halfway through the book, spelled out explicitly – that it’s hard to do much with them. They are also, clearly, just markers – promises that, we’ll see Murderbot evolve; but not now. Maybe next time.
In a series of peaks and valleys, I’m afraid this is one of the valleys. At this rate, I fear I could see the Murderbot Diaries go on and on and on – the same basic plot and tone repeated in every episode. Wells is a very talented writer, and Murderbot is a great character, but this episodic approach is not serving either of them well.
Whether you’re new to Murderbot or a fan, I strongly recommend reading at least a couple of these books at a time – as if they were a larger book. I think you’ll get much more out of the story that way than in these brief installments.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

Murderbot never fails to impress, and System Collapse is no different.

I was surprised to see that this book directly followed Network Effect, and the journey it takes Murderbot on is equally as surprising as it is refreshing. It feels like a new angle of the character, it maintains that classic flat tone that the narrative has always had while also weaving in changes to the character and what it has been through. I think my favourite aspect of reading a Murderbot book is picking apart the way it thinks and feels, what it chooses to show the reader through the narrative, and after everything that its been through in the previous novel, Murderbot has a LOT of complex emotions to figure out.

The idea of giving a robot PTSD is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking. You can't help but root for Murderbot throughout this series, but this book in particular really digs into the humanity of androids, and seeing it grow as it learns to process its trauma and emotions (that it likes to pretend it doesn't experience) was excellent.

And god, I love ART. I love watching Murderbot pretend it hates ART. There's not many character dynamics that can compete with this hostile, aggressive form of friendship that these two have created. It's absolutely a highlight of this book.

I don't think I'll ever get enough of Murderbot, and the way this book molds and shapes the character into something new makes it probably the most unique of the entire series.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book!

Another brilliant step in the adventures of Murderbot and ART - & frankly, they can keep coming indefinitely.

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗶𝘁𝗹𝗲: Dust and Murderbots
𝗙𝗮𝘃 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗿: Murderbot
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: Easy
𝗧𝘆𝗽𝗲: Novella
𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗿𝗲: Sci-fi, Adventure
4.7/𝟱

𝗢𝗨𝗧: Nov 14th, 2023

🌱THE EXCELLENT
~ Continuing story
~ Evolution of characters & their relationships
~ Dynamic world + AI
~ Great descriptions of direction & space

We’re still on the planet we were last time, with lost colonists & deranged alien mind controlled colonists being decontaminated - but now, they had to decide if they would leave the planet that had brought strife, division and death, if they would stay, OR if they would unknowingly join slave labour camps by B. E…

🦖 There is just something about Murderbot that is ridiculously relatable & adorable at the same time, it’s pretty hard to describe if you haven’t read any of the books. The grudging growth of love for some people & beings, reminds me of how I feel sometimes.

✨𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱.

🌱THE MEH
~ The waiting for the next book always pains me!

♡🌱 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗺𝗲 ;)

Stars: 4 out of 5.

Disclaimer before I get into the meat of this review. In order to understand what's happening in this book, you must have read Network Effect. This story picks up almost immediately after the ending of that book, and the events in NE have a direct impact on what's happening in this story. Of course, I'm assuming that not many people would start a series on its seventh book without reading the previous six, but you never know.

As I said, the events of this book are a direct continuation of Network Effect. They are still on the planet with the alien infestation. The corporation is still there as well. And Murderbot... Murderbot is not okay. Oh, he is fine physically speaking, but his mental state is in shambles to say the least.

And you know what? I'm really glad that the author chose to portray it this way. She could have easily just swept the events of Network Effect under the rug, and left Murderbot continue like nothing happened. To be his sarcastic and highly efficient paranoid self. But that would have diminished the impact of what had happened in those ruins. 

Murderbot had been through a horrific and traumatic experience. He was almost assimilated by a malignant alien entity, not to mention the mental violation that took place. If he had just shrugged this off, it would only have reinforced the point that SecUnits are just machines, because only a machine could walk away unscathed from something like that. 

But Bot is more than a machine, and he has a severe case of PTSD, even if he doesn't understand what's happening to him. He thinks he is broken, that something in either his organic parts or his programs is malfunctioning. So we get this very hesitant Bot, who second guesses all of his hunches and reactions, who doesn't trust his own risk assessments, and who spends so much time checking and double-checking his conclusions that he seems slow on the uptake. This shows us an oddly vulnerable side of Murderbot. He isn't used to being this hesitant. He isn't used to not being in control of the situation or of his own reactions to those situations, and he isn't used to not being able to have several plans of attack/retreat going at once in his head.

I also loved that Bot's attitude towards the humans he is with (the ones who came with him and ART's crew) has drastically changed in this book as well. Yes, he can still be sarcastic about them, but he truly considers them as friends, not just charges he has to keep alive often despite their best efforts. Bot even starts to trust them to accomplish things without his input or help. He relies on them more and he thinks of them a lot more fondly then before. This is huge character growth for Bot, and I am very happy about that.

My only complaint is that due to the limiting factors of the setting, we don't get nearly enough interaction with ART prime or Three, which I was really looking forward to. But seeing how this book ends, I have hope that we will get a lot more ART in the future. I would also like to know what will happen to the SecUnits Bot freed in this book. It would really be interesting to see how each of them evolves.

PS: I received an advanced copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yet another stellar outing for Murderbot and its ever growing crew of humans it wants to protect. I was so happy to be back with my favorite conflicted construct and there wasn't a disappointing moment in the entire work.

System Collapse picks up immediately after the events of Network Effect so if you feel too excited to wait for your copy go ahead and give it a re-read- who isn't up for another re-read of a Murderbot book? As with all Murderbot books, Martha Wells hits the ground running and we don't stop for a breath so be sure you remember the events of the novel before diving in.

I can't describe literally anything that happens and still have a spoiler free review since the reader is literally thrown into the whirlwind immediately and then it's all fun, games, snark, violence, and Sanctuary Moon until the very last page. Every character, even some of the ones we've just met, absolutely show up for the action and it's as much fun to get to know them as it was to meet Mensah and the Preservation Crew for the first time.

A wild, unpredictable romp through an imaginative and detailed setting that will have you finishing the whole thing in a single sitting then flipping it over to start again.

My entire NetGalley account was a ploy to get this book so I suppose I owe it a review that is at least semi coherent! So let’s ride!!

Why I Love Murderbot: Or, The Freedom In A Story That Doesn't Give Two Flips: An Unhinged History

-all other snarky protagonists WISH they were Murderbot

You know the ones. Sometimes they are great. Sometimes they are grating. Sardonic, exhausted, smarter than everyone else in the room. Here's how Murderbot shines: it's not just the dialogue, which is phenomenal, it's the entire book. These are the Murderbot Diaries - the whole setup is meant to be Murderbot's direct POV. So you get gems like

I went down the stupid tunnel towards the stupid danger.

It wasn’t dead, it was just catastrophically damaged. (I know, who isn’t?)

"Good job, SecUnit."
Ratthi sent me a glyph of a Preservation party sparkler exploding. I didn’t say anything. (I know I get pissed off when humans don’t acknowledge my work, but why is too much acknowledgment also upsetting? Sentience sucks.)
On our private feed connection, Ratthi said, How are you doing back there?
I am absolutely fine, I told him.


7.75 books later, Martha Wells has only ever committed to the bit.

-are we human, or are we dancer? constructs carrying the burden of sentience?

I love (L O V E) “AI has a soul” literature and this is probably the most interesting version of it. Because here’s Murderbot’s situation: it is an AI construct, yes, but it also has organic parts (including neural tissue). So as it learns to wrestle with things like empathy and compassion and anxiety and depression and trauma, it’s also trying to parse out whether those things are only developing because of the organic material, or whether they are innate.

These questions are made better by the constant inclusion of ART, an unhinged, fully-AI ship mind, who is unbelievably hysterical and shares some of the squishiest moments with Murderbot (mostly around not knowing how to help it besides offering to watch tv with it). ART also cares so, so deeply for its humans from the first moment it arrives on scene, a fact Murderbot struggles with as it tries to figure out if it wants to care at all.

I also love that Murderbot’s end game is not to be human (with some undertones of, to be human is inherently to be governed, which it’s frankly not interested in). Instead, it just wants to be.
This isn’t really a spoiler, but one of my favorite interactions earlier in the series essentially boils down to:

Human crew member: do you want rights?

Murderbot: not really

Human crew member: what do you want?

Murderbot:

Murderbot: cash money


-a catch-all of other things

Super fun world building. A constant rail against capitalism. The varying lengths of the works (from short story to full length novella) give the different stories fun flavors, since they can accomplish different things. All of the stories are about the cones. Murderbot interacting with children is always gold tier. Murderbot interacting with ART is diamond tier.

7.75 books later, I love that Murderbot is still a complete mess (I know, who isn’t?) but it’s still trying. Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan for gifting me the greatest of all treasures. Please write these books forever, Martha Wells!!

This was the Murderbot book that I had the most trouble getting into, because it felt like I was missing large swaths of context -- at this point, the cast is so big that without a primer it's hard to remember who was whom from the previous book. That said, once I got into it, I enjoyed it as always.

Good, as all Murderbot books are, but - for me - not as good as the previous volumes. (Still a 4 star read, so make of that what you will!) Martha Wells is a joy to read.

Murderbot always delivers without fail. Martha Wells gives us yet another adventure with our favorite chronically sardonic SecUnit, with an entire planet and its people at stake, taking place where Network Effect left off.

I love Murderbot.
This is another wonderful installment in its journey, a direct sequel to Network Effect that wraps up what happens with the colony and the corporation trying to take over.

First of all, I felt a bit betrayed by this being called "another full length" novel, when Tor.com are well aware they have published novellas with the same page count before. To be fair, System Collapse is a good 100 pages longer than the Murderbot novellas, but it is also a good 100 pages shorter than Network Effect.

System Collapse felt a bit more existential than the previous books, with Murderbot still feeling the aftereffects of a [redacted] event. Because of that, the beginning felt a bit more heavy, but as Murderbot deals with its feelings, the plot gets rolling, and the characters more familiar, it sucks you right in again.

In true style of the series, this book puts Murderbot with a mostly new group of humans, with old familiar faces still in the background. While I appreciate the new characters, and their backstories matter a lot to the plot, I would have loved to see more familiar faces. Especially Three and Amena felt really weirdly pushed into the background in this one.

I also wish the ending would have been a little longer, and wrapped up a bit more conclusively. Some elements that become prominent towards the end just get forgotten in the last chapter.
But to be fair, the Murderbot books never had elaborate epilogues.

I love Murderbot, but this is definitely not my favourite installment. It felt very surface level in a lot of aspects, and I wanted more depth from the plot in particular. Murderbot's emotional development was great in it though and I can't wait to see its next mission - and I'm especially curious where all its work in freeing SecUnits is going to head.

Murderbot fans, rejoice! System Collapse pick up right where the last book ended, with our favorite SecUnit and team on a planet home to several factions of a colony and a corporation group intent on taking them all for enslaved labor. The team makes plans, things get complicated, more plans are made and abandoned until finally things come together--at least partially. And that's not taking into account a surprise appearance from Murderbot's memory--it's flesh memory. Go read it--it's an exciting, sarcastic, wonderful read that ends with a decision on Murderbot's part that promises new adventures.

Welcome to another rerun of Sanctuary Moon! Well, no, not really. This is another chapter in the Murderbot diaries, and while it is numbered with the mystical, magical 7, it really comes immediately after number 5, Network Effect. That's because number 6 - Fugitive Telemetry - immediately follows the events of number 4, Exit Strategy, which happened right before Network Effect. I know, I know, it's like George Lucas was responsible for the numbering. Oh, well, it is what it is, and at least we're back in the original timeline after that little Sherlock Murderbot stunt in the last novella. (Which I enjoyed tremendously.)

Which is my way to say that you should probably read / re-read Network Effect before System Collapse. Or maybe the whole series, because why not?

*****

Alright, confession time: I was recently diagnosed of probably suffering from dysthymia, sometimes also called a high functional depression, which really removes the fun from functional. It sounds way better than it feels. I'm putting this here because that diagnosis made me realize stuff - about myself, but also about Murderbot. Or my inner Murderbot, if you're inclined to call it that. Because Murderbot knows it's not human, but if you go back in the series, it is really clear that Murderbot starts with a pretty low self-esteem. It is showing signs of anxiety, and with hindsight, a lot of depression.

And it's still doing its job. That's how we meet Murderbot, back in All Systems Red, and I now finally know why I felt so connected to it all along: because that's me. I'm Murderbot! Well, minus all the shooting and stuff, but basically, were the same. And while Murderbot starts a rerun of Sanctuary Moon when it is depressed, I start another reread of Murderbot!

Those mental issues are going on through System Collapse, and that has to do with redacted. Yes, that's actually part of the text, and no, Martha does not explain it, at least not in full. I am a lucky person in that I'm part of a Murderbot discuss group on Goodreads, and we had a lot of discussions about that redacted thing. PTSD was one thing that has been thrown around, for example, and I concur.

I wasn't telling you about my own depression earlier on because I'm looking for sympathy (I'm not), but to make a point here - about this incredible feat Martha Wells delivered: Murderbot is the most humane and relatable protagonist I've encountered for a very, very long time. It might look near invincible (after all, we've seen it enduring a lot of damage and surviving), but it is pretty vulnerable on the inside. And I like to think it is more humane on the inside than it might give its organic parts credit for. And that's the reason behind this series success - because after all, not only is Murderbot much more human than it wishes to be.

But also there's a Murderbot in every one of us!

Disclaimer: I’ve received a free Advanced Reader’s Copy and am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really enjoyed this new foray into the world of murderbot. I've really enjoyed this character and it's unique voice and humor over the course of the series. From reading the other books in 2021 to reading this new installment in 2023, some of the specifics about periferal characters had faded a bit, so it took a while to get my bearings and be pulled into the story, but once I remembered those details it was a fun and quick read with quipy sarcasm, and difficult decisionmaking.

Warning: This book picks up DIRECTLY after Network Effect. If you are like me and read these books the minute they are released (or are lucky enough to get an advanced reader copy– many thanks Tor and Netgalley, and I will now proceed with my completely biased review because I feel that I would be first in line to give Murderbot a hug if they would ever, ever permit it), then you should probably go back and refresh yourself if your organic parts are at all suspect. Although Wells is an author prone to detailed world-building, ‘Bot is not a being that particularly cares about such details (“I asked because the humans would bug me for the information; I was as indifferent to human gender as it was possible to be without being unconscious”) and as such, is often prone to gloss over details in favor of snarky commentary.

Aren’t we all?

BUT, as I was saying, Wells does drop us in the action (as usual) and ‘Bot is struggling with (redacted). Literally. That’s not me redacting anything–that’s ‘Bot doing it, leaving the reader wondering what exactly is being redacted. Specific events from Network Effect? The alien intelligence? Murderbot 2.0? Who knows, because (redacted).

“I was supposed to ‘check in regularly with my emotions’ which I pretended was a thing I had any intention of doing… I had fifty-seven unique sources of concern/anxiety, speaking of checking in with my emotions, but nothing I could do anything about right now.”

Me too, Murderbot. Me too.

Eventually, of course, all will become clear, but that’s why it helps to have recently refreshed recall of Network Effect. I mean, we all have our favorite episodes, right? All Systems Red and Exit Strategy are my equivalents of Sanctuary Moon, so those don’t need much refreshing for me.

Because of that delay, I spent part of this story more confused than I generally appreciate. I was also a little frustrated with ‘Bot’s indecisiveness. But that’s growth, isn’t it, and that is the wonderful thing about Murderbot; how they have gone from a murdering being (so they say) to a being that just wants to numb themselves on the entertainment feed, to a being that has so many friends they need to categorize them by groups.


Many, many thanks to Tor and Netgalley for feeding my ‘Bot addiction providing an advanced reader copy that I could review in a completely unbiased manner.

System Collapse takes off right after Network Effect. It still has all the things I love about the series, the amazing characters, the intriguing world-building the sarcastic funny loveable murdermachine main character. Unfortunately even with a foundation as amazing as this, sometimes you just have to do your taxes. Or in this case figure out the legal case to not have a planets population abducted into slave labour.
To me, dealing some more with the corporates was the most boring story line we could have followed after the end of the last book. Network Effect left so many cool story strands open: the alien contamination, the whole thing with three, the new mission peris crew was mentioning. That whole corporate thing could have really been a small part if Network Effect.
The redacted parts posed an intriguing mystery to the story, while murderbot worked through a traumatic event and dealt with feelings of “Im broken” and “Im not good enough”.
Despite being a bit bored during the first half of the book, when I finished I was desperate for more. When you start this book you should know this isnt something new and different and unique, its essentially the B-Plot of Network Effect, but thats not a bad thing because Network Effect was amazing.
My overall enjoyment of this book kind of hinges on what happens next in the series, because on its own the story of this book was a bit boring and slow but as a short stop in the middle of the series I wouldn’t complain about it. Now, this all might sound very negative but I have to literally compare it to its predecessor, one of the best books Ive ever read. Its still a Murderbot book which means its still an amazing book and 100% worth your time.

Murderbot is, as always, the most relatable character around. (Seconded by ART, whose snarkiness and sarcasm we can only aspire to.) I've loved watching Murderbot grow over the course of the books and this one is a great example of how far it has come. Who would have thought that Murderbot from All Systems Red would ever admit to needing companionship and support? (Ok, "admit" is a strong word, but it didn't deny the fact either, which is a start.) Watching Murderbot work through its trauma, especially after the events of Network Effect was a really rewarding experience as we join it on its journey, while also keeping its humans alive and intact. I loved the interactions it has with ART and also Ratthi. Overall, a wonderful addition to Murderbot canon.

Who would ever guess that an (ex) murderous robot (construct) would be one of the most relatable characters as far as anxiety, trauma and purpose go?

The humanity that Wells writes into SecUnit is tangible. It’s experiences we have all had and, pun intended, have had to process on our own or learn to ask for help with.

The development of Murderbot from book 1 to this latest iteration is astounding. As each book passes he becomes less robotic and even more human.

Murderbot may hate planets but unfortunately for him I love reading about him on them. Wells is a master of world building and the planet in System Collapse is her at her best.

I have no idea where the story will take us next - but then again neither does Murderbot. After this installment, as with every previous one, I can not wait to find out. This may be my favorite in the Murderbot Diaries yet.

Wow... somebody needs to get this construct some Lexapro, stat! Jokes aside though, I loved it. I will never get tired of Murderbot, its anxiety, and its begrudging interactions with other beings. And ART!