System Collapse is the latest work in Martha Wells' "The Murderbot Diaries" series, her award winning series about the construct SecUnit (an artificial being created out of biological and machine parts) who goes by "Murderbot" internally despite being an introverted anxious being who would rather watch media/soap-operas rather than do anything else. If you're somehow unaware of Murderbot, despite large popularity and awards, well, its protagonist is incredibly lovable as it tries to stay out of trouble despite hacking itself to freedom...and despite it falling in with a group of humans it comes to care about and has to keep from getting themselves killed from time to time. The story began with a quarter of novellas (beginning with All Systems Red), expanded to a full length novel (Network Effect), and then continued with a prequel novella last year (Fugitive Telemetry).

System Collapse is I guess a short novel - it's almost in between the page length of Network Effect and the Novellas, at something like 250 pages - and it's a direct sequel largely to Network Effect. And it's fun in the way Murderbot works tend to be, as Murderbot deals with its old Preservation humans and its new ART-crew humans (plus a spinoff of ART) as they try to convince some separatist colonists to trust them over the ambassadors for a dangerous corporation. At the same time, the book's in between length seems to have come at a cost, as the book also deals with a plot of Murderbot dealing with traumatic flashbacks that may or may not be accurate and kind of fumbles that plotline just a little bit. There's enough interesting here that I rather enjoyed this, and Wells' prose is always well done, but the in-between length and incomplete trauma plotline make this one one of my lower ranked works in this really great series.

Plot Summary:
Murderbot, ART, and their humans are still stuck in the system containing the alien-contaminated lost colony planet where ART had previously lost its human crew. They'd prefer to be out of there already....except additional ships from the corporate entity Barish-Estranza have arrived in system to try and claim the world...and to "indenture" (really enslave) the humans still living down there. Murderbot and ART's humans are trying to create a legal fiction that will ensure the colonists' freedom...but it will require the colonists' cooperation, which is a lot harder than it should be to get.

So when one of the friendly colonists mentions that there was a separatist faction of the colony that left long ago and went underground at one of the Poles, Murderbot, some of the humans, and a drone partition of ART head off to the pole to investigate. But what they find there are underground tunnels where danger may lurk at every turn and colonists who are even less willing to trust them than the rest of the colony...and who might be more amenable to the corporation's lies. Add in some unexplained false traumatic memories that keep popping up in Murderbot's head, and the team will clearly have its hands full trying to save these new stupid humans....and not becoming the victims of corporate violence themselves....
After Network Effect, readers probably expected the next Murderbot sequel to focus on Murderbot's new adventures with ART, their growing relationships and Murderbot dealing with a new crew - ART's crew - who are different from the humans it is used to. System Collapse decides not to do that, instead picking up right after Network Effect and throwing an obstacle in the way of Murderbot and ART getting to that point. In a way, it kind of feels disappointing that we get this speedbump here, even though the story is written well and Murderbot's narration feels fun and enjoyable as always.

That said, System Collapse deals specifically with a pair of new issues and concepts for Murderbot to explore, and those seem generally to be worthy developments for the character which kind of justify this speedbump. The first is Murderbot's being put in a position where it, and their humans, have to convince other humans - and possibly even SecUnits like Three - that Murderbot's humans have their best interest at heart and not to trust the evil corporate entities. How this plotline plays out is kind of a further exploration of Murderbot/2.0's overtures to Three in Network Effect and works really well here - I won't spoil how it plays out, but it's a very Murderbot form of plot and character development and I enjoyed it greatly.

The second issue is that Murderbot is now dealing with trauma, a kind of PTSD, where a false memory that seems to combine bits of other memories - of Murderbot suffering violence during the events of Network Effect - is causing Murderbot to freeze and shut down at seemingly random occasions. Murderbot can't quite figure out why this is happening - indeed, it labels the phenomenon as [redacted] and refuses to explain it in the narrative for the first third of the book. But clearly it's suffering from trauma and needs some way to deal with it. And it's there that honestly this book kind of disappoints, because the book kind of assumes this trauma will be resolved without ever showing Murderbot finding a way to deal with it? There's talk about discussing later with one of the Preservation doctors but it never happens here and the results of the trauma are never dealt with. I guess if this is followed up on in a next book it'll be okay, but well, this book is titled "System Collapse" so I kind of expected this book to feature it?

Overall though while System Collapse is not a highlight in this series, it's still very good and a solid addition. I just look forward to the story finally moving past this system, should there be any future Murderbot stories.

SecUnit has gathered around them a ragtag bunch of folks that are in near constant need of saving- sigh, if only everything was as clearcut as Sanctuary Moon. While stuck planetside even after [REDACTED] happened SecUnit must still operate at increased parameters as one by one their drones get abandoned or destroyed all while dealing with new SecUnit3 and also that pesky Alien Contamination. A Murderbot's job is never done, or easy, especially with humans in charge. So good, everyone should be reading Murderbot!

I will follow Murderbot wherever they may go. Excited to see that Apple TV has optioned this for a series and can't wait to see this world come to life. These short novellas should never end.

This is a great addition to the series. Book 6 felt like a standalone murder mystery/procedural and didn't advance the core story. Same with the short story released. This one felt like a continuation of book 5. Good story, plot line and character interactions/dialogue were enjoyable. I'd recommend it to fans of the series. Not a good book to start with and not quite as attention grabbing as the first book or second in series, but still a very satisfying read.

wow!! I was honestly getting bored with this series, but this was so redeeming! I really fell back in love with murderbot during this experience. I felt like as things keep going my brain is not fully grasping all the scifi because Martha Wells writes it hard, but I still can get what I can out of the story.

I think this one has a lot of tension and we see Murderbot really feeling things and dealing with it. I really love that for him!

Can't wait to see Murderbot come to life on AppleTV! Guess I'll have to get AppleTV in like 2025. lol. Love Murderbot but these stories need to be a bit more varied for me to remember them as separate tales. I enjoyed MB but didn't love this story.

As always, the voice of Murderbot is a snarky delight and I love the expanded found family that has been growing throughout the series. The plot was compelling here too and overall this was a very entertaining entry into what is a consistently excellent series.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of the book. I'm a long-time fan of Murderbot and its adventures. But I feel like this year I had too much existential dread of my own and couldn't enjoy its. It seems the novelty of Murderbot has worn off a bit for me. Still entertaining, just not the emotional rollercoaster and fireworks the previous books offered me.

One of my favorite entries in this series, System Collapse has Murberbot at its most vulnerable--and caring. Emotions, ugh. XD Murderbot is dealing with the fallout from its previous adventures in the form of trauma, while also faced with planet colonies that might just be willing to (unintentionally) sign themselves away to corporate slavery rather than trust the University and Preservation team to help them--because corporates sure do know how to fight dirty. Murderbot now has whole groups of humans to look out for, and we all know it hates watching other humans die--or throw their lives away. It was a delight to watch Murderbot draw on its experiences through the series to develop the single most effective way to reach the untrusting colonists before it was too late. Did I see it coming? Absolutely. Did I care? No. The execution was fantastic.

Highly recommend.

System Collapse is the seventh book in Martha Wells’s acclaimed Murderbot Diaries series, and it’s a humdinger. Fans have been waiting for this one, and they will not be disappointed. My thanks go to NetGalley and Tor Publishing for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

If you are one such fan, I’ve already told you what you need to know; for the uninitiated, I’ll continue. I am a reluctant science fiction reader. I generally avoid anything that involves complex world building or a new vocabulary extensive enough to require a glossary. I absolutely don’t read science fiction series anymore, because I am not that dedicated. As we age, our brains become less flexible, and so whereas I loved reading a handful of excellent but rather intricate series when I was thirty, I’m just not up for it in my retirement years. I include this information because I know that a good number of my readers are also at or near retirement age, and may be similarly reluctant. So, first: you can do this, and it will be painless.

I was finally persuaded to try this series—not for review, merely as an audiobook from the library, which is about as low risk as it gets—when readers from a number of unrelated places in my life all recommended it. I saw good things from a couple of my Goodreads friends online. How nice, I thought, but I’ll pass. Next came my children, my eldest and my youngest, both grown, of course. Their rabid enthusiasm cracked my resolve a tiny bit, but I thought, maybe later. The final straw came when a couple of lifelong friends came to visit from out of state last spring. They were embarking on a road trip around the Pacific Northwestern USA, concluding their stay here in Seattle, and they, too, were wildly enthusiastic—and one of them doesn’t read for pleasure much at all! They listened to the audiobooks of the entire series up through the sixth, which is what was available at the time, and heartily recommended it.

Well, I thought. I could check the library. I could probably listen to the first one while watering the plants, and if I don’t like it, I’ll just send it on back. But of course, I didn’t send it back; I checked out the rest of the series, and friend, if you have to stand around for thirty or forty minutes daily with a hose in your hand, this is the way to do it.

The Murderbot is a being that is part machine, part human, and the term for this within the fictional world it inhabits is “sec unit,” because it has been invented for the security of the human beings inside the various spacecraft that are flying around out there, and also partly for the security of the ship also; but as we learn, the ship can sometimes take care of itself.

“Murderbot” is the specific name that our protagonist has chosen. And the main character is indeed about ninety percent of what’s important here. We don’t need a host of invented words. There are a bazillion other characters, and no effort is made to introduce them to us gradually, but it doesn’t matter. Just let it flow over you and at some point, the most important characters will click in.

This seventh installment in the series is the first time that I have read it with my eyes. I wasn’t sure how this would go, since voice actor Kevin R. Free is so adept at reading the series that I had begun to equate his voice with the character; I needn’t have worried. In fact, I find that I prefer reading it this way, because the internal monologue is immense, and it’s much easier to tell when the character’s ruminations have ended and the action resumes when I can see the (many, many) parentheses. Also, the humor here is often sly, and when listening to the story, I don’t get a pause that provides me with time to consider what’s been said; we’re off and running, and if I don’t want to miss anything, I have to forget all about that little witticism and move forward. Reading by sight allows some reflection.

The series is drop dead funny, and it is also timely, as AI makes more inroads toward humanity of its own, raising all sorts of ethical questions for the future.

For any fans of the series that are still reading, despite having been dismissed at the start of this review: my favorite character, apart from the protagonist, is Art, the ship that is also Murderbot’s beloved friend. Murderbot’s sarcasm is matchless, except when Art is around. matching snark for snark with Murderbot as it does here, and foreshadowing suggests that when #8 is written and available, the same will be true.

And I cannot wait for the next in the series. Highly recommended!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me at this one early in exchange for an honest review! (Did I take full advantage of that? No 😭)
System Collapse might be my final book of the year, and I am so ok with that! This one took me a minute to read, largely due to the fact that I've been so heavily on my Terry Pratchett Bullshit* that I mostly had to start over because I Lost the Plot. Murderbot is always worth a reread, though, so that was the opposite of a problem.
If you liked the other books (of course you did), you'll like this one! Lots of good character growth for our friend Murderbot, and lots of Murderbot and ART being married/divorced/????.
It picks up pretty much right where Network Effect leaves off, so try to read them as close together as possible - the ideal reading order for these is 1-4, 6, 5, 7. Do you, though!

*I feel like the Venn diagram of Murderbot Enjoyers and Discworld Enjoyers is probably a circle

I was so confused when I started this book, to the point that I was convinced I skipped a book in the series. We're thrown right in to the insanity that Murderbot is currently involved in, after being recruited by ART to help save his crew. It became apparent quickly that I was not missing a book, you are supposed to be confused. Murderbot has a memory issue for this book.

The latest installments in the Murderbot Diaries have been interesting as they deal with being a known rogue SecUnit to select people. Otherwise they're a security consultant to anyone. They're good at their job usually and it was interesting to see them off their game a bit this time. ART further cements themself as another amazing bot character. It's also very interesting seeing them continue to interact with other SecUnits and offer them the same options they have.

Murderbot's charm endures, though I sometimes struggled to follow the plot of this slightly dense follow-up from Martha Wells.

Definitely not the best murderbot entry. I wish this had more of the interpersonal aspect that I've come to love in this series. This felt like a filler episode.

As always, amazing. I adore this damn Murderbot and their adventures. They go through these journeys while discovering themselves and you can see them picking up more humanity along the way.

I'm so glad I got to dive back into the world of MurderBot. I love that we got to know ART's crew more and that we got to see how MurderBot's family is expanding, even it doesn't want to admit that. I will always read something now in this world, but it's a true delight when returning to a series is such a joy.

*SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!*

So, I did have a slight bit of trouble following what the hell was going on in this book, because there is A LOT going on in this book. But I got there and loved it, as I love all Murderbot.

I was so happy to have a slightly longer Murderbot book and I absolutely cannot wait for the next one. Honestly, I think Tor should just throw money at Martha Wells and give her an open ended contract that allows her to write as many Murderbot books as she wants.

Several things I really enjoyed about this book:
• Murderbot deciding that they need to make media to inform the colonists about the evils of Barish-Estranza
• the colonists recognizing Tarik from being in the documentary (he’s a celebrity!)
• this description: I don’t think I’ve had an emotion that wasn’t the visual equivalent of a wet blanket crumpled on a floor.

So much to love about this series and I can’t to read more!

I enjoy the Murderbot Diaries series. I love seeing the growth of the main character. I also like the side characters as well. The way Martha Wells describes the different locations is surreal. I can't wait to see where and how the main character goes from here.

I've been consuming these as fast as they come out. But it's not fast enough. A full three years of my real time has transpired since I read Network Effect. And much has happened in those years. On the other hand, almost no time has transpired for Murderbot, since this story picks up immediately after the events of the previous novel. And Murderbot is not in a good place. Why? The current story will reveal this. But since I didn't reread the previous story before jumping into this one, my mind was spinning trying to recall the previous events and make the current events make sense.

Then I gave up and simply enjoyed the ride. The story unfolds at the usual fast pace and is still filled with quick humor and Murderbot's sweet, innocent, logical feelings for its human clients. It's fun to tag along as it evaluates and compensates for the various tactical situations, always trying for the least destructive outcome.

I wound up enjoying this story as much as the earlier ones. I have a feeling the story in the next novel in the series might again be closely tied to this one. I will definitely carve out the time to read and enjoy all three sequentially.

3.5/5 stars

This is the closest I've come to being disappointed by a Murderbot book. It still has its usual wit, charm, and insightful commentary, but I was too lost coming into this. Even after restarting this after reading 1/3 of it, I still struggled. This series has earned too much goodwill from me to drop it after one bad experience, especially since it would probably be remedy with a quick reread. Nevertheless, I wish it did more to stand on its own. This just isn't the kind of series I expect (or really want) the stories to depend too strongly on one another.

I will update this review once I've reread the entire series (at which point I anticipate I'll enjoy this one a lot more). I still recommend it to Murderbot fans, but I strongly recommend doing some review, or even a full reread leading into this.