All right, our favorite snarky SecUnit is back in action.

For those who are unfamiliar with the series, you should start with the
beginning and run though those first. However, a brief background:

Murderbot (self-named) is a Security Unit. That is a construct
comprised of cloned humand and bot parts, working as a cohesive entity.
Normally, SecUnits are externally controlled through a Govenor unit.
Due to a past incident, from which it drew its name, Murderbot hacked
its Govenor to become a free agent, or "rogue".

Anyway, the last book, Murderbot and its crew from Preservation, along
with its friend ART, an AI operating a research transport ship, and
ART's crew, dealt with a lost colony world. One that is contaminated
with alien remnants material.

This was complicated by a Corporate presence, there to take control of
the colony based on their rights from a long-ago hostile takeover of
the original colonizing company. In the Corporate Rim, takeovers can be
very hostile, sometimes including dead bodies.

In this story, Barish-Estranza has decided that the colony is pretty
worthless, so it would like to harvest the assets. The assets are the
colonists, which B-E would like to get under labor contracts so they
can go off to happy new lives as indentured asteroid miners or other
fun occupations.

So it's a showdown of the Corporate and Free Polity groups to win over
the colonists to their side, while the Preservation group is busy
trying "find" (forge) the original colony charter. This is complicated
because Murderbot is suffering some sort of PTSD from the harrowing
events of the previous book.

Then the colonists drop a bomb about a possible breakaway faction
supposedly living near the terraforming equipment at the pole. So a
crew plus Murderbot, and ART-in-a-drone head out to investigate.

I was a bit disappointed when I heard the next book would continue
events on the colony. I was hoping for new adventures in a new locale.
It's best to view this as the second part of a single novel with
Network Effect.

In general, I enjoyed this well enough, although I got the feeling
Wells didn't come up with any great new ideas so just continued along
with this plot. It also seemed a bit padded, even though it was
relatively short for a novel (256 pages in hardback).

There really wasn't all that much action compared to the previous
novel. I think it would have been better in the old novella format, but
I'm sure the publisher would rather have something close to
novel-length.

Brian

On 26/11/2023 18.36, Default User wrote:
> All right, our favorite snarky SecUnit is back in action.
>
> For those who are unfamiliar with the series, you should start with the
> beginning and run though those first. However, a brief background:
>
> Murderbot (self-named) is a Security Unit. That is a construct
> comprised of cloned humand and bot parts, working as a cohesive entity.
> Normally, SecUnits are externally controlled through a Govenor unit.
> Due to a past incident, from which it drew its name, Murderbot hacked
> its Govenor to become a free agent, or "rogue".

I'd not been previously aware of these stories. The introduction to the
relevant wikipedia article:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murderbot_Diaries>
makes it (the Murderbot) sound like a soul-mate for K-2SO from _Rogue
One_. Is that accurate?

--
Michael F. Stemper
There's no "me" in "team". There's no "us" in "team", either.

On 12/4/2023 1:01 PM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> On 26/11/2023 18.36, Default User wrote:
>> All right, our favorite snarky SecUnit is back in action.
>>
>> For those who are unfamiliar with the series, you should start with the
>> beginning and run though those first. However, a brief background:
>>
>> Murderbot (self-named) is a Security Unit. That is a construct
>> comprised of cloned humand and bot parts, working as a cohesive entity.
>> Normally, SecUnits are externally controlled through a Govenor unit.
>> Due to a past incident, from which it drew its name, Murderbot hacked
>> its Govenor to become a free agent, or "rogue".
>
> I'd not been previously aware of these stories. The introduction to the
> relevant wikipedia article:
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murderbot_Diaries>
> makes it (the Murderbot) sound like a soul-mate for K-2SO from _Rogue
> One_. Is that accurate?

Murderbot is incredibly shy. I do not remember K-2SO characteristics.

Also Murderbot has a cloned human brain integrated with a computer.

Buy it, or borrow it, and read it. The first four books are on sale for
$41 at Big River:
https://www.amazon.com/Murderbot-Diaries-Artificial-Condition-Protocol/dp/1250784271/

Lynn

Michael F. Stemper wrote:

>On 26/11/2023 18.36, Default User wrote:
>>All right, our favorite snarky SecUnit is back in action.
>>
>>For those who are unfamiliar with the series, you should start with
>>the beginning and run though those first.

>I'd not been previously aware of these stories. The introduction to
>the relevant wikipedia article:
><https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murderbot_Diaries>
>makes it (the Murderbot) sound like a soul-mate for K-2SO from _Rogue
>One_. Is that accurate?

I am not familiar with that, so I can't comment. The first four are
novellas, and work to make a cohesive story. I got all of them a
e-books from the public library. If you have access that way, you could
sample and see if you like them.

Brian

On 05/12/2023 06:01, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> On 26/11/2023 18.36, Default User wrote:
>> All right, our favorite snarky SecUnit is back in action.
>>
>> For those who are unfamiliar with the series, you should start with the
>> beginning and run though those first. However, a brief background:
>>
>> Murderbot (self-named) is a Security Unit. That is a construct
>> comprised of cloned humand and bot parts, working as a cohesive entity.
>> Normally, SecUnits are externally controlled through a Govenor unit.
>> Due to a past incident, from which it drew its name, Murderbot hacked
>> its Govenor to become a free agent, or "rogue".
>
> I'd not been previously aware of these stories. The introduction to the
> relevant wikipedia article:
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Murderbot_Diaries>
> makes it (the Murderbot) sound like a soul-mate for K-2SO from _Rogue
> One_. Is that accurate?
>
No, not really.

Cheers,
Gary B-)