Network Effect (2020) is the fifth book in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells. The science fiction series had since 2018 won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and Alex awards. Network Effect was an enjoyable read. The story is fast moving and action-packed.
I (Chris) found the prose a bit clunky in the beginning chapters as the setting is being introduced once again for new readers of the series. As soon as the cyborg and its human teammates get on with the mission, the scenes and actions flowed smoothly.
I cannot remember how I picked up the first book – All Systems Red (2017) – a novella about a cyborg security agent who had freed itself from human control by hacking the governor module in its head and called itself Murderbot. I will give an impression of the series below, without any spoilers.
Not knowing that the cyborg secretly gained independence, the owner corporation assigned it to protect a team of scientists who came from a free planet – the Preservation.
While Murderbot is merciless against any threat, it is protective towards its human clients, and displays an endearing personality. It generally prefers to be left alone so that it can binge-watch soap operas. At the end of the first novella, the cyborg earned the trust of the scientists who then bought its contract from the owner corporation and invited it to come to live in the Preservation.
There are 4 novellas in total. The second book is Artificial Condition published in 2018.
In all the stories in the series, the cyborg struggles with discomfort when interacting with humans as an individual in a free society. Many people who encountered the cyborg, essentially a killing machine (as they are notorious), are fearful of its lethal capability but those who got to know this emancipated cyborg treated it with kindness and humanity.
Watching soap operas stored on corporate entertainment server is the cyborg’s favorite pastime. From these soap operas, it had been learning how to deal with emotional humans as equals because it had been programmed as a disposable “appliance” owned by a corporation and contracted out to spy on the human clients on perilous missions, while protecting them.
The soap operas’ titles are hilarious, “The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon”, “Timestream Defenders Orion”, “World Hoppers”.
Rogue Protocol (2018) is the third novella in the series.
The cyborg also encountered other cyborgs and developed friendship, in particular with an intelligent system that runs a spaceship and who also watches soap operas and has its own personality quirks.
The villians in this universe are faceless corporations whose motivations are driven by profit from terraforming operations, uncovering ancient technology, various contracts and insurance schemes. Its modus operandi is sending robot mercenaries as enforcers.
The fourth book is Exit Strategy (2018).
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory is a short story set in the world of the Murderbot Diaries. This story was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered the fifth book – Network Effect. The events of “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” occur just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy.
WIRED magazine published a very short story of the then-nameless cyborg that is a prequel to the series. Martha Wells’s story is one of a collection of stories – The Future of Work. You can read The Future of Work- Compulsory by Martha Wells free online. Below is the first paragraph of this short story which can be considered as the very first paragraph of the series.
IT’S NOT LIKE I haven’t thought about killing the humans since I hacked my governor module. But then I started exploring the company servers and discovered hundreds of hours of downloadable entertainment media, and I figured, what’s the hurry? I can always kill the humans after the next series ends.
Fugitive Telemetry (2021) is the most recently published book. It is on my reading list.
Apparently, a TV series is under development and at least 2 more novellas and 1 novel are planned. The series will eventually have 9 books.
The art work on the book covers are also commendable as they provide a more concrete idea of the game world.
The events and stories told in this series of books are commonplace in science fiction, e.g. encounter with alien beasts, hostage rescue, slave trafficking. But it is the depiction of the cyborg’s journey of discovering and developing emotions that won many readers over. The anxiety arising from being free, the snarky remarks it muttered internally about the incompetence of the humans it is tasked to protect, friendship among the artificially sentient beings, made these books really enjoyable.
Highly recommended.