Review - The Future of Work: Compulsory

The Future of Work: Compulsory (The Murderbot Diaries #0.5)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2018
Publisher: Wired.com
Reading level: A
Book type: short story
Pages: 4
Format: e-book
Source: Wired.com

Martha Wells is a New York Times best-selling author of 23 works of science fiction and fantasy. This story is a prequel to The Murderbot Diaries, her Hugo- and Nebula-award-winning novella series.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I still have a soft spot for Murderbot, even though the series of novellas got progressively more disappointing for me. This short story--well, more of just a scene, really--is a nice little treat for fans. It features Murderbot's amusing quips and displays parts of the world that Wells has built in the main series.

But it's just so short. As such, it's not really suitable except for anyone other than existing fans. Newcomers would have so many questions, and although they might get a glimpse of what makes Murderbot's character so special, it's not a complete picture. So, despite this being a prequel to the main series, I would highly recommend reading at least the first novella, All Systems Red, before this story.

Quotable moment:

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.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Pace: 4/5
Writing & Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 3.14 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2018
Publisher: Tor.com
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novella
Pages: 160
Format: e-book
Source: library

The fourth and final part of the Murderbot Diaries series that began with All Systems Red.

Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?

Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.

But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?

And what will become of it when it’s caught?

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I hate to say it, but... I think my crush on Murderbot is over. While I loved the first book in the series, the subsequent installments have been getting weaker and weaker, culminating in this book, 160 pages that felt more like 610.

Murderbot's voice is what makes these books, and is the only reason I'm not rating this any lower. It's always been snarky and defeatist, but still likeable. That, combined with great action scenes and an interesting plot, is what made the first book really shine. Its interactions with secondary characters, especially the bots (ART in the second book and Miki in the third), were great to see. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of interaction with other characters in Exit Strategy for a good portion of the book, which basically reads as a list of all the different ways Murderbot is hacking drones and trying to keep itself out of security feeds. It tells us, in boring detail, every little thing it does. I could offer some quotes, but then you'd be just as bored as I was.

Things pick up a little when Murderbot reunites with its friends from the first book, but even then, the characterization feels thin, as if we're supposed to just remember these characters from three books ago (my recollection isn't that good, especially when they're all identified by surnames). Its feelings about Mensah are intriguing, and that aspect of their relationship could've been explored more. But, just like Murderbot who tries to run from its feelings, the book kind of did the same thing.

None of these books have as much action (showing) as the first book, relying instead on Murderbot's internal monologues (telling). Reading this was kind of excruciating at times. Yes, we needed to know what it was doing, but at times I almost felt like I was reading a spaceship's maintenance manual. When the climax finally arrived, it wasn't nearly as spectacular as I thought it could be, given that we're dealing with space and airlocks and threatening robots running around with very dangerous weapons. The climax was pretty anticlimactic, in fact, and the resolution read like little more than a lead-in to the full-length novel that the author is supposedly writing.

The writing is weaker here, and the editing is pretty bad in spots. The book even manages to spell the name of one of the corporations wrong, which is something that could've been easily caught by a spell checker with a custom dictionary. I'm so tired of reading books that can't be bothered to keep names consistent; we have word-processing software now, with search and replace functions. It's not that hard.

So, I was disappointed, to say the least. I wish the series had ended with All Systems Red (the first book), because each book has successively raised my disappointment levels. Exit Strategy is an appropriate title, because it almost seems like the author didn't know what to do with the wonderful premise, characters, and storyline she set up in the first book; as a result, this final installment seemed like a convenient, rushed way to wrap things up.

Sorry, Murderbot. You lost me.

Quotable moment:

Something was overwhelming me, and it wasn't the familiar wave of not-caring.

Fine, I sent. I sounded sulky, because I was sulky.

I hate emotions.

Premise: 3/5
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 1/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 2/5
Originality: 2/5
Enjoyment: 2/5

Overall Rating: 2.13 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Rogue Protocol

Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries #3)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2018
Publisher: Tor.com
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novella
Pages: 160
Format: e-book
Source: library

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?

Sci-fi's favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

As much as I hate to say it, this third novella in the Murderbot series is a disappointment. I'm not giving up on the series, but I'm kind of sad that the second and third books have failed to capture the same magic as the first one.

To begin with, the writing in this one is a lot weaker. There are run-on sentences all over the place, comma splices galore that I don't remember being as much of an issue in the first two books. I noticed a few grammar issues, too. Added to that is the subtle change in Murderbot's personality. Yes, it's still snarky and has some good one-liners, but I found it to be way more misanthropic in this installment (at least, on the surface; it may say it doesn't care about humans, but it's not fooling anybody). It almost felt like someone else had written this one, although it may just not have been as tightly edited as the others.

The biggest disappointment, though, was the lack of action. The first third of the book was dry as dust, all setup and observation. And when there was action, everything was resolved way too easily. I didn't really fear for anyone's life. In the first book, there was so much action that Murderbot and its humans nearly bit the dust on multiple occasions. Here, we get flesh wounds and quick recoveries and no real stakes that force us to care. In fact, I kept forgetting exactly why Murderbot was where it was and what it was doing. Since the end of the first book, its plot arc has seemed a bit aimless. Yes, I understand it was trying to find out about its past in the second book, but after that...

I don't know. I don't know why this series seems to be going downhill. The characters are good (especially the robot characters). I really liked Miki and Murderbot's reactions to it. The human characters in the second and third books have been pretty bland for me, though. There are always hints that Murderbot might allow itself to let its guard down and get a little closer, but before any sort of friendship or camaraderie can develop, it always runs away. Yes, it's a pattern for the character, but it's starting to get old. We know by now that Murderbot isn't as emotionless as it says it is, and it's obviously lonely on some level (as much as it would try to deny that). It could be a fascinating psychological study if the author allowed the character to start letting humans into its emotional life. I really hope we'll get some of that in the fourth book, along with a lot more action. It doesn't seem fair to tease the reader with all the adventure and action of the first book, and then expect them to sit through multiple installments of Murderbot walking around, eavesdropping, info-dumping, and being generally boring.

Quotable moment:

I signaled Miki I would be withdrawing for one minute. I needed to have an emotion in private.

Premise: 3/5
Plot: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Pace: 1/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 2/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall Rating: 2.5 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - Artificial Condition

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2018
Publisher: Tor.com
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novella
Pages: 176
Format: e-book
Source: library

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself "Murderbot".

But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don't want to know what the "A" stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks...

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I'm so glad my library got this e-book, because I just couldn't bring myself to pay full price for a novella, no matter how much I love the main character. Murderbot is back, with its unique voice and wry observations about humanity. This time, though, it's joined by another artificial intelligence named ART, who is probably my second favourite character in this installment.

As a sequel, this story is fine, but it's kind of lacking in action, especially compared to the first book. Murderbot takes on three young clients who hire it as a security consultant for a trip to a mining planet; but it has ulterior motives, since it wants to get to the planet itself and investigate what really happened when it supposedly lost its mind and slaughtered a whole bunch of humans.

The revelations about the massacre weren't all that interesting, and I have to wonder if that's the end of that thread or if there's more to it. At the end of the installment, Murderbot's off to carry out another plan (which we as readers have no knowledge of), and I'm curious to find out what will happen next.

Murderbot is a good enough character that I still enjoyed this, but I hope there's a little more action in the third and fourth books. And I hope we get to see ART again at some point! (It's really not as much of an "A" as Murderbot seems to think.)

Quotable moment:

Granted, it would have been hard to show realistic SecUnits in visual media, which would involve depicting hours of standing around in brain-numbing boredom, while your nervous clients tried to pretend you weren't there. But there weren't any depictions of SecUnits in books, either. I guess you can't tell a story from the point of view of something that you don't think has a point of view.

Premise: 4/5
Plot: 3/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 3/5
Writing: 3/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 4/5

Overall Rating: 3.63 out of 5 ladybugs

Review - All Systems Red

All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1)
by Martha Wells
Date: 2017
Publisher: Tor.com
Reading level: A
Book type: prose novella
Pages: 156
Format: e-book
Source: Tor.com

As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

I've had this novella on my want-to-read list for a while, so when the opportunity to read it for free came up, I couldn't say no. I managed to blow through it in a few hours, which is unusual for me. But the pace was so fast and the story so intriguing that I couldn't stop for long without wanting to get back in and find out what happened next.

The strength of this book is really Murderbot itself. The story is told from its perspective, and it's an interesting one. It's so convinced it's just a machine, continually reminding others, and trying very hard (it seems) to convince itself of that fact. But it has emotions and attachments, little quirks that make it evident that it's not just a robot.

The pace was so quick, and the story managed to pack a lot of action into relatively few pages. I'm very glad that this is just the first book in a series, though, because the ending was kind of unsatisfying and a little confusing.

I can't wait to find out what happens next in Murderbot's life (and will the poor thing ever get a proper name?).

Quotable moment:

I yelled, "No!" which I'm not supposed to do; I'm always supposed to speak respectfully to the clients, even when they're about to accidentally commit suicide.

Premise: 5/5
Plot: 4/5
Characters: 5/5
Pace: 5/5
Writing: 4/5
Editing: 3/5
Originality: 4/5
Enjoyment: 5/5

Overall Rating: 4.38 out of 5 ladybugs