System Collapse

, #7

Hardcover, 256 pages

English language

Published Nov. 14, 2023 by Tordotcom.

ISBN:
978-1-250-82697-8
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (6 reviews)

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

2 editions

reviewed System Collapse by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)

A great tale from Martha Wells

5 stars

Yet another excellent, fun, action packed, deeply thought provoking and funny story about everyone's favourite SecUnit.

I knew I would love this book, I knew it would draw me in, I knew it would make me laugh and I knew it would make me think - so I bought it as soon as I possibly could, then saved it. Sure enough life hit a rough patch and I started reading this. SecUnit watches Media to help him cope with a overload induced shutdown. I read for the same reasons - it helps.

If you know this series you know what to expect. This one has a lot of really, really well written character development (SecUnit has been through a lot). It also has a lot of ART, which I love.

No spoilers - but the ending is just absolutely right.

This is just a great series

reviewed System Collapse by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #7)

System Collapse

4 stars

I deeply enjoyed System Collapse--it was a nice followup book to the events of the previous one and I don't think could stand alone. Murderbot has certainly been through a lot, but the last book was particularly intense and it makes sense that there's lasting effects from it. It felt like a smaller and more internally-focused book with less snark and more trama, but I am here for that.

To me at least, Murderbot and its series feels like the embodiment of vulnerability avoidance: handwaving, the first few books seemed like Murderbot coping with learning it cared and people caring about it; Network Effect was about """relationships"" (with ART and 2 and 3); this book in particular explored the vulnerability of trauma and being partially human (or at the very least having some fleshy parts). I think it helps to better situate Murderbot as a construct--not a bot, not human, …

avatar for kallekn

rated it

4 stars
avatar for tastytea@bookwyrm.social

rated it

5 stars