Early Review – System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries, Book 8) by Martha Wells (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Science Fiction
Length: 256 pages
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release Date: November 14, 2023
ASIN: B0BQGJHG3Q
Stand Alone or Series: 8th book in the Murderbot Diaries series
Source: eGalley from NetGalley.com
Rating: 5/5 stars
“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.”
Series Info/Source: This is the 8th book in the Murderbot Diaries series. I got an ebook of this through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This is the eighth book in the Murderbot series. I really enjoyed this book a ton. It picks up right where the sixth book leaves off (remember “book” 7 actually went back in time).
Murderbot is with its humans from Preservation on a newly colonized planet trying to help the residents escape enslavement from the Barish-Estranza corporation. However, things get complicated when Murderbot and crew find out that there is another secret colony of humans on the planet that no one knew about.
This was incredibly well done. I enjoyed so much about this book. A lot of this story focuses around Murderbot having something wrong with itself and trying to figure that out. Of course the main storyline is the humans from Preservation working with Murderbot and ART’s crew to prevent the humans from this planet from being taken into corporate slavery.
Some of the story is very creepy as they explore an abandoned terraforming station, and then the action really picks up when they find out that Barish-Estranza may have beat them to the unknown human colony. I enjoyed watching Murderbot try to deal with its problems and enjoyed all the action and mystery. Murderbot continues on its mission to give SecUnits a choice as well. I also continue to really enjoy watching Murderbot interact with its humans; in every book Murderbot seems to learn something new.
I think the only thing I struggled with was that the sixth book came out so long ago that I didn’t remember all the characters very well. This improved as I got into the book, but I was somewhat confused for the first couple of scenes.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I really loved this and I think it was one of my favorite Murderbot books so far. I would highly recommend this series, especially if you enjoy sci-fi that delves into what it means for AI to become sentient. I am eagerly awaiting the next Murderbot book!
