Fugitive Telemetry

This is the fifth novella in the series, and comes directly after the fourth in the timeline: before the novel, although it was published after the novel.

It's one of the better novellas in the series: the plot is interesting, Murderbot's comments are amusing, and the story isn't primarily about stupid humans getting themselves into unnecessary trouble, which makes a change.

Unusually, it's a whodunnit, and the ending is a bit too close to cliché (“The butler did it”), but it surprised me at least. Though I'm no armchair detective, and I'm easily surprised by whodunnits.

This is not a matter of major concern, but it annoys me peripherally that the author goes with the modern fashion for using ‘they' as an all-purpose singular-or-plural pronoun. I read it as plural, I double-take whenever I realize the author is using it as singular, and it's annoying to keep suffering these double-takes while reading fiction. We already routinely use ‘you' as singular or plural; but any singular-or-plural pronoun causes ambiguity, lack of clarity. Whenever we see it, we have to try to guess whether it's supposed to be singular or plural. ‘You' was originally a plural-only pronoun, and should have remained plural-only; the same with ‘they'.

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Fugitive Telemetry

A human has been murdered on Preservation Station, and of course one of security's first assumptions is that Murderbot did it. But Murderbot would know better than to leave the body out where people could find it. And while station security doesn't trust Murderbot, they'll soon realize if they have any hope of finding the killer, they're going to have to at least try to work with it. It's not like Murderbot wants to work with them either, but if it keeps Mensah safe Murderbot will do just about anything. Ok, maybe not anything, but most things.

After reading Fugitive Telemetry, I can honestly say, give me an entire series about Murderbot solving murder mysteries and I will be one happy reader. Seeing Murderbot in combat action is great, but watching them sleuth around the station is a whole new level of entertainment. By now we all know Murderbot doesn't like talking and this new adventure is going to make them do a whole lot of it. And would it really be a Murderbot story if it didn't contain sarcastic comebacks and snarky internal thoughts?

The beauty of this novella was watching Murderbot earn respect and a myriad of trust from humans. Of course, Mensah's crew knows to trust Murderbot, but everyone else judges it by sight alone. And Murderbot even managed to sneak in some nonsarcastic dialogue. Having Murderbot along for the mystery, not only showed the humans how their thinking can be flawed, but it also showed Murderbot how working together with humans can help iron out anything it may miss in its analysis.

I also appreciate the fact that Martha Wells doesn't treat being an introvert like a character flaw. Instead, she embraces it and shows how it can be an asset. Murderbot uses its processing power to see things from every possible angle before forming a conclusion and it isn't rash in its decisions unless forced to be. Murderbot won't ever be comfortable working with a group, but it is learning how to handle these social interactions and the possible benefits from them.

Fugitive Telemetry was another fantastic addition to the Murderbot Diaries. Each book takes Murderbot's character development a step further and I can't wait to see where the next adventure takes it. I can't recommend this series enough to fans of sci-fi stories!

Is there a bad Murderbot book? No, the answer is always no.

While Network Effect was heavy on the alien thriller angle — and I do enjoy all the alien remnant stuff — Fugitive Telemetry was more of an almost noir whodunnit, and it really worked for me. There's also a shift from SecUnit as avatar of neurodivergence to SecUnit as subject of casual prejudice/racism, underscoring the story's focus on slavery practices in the CorporationRim.

While it didn't have the same emotional impact/ personal growth of the previous book, it's no less exciting or fast-paced (maybe more so since it's shorter) and I can't wait to find out what's in store for SecUnit next!

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews

Summary
When a dead body turns up Restoration station, Murderbot gets involved, for fear it may be a threat to its primary charge.

Review
This series is shaping up to be an uneven one – good novellas providing gradually less and less appeal, then a strong novel, now another good novella. Unfortunately, it feels too much like an episode to be satisfying, and I fear that more of the same will suffer the same decline as the first set of novellas.

Wells continues to have the same strong voice, the same keen sense of balance – what to leave in, what to leave out – and Murderbot is fun to spend time with. But the story overall feels cropped. As part of a novel with a longer, more complex arc, it would have worked well. As a standalone, I found it offered too little.

I'm concerned about the future of this series. Voice-wise, it could go quite a long ways, as Murderbot continues to grow and find itself. Chopped up into these little segments, though, I don't find it appealing. Maybe there's a market for a long series of novellas, but I'm finding it prevents me from getting very involved, and prevents Murderbot from making much progress in its development, which makes this into a series of little action thrillers without much character. That's a shame, since Murderbot is such a great character to work with, and Wells is good at character (action too, but better at character). It's taking a bunch of great baking materials and making a bunch of microwave mug cakes instead of a real cake. It's similar, but not as good, and I hope Tor wakes up and buys novels instead.

You could make an argument that this isn't too much shorter than many of the novels published in the 60s and early 70s. But those were intended as full novels, and read that way – just quickly. This feels like it's intended as a quick fix, not a fully developed novel. So, not the same thing.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.

If you don't know the Murderbot series, I personally think that's a bummer for you. Check it out if you want a combo of mystery, sci-fi, chuckles and friendship. Particularly if you're looking for lighter, short reads/listens. The 6th book in the series isn't in the top of my list, but I still highly enjoyed it.

Murderbot is my spirit animal

I love the murderbot diaries. They are so well written. I thought of earlier while returning it to the library. Wells has created a social anxiety super hero. Or maybe a super hero on the spectrum. Very good. 

“All I wanted to do was watch media and not exist.”.

I have tried to give the dramatised audiobooks a go but Kevin R Free is Murderbot

I'll never tire of how board the Murderbot is!

I've read every one of the Murderbot diaries and have always enjoyed the fresh take on a bot that's painted in world where people distrust them by default, and yet the Murderbot would rather avoid eye contact, shy away and watch their streaming TV series on their own.

As the books have evolved, it's fun that Murderbot knows that I'm reading their diary and often breaks the “fourth wall” to speak to us, or share how they'd much rather be doing something else.

In a way, Murderbot reminds me of many geek developers who'd rather stay indoors, hide from the sun, complain about other humans and generally prefer their own company.

I love Murderbot so much.

Fun little mystery one-off set before [b:Network Effect 52381770 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) Martha Wells https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568667704l/52381770.SX50_SY75.jpg 63614271], with Murderbot adjusting to life at Preservation Station and solving a murder with the help of a less-than-friendly security chief.

I am fully and entirely here for Murderbot books that are basically just mystery novellas with an extremely reluctant detective.

The story continues to be good but this short stuff makes me unhappy. I'll wait for someone to put all 6 ‘books' together into a more traditional length book, then I'll buy it.

Like the rest of the Murderbot stories, this was a nice, fun and short read. There wasn't a ton of narrative heavy lifting going on here, as in this was a mostly isolated story.

If you were expecting the story of Murderbot to progress this wasn't the book to do that. Murderbot gets swept up into a mysterious death on the station and helps solve the case.

There were times when the plot felt thin and a bit too breezy. While the villainous GrayCis was mentioned numerous times, their looming threat felt very distant.

A worthwhile read if you're invested in the series, but nothing new.

7/10

Way too short, and the story is realtime rather than an extended timeframe. Unfortunately because it was so short it was quickly obvious who the hidden murderer was (otherwise, why spend time with that individual?) Yeah, I like Murderbot a lot, but there was a lot less of the Murderbot media consumption and other aspects of the personality. If it wasn't Murderbot it would be 3 stars at best. Martha Wells is riding her success and not giving a good effort. I heard she had a new contract for more Murderbot novels. Hopefully she won't run this into the ground.

Ik ging aan een batch nieuwe boeken beginnen, maar toen zag ik dat er een nieuw Murderbot-boek was, en dus heb ik dat maar eerst gelezen.

Het was zeer raar. Ik had net Red Country gelezen, dat bij momenten absoluut enorm grappig is, maar ook bij momenten doodernstig. En dat niet alleen uitstekend van verhaal is, goed geschreven, een onderdeel van een veel grotere wereld en een zeer lang lopend verhaal, maar ook een lang boek is dat perfect op zich kan staan.

Murderbot was aanpassen. Het is een kort boekje dat bijna niet te begrijpen is zonder alle voorgaande gelezen te hebben (ik herhaal wat ik al meer dan eens zei: het leest meer als een tv-serie dan als een boek), en wat een hele reeks boeken wel leutig overkwam (de altijd cynische SecBot), komt nu soms wat als een te veel gebruikt truukje over.

Het verhaal? Er is een moord gepleegd, en Murderbot helpt de moord oplossen.

Tja.

Een beetje dunnetjes.

Maybe I binged this series too quickly? Maybe I'm burnt out on Murderbot? I dunno, man. But this one was the worst of the novellas for me. Or I should say, least compelling. I did like the murder mystery aspect of it, it felt different, but something just felt missing. As much as Murderbot is obviously the core of this series, I think Wells maybe needs to spend some time in the next installment really giving Murderbot some compelling side characters. I do not give a damn about anybody that isn't Murderbot, and that's a problem.

I did like the shorter nature of this one, in contrast to Network Effect, which felt very bloated. I'm curious to see where Martha Wells takes the story, maybe by the time the next one comes out, I will be fully on board the Murderbot train once again.

You all know I love Murderbot but after the last full length novel, I just wanted more!

A great murder mystery that is fascinating yet told with humour.

This entry in the series fills in a gap in the ongoing overall story (is it a “between-quel”?) and really rounds out the character.

I'd love to read more stories with “Murderbot”* as a straight-up detective.

* For those of you who think I've gone insane, let me clarify that the “Murderbot” who narrates these stories is Security Unit (a human-looking organic/machine robot - think Arnie in Terminator but asexual). This Security Unit has examined it's functions and disapproved, it doesn't mind keeping its clients safe, but it doesn't like the fact that it may be ordered to kill things - so it decided its name was Murderbot and proceeded to hack its own programming.

Now Murderbot doesn't have to obey commands (especially the murdery kind) - it has freedom. With this freedom it carried on doing the day job of keeping humans safe but now secretly downloads TV series to binge watch whenever it's left alone. In its own words:

“It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”

I am a big fan of murderbot in general, and this is really a classical expression of the form Martha Wells has honed to an art: a compelling mystery that also reveals the inner thoughts of Murderbot to itself and to us and causes it to grow as a person, er, bot, while also developing the relationships among Murderbot and the people it's come to care about. It's fun, it's got some depth to it in terms of personal development and exploration of the universe.The “but” here is that, unlike most murderbot fans, my favorite book in the series was [b:Network Effect 52381770 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) Martha Wells https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568667704l/52381770.SX50_SY75.jpg 63614271], the full length novel. I'm just not really a novella person and the return to novella format solidified that for me – it's a little shorter and a little shallower than my preference (and having it placed as a prequel to Network Effect also threw me).So Murderbot. It's great. More novels, please.

Murderbot Murder Mystery!

I seem to be the odd one out but this new Murderbot novella simply didn't work for me. At times, it felt very slow while, at other times, the story raced along - a very uneven pacing, unfortunately.Mensah and the others hardly played any role and our beloved Murderbot pretty much acts as some random security consultant, trying to make sense of a murder.Apart from the (here rather superficial) xenophobia aspects, all the moral aspects of the previous books in this series were largely neglected.To be totally frank, most of the time I was actually bored reading this. Here's to hoping for more than a “filler episode” next time and more exciting new adventures in the future. Blog Facebook Twitter Instagram

Really good! This was a murder mystery with new characters (Station security team from Preservation) and our older characters making a return here and there sparingly.

I miss ART and SecUnit together. They're way more chaotic as a duo. Network Effect is still my favorite book. But I enjoyed this one too.

—audiobook notes (spoilers galore)—

• “Double ughhh”