Network Effect

I was really excited to read the first full length Murderbot, but sadly this didn't do it for me.

I love the character of Murderbot, and being inside its head is always a treat. But everything else about this one just didn't seem up to par. The plot was boring and overly detailed for a pretty bare bones set up. The human characters were mostly all interchangeable and not interesting. The interactions with ART were nice, but even then, not nearly as good as ART's last appearance.

This one also felt like it had the most technical jargon. Which is theoretically fine, it's sci-fi. But the worldbuilding in Murderbot is so scant to begin with, that the jargon just feels like meaningless jargon. I don't need 50 buzzwords about tech and bots and drones that don't add to the story.

This review makes me sad. I wanted to like it! Everyone else seems to! But I just kept losing interest. Murderbot also seemed a bit more childish in this one compared to the last two or so novellas. I just don't think this one needed the page count that it got.

Ah, well. On to Fugitive Telemony! Maybe Murderbot is destined to be a novella series, for me.