System Collapse

Not as good as the others. These stories work better in the novella format.

I'm always excited to spend more time with Murderbot and ART, they're easily some of my favorite characters. But honestly, System Collapse felt like a weak installment. It had all the usual Murderbot elements I enjoy—funny internal dialogues, sarcastic humor, and the unique dynamic between Murderbot and ART—but something felt off. The weak plot got messy and overloaded with too many characters and confusing factions. Instead of an exciting continuation after the amazing Network Effect, this story mostly dealt with aftermath and side-effects, making it feel more like filler than a meaningful progression.

Still, even when the plot stumbles, Murderbot's character exploration keeps me hooked. So even though I was disappointed overall, I'm still excited for whatever comes next. Hopefully, the next book will get us back on track with a stronger story.

The dramatized adaptation trying to walk back on the gay robots -*

Good story, well written. Some slow sections but dialogue is great, hilarious.

Not as good as Network Effect which is apparently my barometer now. Still fun, still love Murderbot. Interesting development! It's definitely becoming more human (poor thing).

TL;DR

Another great entry in the series, this is a right after Network Effect and the story is not as interesting as that one but still okay. Love ART's crew, we get more development from them and they're great. Also this entry solved some of my gripes from every entry, the unnecessary cursing and the constant reference to Murderbot's stupid media series.

My Scoring System

I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:

✓ - Main Story: ART's and Murderbot's crew team up to try and save the colonist of the planet, it's not as interesting as it sounds. I still prefer when Murderbot was alone in a cave mine roleplaying as a security consultant and trying to do something he wanted while helping out random humans along the way. I feel that's when Murderbot shines, him being on a full team doesn't work because he just doesn't open to them and it's always distant.

X - Side Stories (if it applies):

✓ - Characters: I really liked ART's crew and the we still have some of the good ones from Murderbot's crew aswell. Still ART was by far the most interesting one.

X - Setting/Ambiance: Still on alien contaminated planet, a bit more interesting than the space stations but not that much since the alien contamination is not present at all.

X - Ending: Just like most entries the ending is not bad but also not super memorable. Just an okay ending.

Extensive Review

Not much to say, another great entry and I'm glad that the cursing and mentioning of the series is tone down where it didn't bother me at all. That's a step in the right direction in my opinion. The only negative I have is yet another mention of some stupid pronoun that makes no sense and serves no purpose but to just make the reading more confusing. There's this character named Corian and instead of using the only two ways to refer to a person (he/she) the pronoun is "vi" so then you get stupid sentences like this:

Vi dropped to the floor and curled vir legs up

Or

Vi patted vir chest

Aside from that atrocity there's nothing bad about this book, I had a good time reading it.

Hm. Vreemd. Ik heb een vorig boek van de Murderbot-reeks omschreven als een seizoen van een tv-reeks. Dit was één aflevering van een tv-reeks.

Dit is het hele plot van het boek:

• Murderbot en companen zijn op een planeet

• Er is een kolonie op de planeet maar ze is geïnfecteerd door een oud alien virus (verder niet relevant)

• Er blijkt een tweede kolonie te zijn die afgesplitst is van de eerste

• Ze gaan naar die tweede kolonie, weten eerst niet of er wel mensen zijn

• Blijkt dat er mensen zijn en dat slechteriken die ze als quasi-dwangarbeiders willen inlijven, er ook zijn

• Onze vrienden bedenken een manier om de kolonisten van hun gelijk te overtuigen

• Er is een kort gevecht met de slechteriken

• Einde.

Ja, dat is het zo ongeveer.

Nee, dat is niet voldoende voor mij.

Er is iets traumatisch met Murderbot aan de hand. Murderbot is niet uniek, er zijn stapels robots en anderen die bewustzijn hebben en in slavernij gehouden worden. Er moeten ergens nog levende aliens zijn. Er moet meer aan de hand zijn met de megacorporaties in de Corporate Rim.

Hup hup Martha Wells, doe dáár iets mee.

Nearly out of drones
squishy meat brain on the fritz
surprise, more humans!

System Collapse is the latest installment of the Murderbot Diaries. If you are a fan of Murderbot, this installment doesn't disappoint. The story seems to pick up pretty close to the end of the last book (on the same planet with the same general cast of characters). I think I lost a few beats because I didn't re-read or refresh myself on the series at all, but luckily there were enough reminders sprinkled through the text of what had happened before that I could keep up without too much trouble. Both of the plot lines (the action on the ground as well as the action in Murderbot's mind) were on point.

If you're not a fan of Murderbot - why not?!? Seriously, if you're not sure what to read next, give it a try. You do need to start at the beginning, but the first four books are novellas so not a huge time investment. Also, apparently Murderbot has been picked up as a series by Apple TV. I love Murderbot so much that the idea of a TV show gives me joy/dread - as in, I hope the TV adaptation is worthy of the books - but it will be hard.

Took me a bit to find my footing with this one, as it starts in medias res following the fifth book, Network Effect, rather than being a standalone or sequel to the previous book. Once it hits its stride though, it's an enjoyable ride.

Some good stuff. An interesting new development: Murderbot exhibiting vulnerability! Promising, but unfulfilled here. This book was 90% action, suspense, one peril after another, and lots of filler technical details. In a word, tedious.

An enjoyable continuation of this series. There were a few times that I found myself confused about what was happening, especially in regard to Murderbot's memory of itself being damaged/corrupted - I felt like that could have been fleshed out more or eliminated, there wasn't much THERE there. But I still liked this installment. I probably should have re-read the previous book, because it took me a while to get up to speed here.

3.5 stars. Review eventually

This felt like a transition piece to set up the next story and not a story in itself. I had a few problems: I was confused about the plot at first, so I had to re-read Network Effect and come back. Then the plot only started getting engrossing half-way in, which was a lot of book to get through without enjoying it as much as usual (which is a high bar - I love Murderbot!)

I can't wait to read the next book, and hope that the effort I put into this one pays off.

Didn't get moving really until mid-way thru and I'm seriously confused about which characters are which? There are several I have no memory of even those I've read all the previous books. It'd be nice if she had a prologue giving a summary of people and goings-on from the prior chapters/novellas in every novella.

Rather than reading all prior books multiple times, I'm going to way for the next 2-3 novellas to come out, which is years down the road.

omg...Murderbot learned to harness the power of its shows

Honestly not the best book in the series, but it's Murderbot so it's a 5 stars.

Getting kind of samey...

The married adventures of ART and Murderbot

Excellent edition to the series well worth reading for fans of the series. Not an entry point for those who are new.

I am such a fan of this series, and it's 7 books deep - anyone else that wants to read this book is probably in the same shoes. If you've got this on your radar/tbr just go ahead and read it.

This picks up right after Network Effect. I mean RIGHT AFTER Network Effect. It took me a second to orient myself, and I think anyone that read Fugitive Telemetry during the gap in publishing should probably scan over a recap before jumping in.

This is probably the most “inward” the narrative has gotten so far, as Murderbot deals with the aftermath of redacted events in the last novel. Bot has added a fresh helping of trauma to their already traumatic existence-that's it, that's all i'm going to say about the plot of this novel.

Murderbot is changing, both the character and the series as a whole. Prior to NE the series had been a collection of action-packed survival-based romps across the corporation rim, but in these last few releases the focus of the narrative has shifted inwards. I thought NE was a touchstone for the series; it ushered in the next phase of the story now that Murderbot has so many human friends that it has to classify them by group. It seems to me that Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs also must apply to bot-human constructs because now that ‘Bot's physiological and safety needs have been met the story is moving its focus further up the pyramid.

I've always been a fan of the human exploration elements of this series, and I am really happy with the direction that Martha Wells is taking this project. That isn't to say I want less dry wit and explosive action scenes, it's just that the most interesting aspects of Murderbot the character are the things that it doesn't want to talk about. Watching this character change as the series progresses is gratifying, and I wager that further entries in this series are going to expand on the exploration of the “human” aspects of Murderbot's physiology and psychology.

TL;DR: Another solid entry in the series, progressing the narrative in all the ways you want it to. Minus 1 star for a confusing beginning.

My least favorite of the series so far. It starts in the middle of the activity, which left me confused for a while and didn't work for me at the end of the day. Feels like a set up book for something off, maybe a spin off?

Murderbot. ART. Yes.

Another fine entry in the series.

I was so looking forward to reading this and I really wanted to love it... I didn't, though, since I was dropped right into the middle of the action - of the aftermath of “[b:Network Effect 52381770 Network Effect (The Murderbot Diaries, #5) Martha Wells https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1640597293l/52381770.SY75.jpg 63614271]”, an earlier novel in the series, which I don't remember at all.I felt confused for a long time because there were lots of references to the earlier book that I simply didn't get. I finally got somewhat into the flimsy excuse for a story at around the half-way mark - and still felt let down by Murderbot's anti-climatic “redacted” event and a story that felt like an “extension”, an add-on.“[b:System Collapse 65211701 System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries, #7) Martha Wells https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1674575978l/65211701.SY75.jpg 90712113]” should have been published as part of “Network Effect” because as it is, it's just like Wells recovered the “missing chapters”.Yes, I knew part of that before even starting to read this one but I don't re-read and an author should make an effort to get me up to speed.Three out of five stars - and even those feel slightly generous. Meh.Blog Facebook Twitter Mastodon Instagram Pinterest Medium Matrix TumblrCeterum censeo Putin esse delendam