Fugitive Telemetry

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.

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.

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'm not sure this is exactly where I expected the story to continue. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, the story was good, and unlike some of the early novellas in this series, it is fairly episodic. I won't quite say self contained, since it is really helpful to have some background first, but the actual plot is mostly self contained. It also showed some character development for our lead. And shows it both developing new skills, and refining how it works in this environment.

I will keep reading this series as long is it is being made. But there is not much more to say, Martha Wells just continues to make this great comfort food.

I'm not typically a big review writer, but I was inspired to create this one in memory of an avid reader and reviewer Jenny Colvin.

Fun as usual - just too short after the full novel [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] spoiled me! I still think novellas 1 & 2 are the pinnacle, but this is a good entry in the series. I especially like the section that introduces the verb “to blorp.” :)

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”

I am always up for some Murderbot because this series has brought me so many smiles during the pandemic. So, when I saw the announcement that we were gonna get another novella this summer, I was ecstatic.. and even more happy when I got the opportunity to read this arc.

What's better than more Murderbot? Murderbot playing detective..!!! This story takes place between Exit Strategy and Network Effect, where Murderbot is still trying to figure out it's place on Preservation Station and what it wants to do with it's life. And in the course of it's stay, it is given the opportunity to help out in solving a murder mystery. The first thing that comes across as soon as we start the book, is the signature humor of our protanist - how it really would prefer not to interact with any humans, wish it could be binging it's serial instead of helping out Station Security, and more than hoping that the murder did not have anything to it and Dr. Mensah's shenanighans from the previous novella. It was really so cool to see Murderbot interact with humans who did not entirely trust it and were apprehensive about the help it offered, but Murderbot was still very patient in trying to alleviate their fears and stick to their directions (even if it couldn't stop being sarcastic about them in it's head). And it's even more satisfying when we get to see all the humans slowly realize that Murderbot was safe and good and could be relied upon. The mystery itself was written very well, and I truly could not guess who the culprit was. I also like how the author emphasises that Preservation Station is a truly progressive place where everyone has rights, basic needs are available for free to everyone and refugees escaping corporate slavery can find a home and safety - even if Murderbot can't see the point of it all.

In the end, this was entertaining and fun and I loved being in Murderbot's head again. This series has truly become a comfort for me and I hope we continue to get many more books in it. And if you are someone who hasn't picked up this series yet, I implore you to do so because this socially anxious, depressed and serial binge watcher Murderbot will surely steal your heart. And do try the audiobooks because they are super cool.

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.

In a straight up, standalone mystery, SecUnit takes some time away from protecting Dr. Mensah and surreptitiously watching his media, to help station security track down a murderer. SecUnit has to work with humans who think he is the most likely suspect, and he thinks the murderer could be anybody, up to, and including another SecUnit. Who knew that anxiety and paranoia could help solve a murder? This time around a I listened to the very enjoyable audiobook narration by Kevin R. Free. I'll definitely read the next Murderbot tale by Martha Wells, but only if it's really weird.

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.”

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.

Fugitive Telemetry has all the trappings of a classic Murderbot story – trademark snark, funny situations, a compelling murder mystery, and a seemingly unfeeling security robot that feels feelings. Murderbot is back and just as good as ever.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

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'.

I read this directly after Network Effect thinking it was after that. but no its a prequel. didn't hurt, i was just suprised in the beginning.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-10
A-8
W-8
P-7
I-8
L-8
E-9
TOTAL-6.14/10

Loved this book.
Detective Murderbot is the Best!loved to see Murderbot actually have to interact with more people and even people that it doesn't like. Playing by the rules, while also passive aggressively skirting the rules.Didn't predict that Balin was the bad guy. but i thought it was done well

Our sarcastic hero takes the next step in exploring its new freedom and discovering what it wants to be when it grows up. 

This series has been a comforting presence during this past month as all I want to do is curl up alone and watch TV or read. I also appreciate the perspective of a protagonist who doesn't really want to do the work they are in, but apply their skill set, and believe in what they are trying to accomplish. I find these perspectives quite relatable right now.