System Collapse

This was largely enjoyable, although the turn from Murderbot feeling alienated from everyone to Murderbot feeling cringey about how much its humans care for it is a little less engaging. This story largely focused on Murderbot's trauma response to Network Effect - Martha Wells and its relationship with ART and the humans. Didn't really play out any of the threads about alien contamination from Network Effect, which is feeling like kind of a big tease at this point.

Murderbot just has near infinite potential as a character. It's multiprocessing nature makes the stories complex but so rich, I feel like starting the whole series again now to pick up the bits I missed.

I continue to love the Murderbot series. By this point, the action parts have lost impact because there's too much precedent for how they're going to turn out, so I think it's wise of Wells to play that part down a bit in this book, in favour of a story more about persuasion and trust building. And the ongoing saga of Murderbot learning about both its limits and capabilities continues to be one of the most relatable arcs in SF/F.

Murderbot, ART and friends are working through some things and doing their best to minimize harm along the way.