Writer - Martha Wells
Series - The Murderbot Diaries #1
Published By - Tor.com
This tells a story from the point-of-view of a robot or A.I. who has hacked into its governor software and has free will although it keeps the pretense of maintaining cover as a SecUnit for a planetary survey team for fear of being destroyed. But their mission doesn't go as planned and the team gets caught up in a conspiracy and finds out the truth about the planet they are in while trying to survive.
The A.I. protagonist has quite a pessimistic attitude and disdains interaction with humans. All it wants to do with her time is watch serials on entertainment feeds and read books. I know this would very strongly resonate with the inner geeks of readers (as it did with me) and the slow growth of the Murderbot does highlight the fact of what it really means to be human. The Murderbot acts like it doesn't care and says to aloud several times despite finally admitting to itself that it does care for its 'humans'.
The story starts rather slowly and about 1/4th it suddenly picks up as the team is thrown into a mystery involving the planet and their mission. The fast pace of the rest of the book makes it quite hard to put down. The mystery is handled quite nicely for such a short scope on offer. And the slow reveal about this futuristic world and some hard sci-fi bits add to the overall atmosphere.
The rest of the side characters are also quite interesting. I especially liked the character of Mensah, who Murderbot compares to someone almost like the heroes in the serials it watches, as she takes on the leader of this ragtag team quite authoritatively. I also loved the mind-games between Gurathin and the Murderbot quite a lot as well.
The author uses light prose and unorthodox protagonist to make a rather simple plot shine brilliantly. Even after the end, this left a sweet aftertaste and an urge to find out what happens next to the beloved Murderbot.
4 out of 5 stars from me.
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