Martha Wells: Network Effect (Paperback, 2021, Tor.com)
paperback, 352 pages
English language
Published March 29, 2021 by Tor.com.
Murderbot returns in its highly-anticipated, first, full-length standalone novel.
You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot.
Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century.
Enjoyable, but I got bogged down in the middle for a good while: I suspect I prefer this kind of story at novella length.
Finally, a full-length Murderbot novel. Fun, funny, fast-paced and heart-warming, it's everything I want from escapist space opera. Murderbot is a lovable sentient killing machine who itself enjoys space operas and doesn't want to deal with its feelings right now.
I think you might be able to read and enjoy it without reading all the novellas that precede it, but I think it's more fun if you read the novellas first. Plus, it spoils some of the reveals in the novellas if you jump straight in here.
I especially recommend it to anyone who is feeling sad right now, and fans of Ian Banks Culture novels. (Ever wanted to read a full-length novel from the point of view of one of the ornery drones? This is a lot like that.)
