Daniel Darabos reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The same good stuff!
paperback, 352 pages
English language
Published March 29, 2021 by Tor.com.
4 stars
(278 reviews)
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.
22 reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
“Why do you call it ART? It said it’s name was Perihelion.”
“It’s an anagram. It stands for Asshole Research Transport.”
“That’s not an anagram.”
“Whatever.”
The struggle is real—what do I read while I wait for more Murderbot and ART and Preservation? Nothing. I’ll just quietly pull up a chapter in this book, like Murderbot does with Sanctuary Moon.
Strakul reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
A great addition to the Murderbot series!
5 stars
This was a great book. The familiar characters and settings of the Murderbot series, but a longer tale to really flesh out the growing relationship between it, ART, and other humans. It also ends with the promise of more adventures, too! If you're a fan of Murderbot you should pick this one up.
For a full review, check out my blog: www.goodreads.com/review/edit/52381770-network-effect
Soh Kam Yung reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
The first full length Murderbot novel throws it into a novel situation with lots of pew-pew action and, gasp, emotions.
4 stars
A great Murderbot novel that shows Murderbot continues to mature as an organism with free will and learning to deal with his emotions with his 'clients' while discovering new things about them and what they are willing to do for him.
The novel starts with Murderbot doing what it does best: protecting its clients. But this turns out to be a prelude to the start of a situation where Murderbot gets kidnapped along with his clients and ends up with a situation involving a former bot friend and possible alien technology contamination at a forgotten colony world. Of course he has to get out of it, with his clients intact.
But more than just the 'pew-pew' stuff (which Murderbot is obviously good at), this is also a detective story as he has to figure out the reason why it and his clients were kidnapped, how the alien contamination occurred, how …
A great Murderbot novel that shows Murderbot continues to mature as an organism with free will and learning to deal with his emotions with his 'clients' while discovering new things about them and what they are willing to do for him.
The novel starts with Murderbot doing what it does best: protecting its clients. But this turns out to be a prelude to the start of a situation where Murderbot gets kidnapped along with his clients and ends up with a situation involving a former bot friend and possible alien technology contamination at a forgotten colony world. Of course he has to get out of it, with his clients intact.
But more than just the 'pew-pew' stuff (which Murderbot is obviously good at), this is also a detective story as he has to figure out the reason why it and his clients were kidnapped, how the alien contamination occurred, how to save his bot friend (and clients) and how to overcome his opponents. But along the way, he will discover new things about himself, and also about what his clients really think about him and what they are really willing to do for him.
Jonathan Arnold reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
The 5th book in Murderbot's series, and the first full length novel, it tells the story of Murderbot getting kidnapped by ART, who we first met in book 2, Artificial Condition. Murderbot's relationship certainly veers all over the place, but it is always funny. Murderbot helps rescue ART's crew and maybe begins more adventures with ART.
I have to admit finding it a bit harder than usual getting thru this book. Maybe the novella length is perfect for Murderbot. It seemed like about the same amount of things happened in this full novel as happened in the previous novellas, but it just took longer for things to happen. Don't get me wrong, Murderbot was still pretty damn funny. Their observations of human interactions, and their growing disgust at their own, are truly inspiring. And coming across (creating?) another "rogue" SecUnit is pretty fun too.
But there were a lot of …
The 5th book in Murderbot's series, and the first full length novel, it tells the story of Murderbot getting kidnapped by ART, who we first met in book 2, Artificial Condition. Murderbot's relationship certainly veers all over the place, but it is always funny. Murderbot helps rescue ART's crew and maybe begins more adventures with ART.
I have to admit finding it a bit harder than usual getting thru this book. Maybe the novella length is perfect for Murderbot. It seemed like about the same amount of things happened in this full novel as happened in the previous novellas, but it just took longer for things to happen. Don't get me wrong, Murderbot was still pretty damn funny. Their observations of human interactions, and their growing disgust at their own, are truly inspiring. And coming across (creating?) another "rogue" SecUnit is pretty fun too.
But there were a lot of characters and too much boring interaction. I really enjoyed Murderbot's exchanges with Amena, a teenager they really don't understand, and they are precious. So it is definitely worth the read, but just not as snappy as previous installments. 3.5 out of 4, but I gotta go with the higher rating.
alx reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Network Effect
4 stars
Enjoyable, but I got bogged down in the middle for a good while: I suspect I prefer this kind of story at novella length.
Blind_Mapmaker reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
4.5 This is the book for all of those who - like me - complained over the length of the novellas if nothing else. It is not quite as good as the four preceding novellas taken together, but it sure is a tight little narrative with just the right amount plot and character development. Pacing is a little uneven, though I did like help.files where murderbot gets to tell us about life on Preservation. I also think there may have a been a tad little too many new characters, though I see why they needed to be there. It just gets a little difficult doing all those different voices for reading to my SO (what? you say I don't need to do that? preposterous!) The plot is also not completely surprising in every regard, but it is satisfyingly logical and I would regard it a bit as a Whodunit. What …
4.5 This is the book for all of those who - like me - complained over the length of the novellas if nothing else. It is not quite as good as the four preceding novellas taken together, but it sure is a tight little narrative with just the right amount plot and character development. Pacing is a little uneven, though I did like help.files where murderbot gets to tell us about life on Preservation. I also think there may have a been a tad little too many new characters, though I see why they needed to be there. It just gets a little difficult doing all those different voices for reading to my SO (what? you say I don't need to do that? preposterous!) The plot is also not completely surprising in every regard, but it is satisfyingly logical and I would regard it a bit as a Whodunit. What was done very nicely is all the emotional development, not only of AIs, but also the human characters.
Still one of the best books I've read this year.
flashy_dragon reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Murderbot comes to terms with messy human things. Like feelings and friends. All while trying to save its humans.
Exciting read, recommended.
Coalford reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Murderbot definitely excels as in a novella format. The jittery, jumpy writing style of being inside of a robots head works in small doses, but felt like real work to follow after the first hundred pages.
Also, I felt there was a large amount of setup for an Alien based finale that... Never really delivered on its promise.
Books That Burn reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
NETWORK EFFECT finds Murderbot summoned to help various associates and not-friends who are in danger and in need of help, with lots of Targets to shoot and interfaces to hack.
As the first full novel in the series, Network Effect handles the transition from novella to novel beautifully. It expands the scope and feel of the characters while still keeping things connected to the earlier books. My favorite thing was the addition of new point of view characters, it was strange but cool to get perspectives other than Murderbot, especially since they have some very specific similarities while obviously being distinct characters. Murderbot itself was delightful as always, it’s really grown throughout the series in terms of relating to other entities and figuring out what it wants, slowly becoming proactive rather than reacting against what it was ordered to do before. As usual for Murderbot there’s danger, rescues and heist …
NETWORK EFFECT finds Murderbot summoned to help various associates and not-friends who are in danger and in need of help, with lots of Targets to shoot and interfaces to hack.
As the first full novel in the series, Network Effect handles the transition from novella to novel beautifully. It expands the scope and feel of the characters while still keeping things connected to the earlier books. My favorite thing was the addition of new point of view characters, it was strange but cool to get perspectives other than Murderbot, especially since they have some very specific similarities while obviously being distinct characters. Murderbot itself was delightful as always, it’s really grown throughout the series in terms of relating to other entities and figuring out what it wants, slowly becoming proactive rather than reacting against what it was ordered to do before. As usual for Murderbot there’s danger, rescues and heist things, which were all great. It really feels like a longer version of a Murderbot book, which is perfect.
This doesn’t specifically wrap up anything from the previous books, but it does continue developing the definitely-not-friendship between Murderbot and Dr. Mensah, which is noteworthy given how little time they spent together this time around. The main storyline starts here and wasn’t present previously, it’s definitely its own story, with the main plot being pretty self contained. It’s not the last book, and at the end it clearly leaves something for later books to pick up as Murderbot starts to picture a life for itself and gets an unusual offer. I mentioned before that there are some additional narrators, because of plot reasons they have a lot of similarities to Murderbot, but they are differentiated in some cool ways. This would make sense if someone started here and didn’t know about the rest of the series. The first four novellas were a set telling a complete story, while this volume is pretty self contained. Everything you would need to know in order to understand what’s going on gets explained, partly because Murderbot has to provide some explanations since the other characters mostly were not around in the other books. That means that Network Effect technically could be read by itself, but if the plot description intrigues you you should definitely start with the first novella.
This is a great entry in a fun-to-read series about sentience, personhood, and self discovery in space and on various planets.
As the first full novel in the series, Network Effect handles the transition from novella to novel beautifully. It expands the scope and feel of the characters while still keeping things connected to the earlier books. My favorite thing was the addition of new point of view characters, it was strange but cool to get perspectives other than Murderbot, especially since they have some very specific similarities while obviously being distinct characters. Murderbot itself was delightful as always, it’s really grown throughout the series in terms of relating to other entities and figuring out what it wants, slowly becoming proactive rather than reacting against what it was ordered to do before. As usual for Murderbot there’s danger, rescues and heist things, which were all great. It really feels like a longer version of a Murderbot book, which is perfect.
This doesn’t specifically wrap up anything from the previous books, but it does continue developing the definitely-not-friendship between Murderbot and Dr. Mensah, which is noteworthy given how little time they spent together this time around. The main storyline starts here and wasn’t present previously, it’s definitely its own story, with the main plot being pretty self contained. It’s not the last book, and at the end it clearly leaves something for later books to pick up as Murderbot starts to picture a life for itself and gets an unusual offer. I mentioned before that there are some additional narrators, because of plot reasons they have a lot of similarities to Murderbot, but they are differentiated in some cool ways. This would make sense if someone started here and didn’t know about the rest of the series. The first four novellas were a set telling a complete story, while this volume is pretty self contained. Everything you would need to know in order to understand what’s going on gets explained, partly because Murderbot has to provide some explanations since the other characters mostly were not around in the other books. That means that Network Effect technically could be read by itself, but if the plot description intrigues you you should definitely start with the first novella.
This is a great entry in a fun-to-read series about sentience, personhood, and self discovery in space and on various planets.
Kathrin Passig reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Vor allem den Anfang mochte ich sehr, weil wirklich in jedem Satz was Interessantes passiert. Der Rest war aber auch ganz gut. Die Hauptfiguren sind ein Murderbot, ein Raumschiff und etwas körperloser Code, die Menschen drumherum nur Hilfspersonal, wie oft hat man das schon. Verlässliche Serie!
V171 reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Something that I have been impressed by throughout this series is the authors ability to avoid a formulaic story progression. This is particularly impressive considering the majority of the books are under 200 pages, and there are only so many ways to structure an action adventure within the three arc narrative in so few pages. But Wells is able to consistently diversify these stories with enough diplomatic tension, heartfelt intermissions, and espionage sequences that always keeps the story fresh. Network Effect was a great example of that expert construction coming together, now with more pages!
As I usually say with murderbot, this is more of the same excellent writing, great characters, great pacing, and engaging story. The full length novel is just a treat. My only issue with this book in particular (and it has been a trend with each book), is that the number of named characters is starting …
Something that I have been impressed by throughout this series is the authors ability to avoid a formulaic story progression. This is particularly impressive considering the majority of the books are under 200 pages, and there are only so many ways to structure an action adventure within the three arc narrative in so few pages. But Wells is able to consistently diversify these stories with enough diplomatic tension, heartfelt intermissions, and espionage sequences that always keeps the story fresh. Network Effect was a great example of that expert construction coming together, now with more pages!
As I usually say with murderbot, this is more of the same excellent writing, great characters, great pacing, and engaging story. The full length novel is just a treat. My only issue with this book in particular (and it has been a trend with each book), is that the number of named characters is starting to total in the dozens. This generally isn't a problem, but Wells tends not to devote a lot of time to a given character's physical appearance or set their voice apart narratively. It makes it very hard to keep track of who is who, and where each person is as multiple action sequences happen. I shouldn't really complain because all of the characters are lovable in their own way, and more lovable characters are always fun to encounter, but I wouldn't be mad at a smaller cast, a la 'All Systems Red' in the future.
Michael P reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
The full novel was excellent. Looking forward to the next one.
Balise reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
I'm DNF'ing this at ~33%. It's not that it's bad. I really, REALLY want to like Murderbot. And for some reason, it doesn't work for me, and I'm not sure why. But after 4.3 books, well, I think I really gave it a chance, didn't I?
I have a sad, but I have more books I really want to read right now, and this is not one of them, sadly.
Enno reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)
Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Murderbot and ART together are so much fun, can't wait to see how their "relationship" develops from here.
