audio cd, 1 pages
Published June 15, 2020 by Recorded Books, Inc. and Blackstone Publishing.
One of my favourite book of the series. Packed with action, humour and good sense. What I really like of this series is that the plot doesn't need stupid decisions to move forward. Everyone seems quite competent, but things go wrong and they have to figure things out. I like how humans add value to the party and they are not just dummy next to the computers
3.5
a bit too long for my liking of murderbot stories. the middle especially felt like it dragged on forever. still, yet another wholesome murderbot story, this time with the return of ART!
My review of Murderbot Diaries was that 1-4 should have been released as a single novel. Together they form a fantastic story instead of underwhelming novellas. Network Effect is exactly that -- a long-form Murderbot adventure that showcases what Martha Wells can do when not restricted by word count.
Network Effort is fantastic. Murderbot's distinct narration and voice is still the highlight, but combining it with a unique mix of science-fiction action and detective mystery really makes Murderbot something special. There is a fantastic mix of energy weapons flying around while your brain is engaged with the intellectual challenges, barely keeping up with the AI/construct characters as they try to get ahead of their antagonists.
And finally, the not-friend's return is perfect.
That said, the novel itself isn't. The sense of suspense is never there, and it's mostly a light-hearted romp through a surprisingly grim view of the future. Basically, …
My review of Murderbot Diaries was that 1-4 should have been released as a single novel. Together they form a fantastic story instead of underwhelming novellas. Network Effect is exactly that -- a long-form Murderbot adventure that showcases what Martha Wells can do when not restricted by word count.
Network Effort is fantastic. Murderbot's distinct narration and voice is still the highlight, but combining it with a unique mix of science-fiction action and detective mystery really makes Murderbot something special. There is a fantastic mix of energy weapons flying around while your brain is engaged with the intellectual challenges, barely keeping up with the AI/construct characters as they try to get ahead of their antagonists.
And finally, the not-friend's return is perfect.
That said, the novel itself isn't. The sense of suspense is never there, and it's mostly a light-hearted romp through a surprisingly grim view of the future. Basically, I'm not emotionally invested. It's fun, but it won't hit me in the feels, and so it's a recommended 4-stars but nothing truly spectacular.
ART's return basically makes this book. Murderbot always needed more characters and ART was the only one that was ever very interesting. The Corporate Rim is absent so you get less of that tongue-in-cheek criticism, but instead we get exposed to Alien Remnants (literally) and while thought provoking, didn't ever feel like much of a threat.
Finally, Three's character was a bit of a fail for me. I appreciated how it was foreshadowed via the flashback chapters, but Three was very boring. Murderbot 2.0 was actually more interesting, but of course, a copy of your MC should be!
Hugo Best Novel 2021, and I can kind of see why. The Murderbot stories do not normally speak to me, but this one was actually gripping and had a bunch of interesting turns. The people still feel somehow wrong, but the scifi story here works.
The same good stuff!
“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.
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
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.
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.
Enjoyable, but I got bogged down in the middle for a good while: I suspect I prefer this kind of story at novella length.
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.
Murderbot comes to terms with messy human things. Like feelings and friends. All while trying to save its humans.
Exciting read, recommended.
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.
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 …
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!
