4.25 Not quite as good as the last volume, but still pretty damn good. The only real complaint I have is that the reader sees the solution quite a bit before Murderbot does. It's interesting to see Murderbot interact with a bunch of people it doesn't really like much, but can't just ignore or fight. The old crew are there only at the margins and it's nice to see Murderbot being capable of something between cold distance and (not-so-)secret caring.

In general I am not so happy about going back to novella-length. It's closer to Exit Strategy than All Systems Red and while I didn't get the "why's-the-book-over-already?" feeling, I still think it could have benefitted from another twenty or thirty pages with an additional twist or at least more interaction between the characters appearing later in the narrative. It was still quite satisfying, but I read it one chapter at a time, so your mileage may vary there. Also there's the price for a physical copy...