3.5 rounded up

As always, the voice crafted for Murderbot is great. Equal parts deadpan humour, logic, and angst. I always sort of marvel that it works. But it really does. Though, as always, the language feels simplistic because it fits the character internal processes. But here, because it is longer, it is even more noticeable and gives more of a chance to get annoyed by it. Probably the audiobook is the way to go with the sentence structure not being super interesting stuff.

This go around does feel slightly padded to me, probably because everything else is a contained, fast paced novella and this has more room to breath, but still felt like the arch of the novellas. Lots of action. Occasional philosophy tied to, typically sociological or political factors that directly affect the autonomy of Murderbot. Good, satisfying plot. Good characterization. Fun mystery. Murderbot is always solid, thus far.

There are some fun call backs to former novels, but I think also would be a good jumping on point, which I’m sure is what they intended with this. Many people don’t pick up novellas. Hopefully they—and others, give this a shot. There’s a reason is has such widespread appeal.