I am moving quickly through this series, and continuing to understand why it has such a strong reader following. Also, my partner had decided to read these too, and is a few books ahead of me, so getting to discuss a bit afterwards has been an enjoyable turn!

We're back with Murderbot in this novella that really moves its "becoming" forward. There is a bit more emotion here than in the first two, as Murderbot meets another droid/unit - Miki - that is "friends" with its humans, in the way that Dr. Mensah suggested to Murderbot in the first novella. And we see, through the development of this short story, how Murderbot comes to finally see, and, really believe in, the potential for that. As I said, a much more emotionally investing read than the first two. Watching this stress and anxiety filled AI system slowly developing human emotions/reactions/body parts is equally endearing and hilarious.

And still, Wells maintains the generous action and easy entertainment that are a hallmark of this series so far. Murderbot remains quite relatable, for being an AI/bot, and its obsession with serial tv shows, and the many ways they’re used to inform and distract throughout, especially in this story, were quite amusing. 

This novella also moved forward the overarching plot, that of bringing GrayCris Corporation's underhanded and dangerous workings to light. Murderbot was able to gather some intel that will be useful in that effort and, after his interactions with Miki, seems to be on its way back to Dr. Mensah and team, literally and existentially. I remain excited for whatever is next in its story!   

“That was unrealistic. […] …but […] there’s the right kind of unrealistic and the wrong kind of unrealistic."

“I know that’s actually not a permanent solution and pretending bad things aren’t happening is not a great survival strategy in the long run…”