ROGUE PROTOCOL finds Murderbot trying to get answers about its former corporation's past and hoping to avoid being friends with an overly familiar robot and its humans. 

I continue to like Murderbot, Miki is adorably annoying, and the mental contortions that Murderbot goes though in order to manage what Miki learns is fascinating. The worldbuilding is gradually accruing as the series continues and I like this style.

It's best to think of this series, in terms of structure, like episodes of a tv show (perhaps one of the serials Murderbot loves so much). It builds on the details of the previous book, and uses the information from it, but there isn't room for fluff. That creates this dynamic where the plot is very self-contained, but some bits of worldbuilding don't get explained again if they were explained before, since there just isn't room to go over stuff that was already covered in detail in a previous book. It doesn't quite wrap up anything from the previous book, though it is now clear that Murderbot has a quest and a goal that its pursuing as the series continues. The main storyline starts here and wasn't present previously, except for the connecting thread that Murderbot was somewhere at the end of the last book and now needs to go somewhere else for its next objective. A pretty important thing is introduced and resolved within ROGUE PROTOCOL. It's not the last book, and Murderbot is poised to continue its quest in the next volume. The main character is the same, and its narrative voice is consistent. Because of the episodic nature of the series, most of this book would make sense if someone picked it up at random without knowing about the series, though there are definitely some terms that don't get re-explained and would have to be inferred from context. 

This was great and I'm ready for the next one.

*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book. 

THE ALL-CONSUMING WORLD is a beautiful mess of broken people here to fuck shit up and probably die trying at least once or twice. 

The world-building is marinated in sci-fi vibes and queer longing, generated though hyper-dense jargon alternated with declarations of laser-focused loyalty backed up by gore and plasma. It even takes the time to show a brief glimpse of how ordinary person would conduct life in this space, all without stopping the action. It's fragmented like a glass vase you drop on purpose while making smoldering eye contact with a nemesis you want to fuck. Most beautiful as it shatters but useless afterwards. Turns out the vase is Maya, and Rita is prepared to drop and rebuild her a hundred times to get what she wants. 

There are several narrators who each have their own styles, it made them pretty easy to tell apart which was helpful when the story is revealed through the combination of their perspectives and they're apart for most of the book. 

I loved Maya's meeting with Reha. It's this moment to breathe and contemplate, something it feels like Maya has never had the time nor space to do. The tone is distinct from the rest in the book in a way that complements the whole by being a different texture from the rest. It's such an important conversation for a character whose only mentor so far is Rita (who on her best days is indifferent and most of the time is actively manipulative). My favorite moment deals with the paradox that exiting a queer "girl power" space can be needed to figure out one's own queerness. 

The prose is fantastic, densely syllabic, unafraid to pack in adjectives, to verb nouns and noun verbs. It makes language feel like a game, like the quickest way to the essence of a thought was to make the words scream and twist. This is especially fitting in a story filled with psychological manipulation and loyalty past reason. Anyone who spends their time loyal to Rita ends up needing twisted words just to keep track of their own thoughts. The main characters are complex and generally unlikeable, but fascinating and really great to read. Maya is a beautiful broken wreck of a person, managing to eke out a small piece of personal growth towards the very end when everything totally goes to shit. 

*I received a review copy as part of the 2021 Hugo voters packet. 

ARTIFICIAL CONDITION finds Murderbot gradually accruing companions/clients, trying to handle a chronically understimulated transport vessel and keep three young and foolish technologists alive on a fetch quest.

I like the dynamic between Murderbot and ART, the main plot is good and the humans are interesting. The worldbuilding expands well on the first book, I like how finally learning the company's name doesn't change anything for Murderbot because the role is more important than the particular signifier. It's a great sequel with interesting characters, because they're all novellas the series feels very episodic, which created this dynamic where ARTIFICIAL CONDITION has to communicate exactly how much backstory this particular entry needs and there's isn't much room for fluff.

This doesn't specifically wrap up anything left hanging from ALL SYSTEMS RED, it's more of a continuation that usually feels like it could have been section two of one large book. It works really well and I like this story on its own. The main thing it wraps up is the question of what happens next for the character, and the answer is this whole story and any additional sequels. The main storyline starts here and wasn't present before, with several major things introduced and resolved in this volume. The thing it leaves for future volumes is, again, what does this character do next? There is an overarching plot involving the search for answers about its past, and my best guess is that the next step is to find out who's responsible for what happened, but I don't know for sure. The main character is the same as the first book. This might actually make sense even if someone hasn't read the first one. There are obviously be some events from the first book that get referenced but never really explained (since they just happened a day or two ago from the main character's perspective), and those might seem odd to someone who picked up ARTIFICIAL CONDITION without knowing it was a series, but I think it communicates the stakes and the setting pretty succinctly in a way that would make this make sense even in that scenario. 

One thing that was uncomfortable to read was the disdain that Murderbot has for sexbots, it could be part of its character arc, especially given it behaved after a particular interaction, but it was frustrating to feel like the very human prejudice against sex workers was replicated again in a protagonist who keeps insisting it isn't human. I understand that's probably the entire point, I'll just be keeping an eye on it as the series continues because right now I can't tell if its examining a prejudice or replicating it.

I'm liking the series so far and I'll definitely continue to the next one.

*I received a review copy as part of the 2021 Hugo voters packet. 

ALL SYSTEMS RED is about a loner in a crowd, a Murderbot who just wants to be left alone to watch its serials. Unfortunately, someone is trying to kill the scientists it's there to protect.

I love this book, I love Murderbot. The setting is great, the background is told as its relevant to the story and mostly consists of slowly reinforcing how much the company will do whatever it has to to protect its money, and that simple calculus drives a lot (but not quite all) of the difficulties that the group faces. The scientists come through as individuals even though Murderbot is doing its best to ignore them. The narration is a delightful mix of Murderbot saying what literally happened and adding its own asides with the info that informed its decisions or give context to the events. Since the format is that this is a log of some kind (the series is The Murderbot "Diaries" after all), the style works really well to imply the bigger world but treat the reader like someone who is generally familiar with it and just needs to know what happened here. I love being thrown into a book in this manner and had a great time.

I'm very excited to read the rest of the series, I need to know what happens next to Murderbot.

 This kept infodumping, telling me how I should feel about something in a kind of irksome way. I don’t mind infodumps of information, but the barrage of info and how I should process felt like I wasn’t being trusted to figure anything out. There was a particular scene right before I stopped reading where a character narrates this whole initial meeting, change of heart, and now strong ties between herself and a person she’s telling us about who’s asleep in the next room. It’s the kind of backstory that either needs its own novella or just two sentences to say where they are now, because the choice to do this in-between thing felt like I was being told about some other story I could have been reading instead. I constantly felt like I had both too much and not enough information about what was happening, and I decided to stop.