jamgrl's Reviews (197)

This book is packed with adventure and has an interesting/expansive world. I enjoyed the Latina protagonist and her crew. I like the dynamics between Eva and Vakar and Eva and Pink, I just wish there had been more. A lot of the emotional stakes are built on Eva telling us she cares about people instead of us getting to really see her relationships, which is a shame because when the relationships are there, they are really good! It makes the adventures feel less important- I kind of came away thinking that too much happened, even though there are breadcrumbs dropped along for an interesting underlying plot/mystery which will clearly be revealed in future books… I just think we needed more upfront character time to care a bit more. The cats were also way underutilized (there might as well have only been one cat, which would have been fine and maybe better considering that only one was important.) That being said, I think there is something interesting going on here and I am curious about where it is going.

This is kind of like a special episode of murderbot! It takes place before network effect, which is a bit disconcerting, it is very short  after network effect, and it is sort of just unrelated to the rest of the continuity, BUT we get a little murder mystery with our favorite bot construct during its time on Preservation. Some people have said this one was predictable, but I was pleasantly surprised when the mystery unraveled.

I always love Murderbot, but it is important to note that this one is different from the rest of the series in being a full length novel. I wasn’t sure how that would go since these are usually such quick reads/listens. Basically, you get a longer and more complex plot with a lot more focus on relationships and boy oh boy, the relationships are fantastic! We get to see Murderbot go full protective parent on Amena (Dr. Mensah’s daughter), we get to see our favorite transport (and Murderbot grappling with its feelings and what it means to have a *relationship* with someone, ugh!), we get to meet *another sec-unit*, and we get a Murderbot typical mystery and problem solving adventure. 

I don’t know, y’all, I loved this book and I’m angry with this book and I have had many questions answered and many new questions formed and I just want my girls to be happy, but here we are. Brilliant, again, of course.

This did not go at all the way I expected! And the new information in it had me skeptical when it was first introduced, but Marie Brennan really pulled it off. This was a fun series!

This was a really cute story with some good insight into Camilla and Palamedes!

Upon this reread, I still find this book excellent! I am bumping it down to a 4.5 because it remains very slow  for like the first 400 pages. I was overwhelmed with the amazing-ness of the reveals at the end the first time that I forgave the slog of earlier in the book and, although it was more enjoyable the second time through after knowing what was going on, it was still too slow. First time readers: be advised that it could be hard to read a lot of the book, but if you loved book 1, finishing this book is so worth it because the pay off is even better than that of book 1.

This book was a fast paced page turner with short chapters that kept me wanting to go on to the next one. I found following Evelyn’s story highly enjoyable and Evelyn herself fascinating and sometimes inspiring. It was exciting to find out how each husband fit into her narrative. There were a good amount of mysteries set up along the way that made me want to learn the answers. The twists were not mind blowing, but they were good. I found Monique less interesting and I felt that some of her inner monologues tipped into cheesy, but she tied things together and was in the book so little that her presence didn’t take anything away. I didn’t love Celia as a person- she is petty and jealous most of the time- but I appreciate how her relationship with Evelyn was handled and how her flaws were acknowledged. I like that the characters were flawed and grappled with those flaws! I also appreciated the final story 😭; it was a good ending!