May 17, 2020 – Network Effect by Martha Wells (2020) Tor Publishing
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.”
So begins All Systems Red, the first book in The Murderbot Diaries, a series of four prize-winning novellas and this novel. I can’t tell you how much I love, love, love these books. I must have read the novellas three times, just over the last couple of years. They are my absolute favorite comfort read in stressful times.
Let me tell you some of the things I love about The Murderbot Diaries.
First, the Murderbot character is funny, compelling and fascinating. Murderbot is a genderless, half-human, half-robot Security Unit or SecUnit with a sarcastic, self-deprecating sense of humor. Murderbot narrates the books, and I love their voice. Murderbot is experiencing autonomy for the first time – they just hacked their governor module, remember? They were treated like a tool, not a person, and now Murderbot has to figure out what it is to be their own person. They are learning to recognize their own wants and desires and to figure out how to act on them. They have to learn how to relate to others as equals or perhaps not relate to them at all – Murderbot isn’t sure if they want anything to do with humans. Like Lisbeth from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and Breq from Ancillary Justice, Murderbot is a wholy original and vividly memorable character. The reader is fully on their side as Murderbot struggles to become an autonomous person.
Second, the books are full of classic space-opera fun. Murderbot may prefer watching streaming video over fighting, but they are not going to let something bad happen to “my humans.” And something bad is always threatening Murderbot’s humans. When it is necessary to fight, Murderbot is quite a fighter.
Finally, these books take on some real political questions, though these questions are never in the forefront of the books. There is a consistent anti-corporate thread running through the Murderbot Diaries – Murderbot is not the only one the corporations try to control. And the series deals with interesting questions of gender, since after all Murderbot does not have gender. These political themes and questions are not dealt with in a didactic way – they are not at the center of the books. But they are there in real way to reflect upon, if you choose.
Network Effect is a worthy addition to the series, bringing back some favorite characters from earlier books and continuing Murderbot’s development. You could probably pick up Network Effect even if you have not read the earlier books, but I recommend starting with the first book, All Systems Red, if you are a Murderbot newbie. You will enjoy the new book more if you know the characters’ histories.