Beattz

This was a blast. I had a great time. Steven Pacey's narration was impeccable. It was funny, it had action, there were real consequences. Each character was unique, had deep backstories and growth throughout. It was neat how Abercrombie would shuffle the party around at different times to see how each would interact with and learn from the others. For a longer book, this never felt stale to me, which is important. No wasted words/time. Based on the ending, I'm not really sure what to expect from the sequel, but I know it's going to be great.

I don't really know what to do here.

The book was objectively good. I just feel like I got suckered. It was tagged as cozy scifi, so it immediately put me in the mind of Monk and Robot, which I adore, but that's not what I got. I thought maybe the misunderstanding was my own because I don't often read the backs of books, I go on friend recommendations and vibes (and believe it or not, it works out pretty dang well for me most of the time). But I went back and read the blurb, and I think I would feel just as let down (?) if I had done that beforehand.

It was well written, it was poignant. It's even timely. It's also heavy. It ends on a good note, which was a relief, and of course there's moments of triumph scattered throughout, but each of those moments is counterbalanced with a dose of reality that just kept me from engaging with the book the way I wanted to.

I seem to be in the minority with this opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. That's the beauty of books after all. Everyone gets something different out of them.

This is my favorite Murderbot to date. I had a fantastic time. Being with ART again was such a treat, and now I'm looking forward to the next one even more!
I read this out of order based on a recommendation, bc book 6 happens chronologically before book 5. However, I think that was a mistake. The this book may have come after that in time, but not in character progression. Book 6 was hard for me bc it felt like there were leaps in Murderbot's personality that I was completely unprepared to take. But if I had read this first, those wouldn't have been leaps, just lil hops.

This is shaping up to be one of my favorite series of all time. It's just fun. The writing is good, the characters are great. The story? HNM, you got me on this one. Like, that one thing, sure. I saw that coming. You tried to distract me, it worked for a second, but, yeah. Totally. But that other thing? THAT OTHER THING?? Ma'am. And the last thing, you better be prepared to explain yourself for that one.
Look, all I'm saying is that if I have to wait more than a year for the fourth and final book of this series, you may have to institutionalize me, because I am already foaming at the mouth. (Insert Adam Driver MOAR gif here.)

This read kind of like a crazy Arthurian fever dream. Grossman seems to have a penchant for writing MMCs that you want to throttle regularly. (Quentin will forever be my fav character that I love to loathe.) I think my experience was hampered by the audio- the VA’s female voices were either indistinguishable, or, I swear, he actually just plugged his nose for one of them.