Network Effect by Martha Wells

WINNER of the 2021 Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards! The first full-length novel in Martha Wells' New York Times and USA Today bestselling Murderbot Diaries series. An Amazon's Best of the Year So Far Pick Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Book Riot | Polygon "I caught myself rereading my favorite parts... and I can’t recommend it enough." — New York Times You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot. Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century. — I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are. When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.

Murderbot and ART!! And emotions!

If the novellas were each a TV episode, Network Effect is the two-hour season finale. With a full-length novel, the plot has a little bit more room to breathe and develop. At times, the adventures with alien adversaries feel a little too drawn out, but mostly, this room is good to allow somewhat of an emotional arc for Murderbot's complex relationships with ART and Mensah's daughter to develop. The series has always leaned hard on the ideas of identity and how this interacts with hard-wiring, and the plot really let those themes shine.

Network Effect was also the book in which Wells' full setting comes into focus: the conflicts between the corporate ring and Mensah's independent planet, and the university that owns ART. What does a corporation really want and what can unchecked capitalism develop into as the governing system for a solar system?

This is the best book in the series so far! Murderbot just keeps having one breakdown after another, emotionally and physically.

Spoilers

Favorite scenes:

- Ameena and SecUnit bickering!

- Hiding in the toilet because you're having an emotional response.

- SecUnit realising ART has been deleted.

- SecUnit and ART bickering over and over till they decide to rescue ART's crew.

- SecUnit intentionally playing Worldhoppers knowing that it's ART's favorite show and that'll lure them both into a conversation.

- Ameena saying that writing a code together is like having a baby

A little syrupy, but still enjoyable, much more so than the previous book. Wells put effort and creativity into this one: the story is complex, with interesting twists and even some plot developments. (It also helps that I took an eight-month break between books; I recommend doing so.)The characters are pretty flat, and so's the dialog, and Wells's Neuromancer view of nonhuman consciousness (“I saved a backup copy of myself in hidden storage space”; “I felt myself falling as, just before the spaceship blew up, I beamed myself down to the planet”) was cringey even back in the 80s. But this is comfort food now: Wells is milking the franchise, and (if we ignore #4) I'm now okay with that.If you're a Murderbot fan hesitating to read this one because of #4: read it! It's fun, sweet (perhaps a little too much so), intriguing in good ways, and, well, comfortable. Not as funny as the first, or as ethically satisfying, but that's no longer what this series is about.If you're not a Murderbot fan: read [b:the first one 32758901 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) Martha Wells https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1484171189l/32758901.SY75.jpg 53349516]! Then, over time — seriously: do not binge — the second and third. Skip the fourth, and read this one.