I stumbled upon this series while discovering that a certain music player app also carries audiobooks. I’ll be honest, I was coping with losing Gracie and Ruby within the same summer, and I was looking for a distraction. I thought a sci-fi series would be a good way to get out of my own head while leaving my hands to do other stuff like knit. A double distraction.

I’ll try not to spoil the entire series while I go through this, but this is your warning anyways. All Systems Red started slow. I had a hard time actually wanting to like Murderbot, but by the end of it I was still curious to see what was going to happen next. Despite not feeling attached to the main character, I enjoyed the interactions between it and its human counterparts. I wanted to see what other sort of interactions Murderbot would have as it was given more space to learn about itself and other people.

As we move through Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol, I really appreciate the occasional quip about philosophical debates and whether impersonating a human is a smart thing to do. ART captures my heart a lot faster than Murderbot managed to, but by the time I started Rogue Protocol, I’ve found that Murderbot sits quite close to my heart so I’m not too upset when I realize that ART doesn’t come back for the next book.

Exit Strategy brings us back to Dr. Mensah and the other humans that first gave Murderbot its freedom. It was harrowing, heartwarming, and anxiety-inducing to listen to. I remember sitting in my car after driving home from work, trying to get just another few minutes with the audiobook, to see what happens, because as soon as I got out of my car I wouldn’t have the time or space to listen to more of the audiobook until the next morning. I couldn’t let myself stop at a cliff-hanger, but the whole book was filled with cliffs!

I was extremely excited to see Network Effect included my favourite sarcastic ship, ART, and I lived vicariously through Murderbot as it learned to process its extremely complex emotions. This piece of the Murderbot puzzle took a turn into horror. It reminded me of What Moves the Dead from T. Kingfisher—a book I just recently read, though there are other books that follow a similar premise. Up until Network Effect, there had been mention of dig sites that had run into ancient remnants that had affected the sites, and Wells had done a fantastic job of building interest without making it too obvious that Murderbot was going to come across it.

We take a brief break from Murderbot’s trauma by reliving a previous memory in Fugitive Telemetry. At the time, I wasn’t pleased to have gone backwards in time, but looking back on it after finishing the series I think it was necessary. Murderbot needed time and space to process its trauma, and we get to see Murderbot harassing Dr. Mensah to go through trauma treatment, so when it gets to the next part of the series we see just how silly it is that Murderbot is resisting treatment for itself. System Collapse mirrors Fugitive Telemetry (though with higher stakes) in its emotional arc for the characters within it. There are so many people relying on Dr. Mensah and on Murderbot in both, and they realize they both need to do something before the pressure of the past and the present ends up breaking them.

Okay. So that’s a lot to take in. I adored this series once I got past the first book. I honestly think it was just the initial need for a distraction that put a bit of a grey filter on All Systems Red, so we’ll pretend that I didn’t have a hard time appreciating Murderbot at the start. Martha Wells is a phenomenal author. To be able to weave details for future books without making the later re-introductions feel forced, and to have a non-human character feel so different and yet extremely relatable… it’s incredible. There is so much potential for philosophical statements and debates to come out of this series, and Wells literally points that out within Murderbot’s internal monologue: inviting conversation about AI, what are humanity and compassion, and there are a lot of questions about consent as well. I love a series that is both entertaining and makes me think deeply. I have nothing bad to say about this series.

I would absolutely recommend this to everyone I meet. Philip K. Dick walked so Martha Wells could run. Anyone who loves cheeky characters, horror elements, sci-fi, questioning your existence, and space exploration would love this. Heck, even if you don’t love those things, I think it’s a good read and makes great statements. Just be prepared to cry a little bit here and there within the many hours it takes to get through the series.