Reviews with content warning for Trafficking - System Collapse

I love the murderbot series and this follows directly from the events of network effect and carries on the enthralling events. Could barely put it down.

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laurareads87's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

4.5. I love Murderbot and am so excited to have another installment. In System Collapse, we follow Murderbot, ART, and ART’s crew who are attempting to assist colonists on a hostile planet; unfortunately, Barish-Estranza is there too, and they have their own intentions toward the colonists. Meanwhile, Murderbot is grappling with its recent experiences and ... its feelings.

System Collapse picks up right where Network Effect ends; I would suggest reading the last two chapters of Network Effect to refamiliarize before starting this book, especially if, like me, you’ve been reading the series as it is released.

I love every Murderbot book. What I loved about System Collapse is (as usual) the relationship between Murderbot and ART, as well as Murderbot’s encounters with other SecUnits. Murderbot has to be one of my all time favourite first-person POVs to read, and this book is no exception. I also feel like this installment moves the series forward well – there is growth here, and the opening of new directions for future books to take. I did struggle a bit at the beginning; even having just re-read a few chapters of Network Effect to refresh my memory, it took a while for me to fully sink into the action of this book and feel like I fully knew what was going on, but once I was in I was in.

If you haven’t started the Murderbot series yet, what are you doing?! Go do that. Don’t start with this book though.

Content warnings: gun violence, violence, post-traumatic stress, injury detail, references to enslavement and labour trafficking

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monniebiloney's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

🌟

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twistykris's review

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I simply love Murderbot, ART, and their escapades to saving humans from being mauled, mangled, and murdered, while Murderbot ALSO tries to navigate its PTSD and trauma regarding an event from a previous book.

These books just hit me differently; I can go from laughing because Murderbot tells ART to go fuck itself, and then a minute later, I'm on the verge of tears because Murderbot is just simply not okay. And then I'm in shock and cheering because

Murderbot tells another SecUnit with a malfunctioning governor module "come with us."

I also loved

the ending where we get another bot who ART doesn't like?? and Murderbot knowing it wants to continue traveling with Art is just SO wonderful and assures me we're getting another installation of this series.

I have listened to the audiobook for every Murderbot book and Kevin R. Free continues to be just an absolute delight to listen to. He portrays all of the voices well, especially Murderbot's dry, sarcastic tone. However, there were certain parts I wish I had a physical or digital copy to actually read and follow along with- I think it would have been helpful for me to visualize the coding language Murderbot uses to communicate with another more archaic unit. One reason to just buy the series, ehehe...

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abookwormspov's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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divine529's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

It's pretty much a given at this point that if there's a new Murderbot book, I'm going to love it. I loved this, but it wasn't an absolute 100% favorite, not because it wasn't fantastic, but because some of the pacing/choices some of the characters made didn't sit right with me.
That aside, I live and breathe for Murderbot as a character always and seeing It struggle the way it did in this book was a whole thing for me to experience - essentially It's working through it's trauma and is not having a good time. ART is also one of my favorites always and ART and MB's dynamic is everything.
I love seeing the evolution of the humans' relationships with each other and with the bots throughout the books and it was no different here.
This book deals a lot with colonization of a specific planet and seeing the politics involved in all of that was so interesting, but also infuriating.
All in all, another fantastic Murderbot book.

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crownoflaurel's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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jessereadsthings's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

Really fun once the action gets started, but slow in the beginning.

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