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icarusandthesun's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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? It's complicated
3.0
laugh-out-loud funny, exciting and very human.
i love art's and muderbot's relationship, it's so unique and full of banter and still tinged with a certain kind of affection.
the story was packed with action and adventure and interesting plot-points and plot-twists, however the pacing felt a little off this time.
some parts of the mission were hard to read, even a little boring. the great characters undoubtedly made up for it though. reading about murderbot interacting with anyone is always the most entertaining and heartwarming. the emotional character development in this one was strong with all these new and important relationships established and explored.
i loved the experimenting with different POVs towards the end, that was refreshing and just a good time in general.
the best book character-wise, but not really the best story-wise.
update: march 26
upon re-reading it, i've only been enforced in my opinion that this one's probably my least favorite murderbot diary. it's kinda lengthy and though the plot is interesting 'on paper', the actual writing was a little exhausting.
as i've mentioned before, the characters are great and so is the character development. the rest, though, ehh...
i love art's and muderbot's relationship, it's so unique and full of banter and still tinged with a certain kind of affection.
the story was packed with action and adventure and interesting plot-points and plot-twists, however the pacing felt a little off this time.
some parts of the mission were hard to read, even a little boring. the great characters undoubtedly made up for it though. reading about murderbot interacting with anyone is always the most entertaining and heartwarming. the emotional character development in this one was strong with all these new and important relationships established and explored.
i loved the experimenting with different POVs towards the end, that was refreshing and just a good time in general.
the best book character-wise, but not really the best story-wise.
update: march 26
upon re-reading it, i've only been enforced in my opinion that this one's probably my least favorite murderbot diary. it's kinda lengthy and though the plot is interesting 'on paper', the actual writing was a little exhausting.
as i've mentioned before, the characters are great and so is the character development. the rest, though, ehh...
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
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
This is my favourite novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Violence, Abandonment, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, and Grief
Moderate: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Blood, Sexual assault, Slavery, Body horror, Gore, Kidnapping, and Medical content
stories's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’m not sure I understood everything, but oh boy: these characters!
The characters sing.
Murderbot is growing and maturing and navigating more than just its complex relationships with *humans* now.
We got to revisit old friends, meet new friends, enemies and acquaintances, and experience the full spectrum of emotions in an action packed mystery investigation.
Perhaps by consequence of being longer, I found Network Effect more challenging to read than the other Murderbot books, but I’d say it was still worth the effort.
The characters sing.
Murderbot is growing and maturing and navigating more than just its complex relationships with *humans* now.
We got to revisit old friends, meet new friends, enemies and acquaintances, and experience the full spectrum of emotions in an action packed mystery investigation.
Perhaps by consequence of being longer, I found Network Effect more challenging to read than the other Murderbot books, but I’d say it was still worth the effort.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Gore, Kidnapping, Confinement, Dysphoria, and Adult/minor relationship
lbelow's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Cursing, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
divine529's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
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
I absolutely adored the Murderbot novel.
This is basically a typical Murderbot story with more content and an emphasis on it's various relationships and I adored it on ever level. And I loved seeing ART again. That is all.
I'll absolutely be reading this again and I can't wait to dive into the next installment.
This is basically a typical Murderbot story with more content and an emphasis on it's various relationships and I adored it on ever level. And I loved seeing ART again. That is all.
I'll absolutely be reading this again and I can't wait to dive into the next installment.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Violence, Death, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Murder
scifi_rat's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Grief, and Gun violence
Minor: Slavery, Abandonment, and Blood
dolores_madil's review
emotional
sad
tense
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
5.0
I absolutely love this. My biggest criticism has been that I wanted more content from the novellas. This gave me that the emotions, the character development, the exploring of relationships yes is all I have to say. I am fully and unconditionally in love with Murderbot and will gladly be its life partner. Everyone who said it was too long and could have been cut down was wrong because then we would have lost all the character development and rareness that was in this book. So the novellas up to now have been about moving the plot forward and learning about Murderbot along the way but at the same time, the short word count has also let Murderbot be like I don’t want to deal with emotions. In this novel, they were forced in many different ways to confront their emotions and to a certain extent deal with them or at least not ignore them. Murderbot is an android and in this world AI’s of all kinds can become sentient and this is a new concept not just for the many different types of AI but also for humans. For the first time, we really get to fully see and experience it not just acknowledge it and then push it off because we have to give the plot more page time. So far one of best books I have ready this year.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Colonisation, Cursing, Deadnaming, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Genocide, and Torture
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders
betanine's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
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
4.0
I think one reason I like this book and this series is that there is a little bit of Murderbot in me. I want to have an emotional distance and be left alone to consume my media. At the same time I don’t want to be alone. This is probably more accurately true of my teenage self. I spoke fluent sarcasm back then, too.
At first, I would say this is an action packed sci-fi thriller that kept me engaged all the way through and is a fun ride. While that is true, I realize how much this book has to say about caring for others and interacting with others with respect. Even when you disagree or don’t understand them. From that perspective, this book has an understated genius. And it’s still a lot of fun to read.
At first, I would say this is an action packed sci-fi thriller that kept me engaged all the way through and is a fun ride. While that is true, I realize how much this book has to say about caring for others and interacting with others with respect. Even when you disagree or don’t understand them. From that perspective, this book has an understated genius. And it’s still a lot of fun to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Violence
pan_to_ffel's review against another edition
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? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, and Kidnapping
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
tense
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
5.0
NETWORK EFFECT finds Murderbot summoned to help various associates and not-friends who are in danger and in need of help, with lots of Targets to shoot and interfaces to hack.
As the first full novel in the series, Network Effect handles the transition from novella to novel beautifully. It expands the scope and feel of the characters while still keeping things connected to the earlier books. My favorite thing was the addition of new point of view characters, it was strange but cool to get perspectives other than Murderbot, especially since they have some very specific similarities while obviously being distinct characters. Murderbot itself was delightful as always, it’s really grown throughout the series in terms of relating to other entities and figuring out what it wants, slowly becoming proactive rather than reacting against what it was ordered to do before. As usual for Murderbot there’s danger, rescues and heist things, which were all great. It really feels like a longer version of a Murderbot book, which is perfect.
This doesn’t specifically wrap up anything from the previous books, but it does continue developing the definitely-not-friendship between Murderbot and Dr. Mensah, which is noteworthy given how little time they spent together this time around. The main storyline starts here and wasn’t present previously, it’s definitely its own story, with the main plot being pretty self contained. It’s not the last book, and at the end it clearly leaves something for later books to pick up as Murderbot starts to picture a life for itself and gets an unusual offer. I mentioned before that there are some additional narrators, because of plot reasons they have a lot of similarities to Murderbot, but they are differentiated in some cool ways. This would make sense if someone started here and didn’t know about the rest of the series. The first four novellas were a set telling a complete story, while this volume is pretty self contained. Everything you would need to know in order to understand what’s going on gets explained, partly because Murderbot has to provide some explanations since the other characters mostly were not around in the other books. That means that Network Effect technically could be read by itself, but if the plot description intrigues you you should definitely start with the first novella.
This is a great entry in a fun-to-read series about sentience, personhood, and self discovery in space and on various planets.
As the first full novel in the series, Network Effect handles the transition from novella to novel beautifully. It expands the scope and feel of the characters while still keeping things connected to the earlier books. My favorite thing was the addition of new point of view characters, it was strange but cool to get perspectives other than Murderbot, especially since they have some very specific similarities while obviously being distinct characters. Murderbot itself was delightful as always, it’s really grown throughout the series in terms of relating to other entities and figuring out what it wants, slowly becoming proactive rather than reacting against what it was ordered to do before. As usual for Murderbot there’s danger, rescues and heist things, which were all great. It really feels like a longer version of a Murderbot book, which is perfect.
This doesn’t specifically wrap up anything from the previous books, but it does continue developing the definitely-not-friendship between Murderbot and Dr. Mensah, which is noteworthy given how little time they spent together this time around. The main storyline starts here and wasn’t present previously, it’s definitely its own story, with the main plot being pretty self contained. It’s not the last book, and at the end it clearly leaves something for later books to pick up as Murderbot starts to picture a life for itself and gets an unusual offer. I mentioned before that there are some additional narrators, because of plot reasons they have a lot of similarities to Murderbot, but they are differentiated in some cool ways. This would make sense if someone started here and didn’t know about the rest of the series. The first four novellas were a set telling a complete story, while this volume is pretty self contained. Everything you would need to know in order to understand what’s going on gets explained, partly because Murderbot has to provide some explanations since the other characters mostly were not around in the other books. That means that Network Effect technically could be read by itself, but if the plot description intrigues you you should definitely start with the first novella.
This is a great entry in a fun-to-read series about sentience, personhood, and self discovery in space and on various planets.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Cursing, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, and Death