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A review by bibliocat
System Collapse by Martha Wells
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
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
4.75
Yay, a new Murderbot book! I picked this one up brand new at a Barnes and Noble. First, I had to go buy Network Effect and read that first since this book’s story follows immediately after.
One of the overarching themes in System Collapse is the contrast between the Preservation Alliance Crew helping each other and the colonists of the alien remnant contaminated planet (and just overall being clever while doing so), and the Barish-Estranza reps from the Corporation Rim. Perhaps this is a bit of commentary on how we all feel like cogs in a wheel, and the current state of employer/employee relations?
Despite the blurb on the back of the book, Murderbot was not being hyper-competent, at least least at the beginning of the book because of redacted . Thank goodness we got past redacted- yes this was how it was written the text- and why it was dropping our protagonist’s reliability performance..
I really loved the story from about chapter 7 onwards. I was absolutely fascinated with Murerbot using its fascination for media to create a documentary to sway the colonist’s opinions about the how the Corporation Rim would treat them if they signed a contract, basically into indentured servitude.
Even though Murderbot is clearly the focus of the book, I thought the other characters were represented well.
The action picked up from there right until the end of the book. And the last two sentences of the book -aww, so adorable.
Minor quibbles I had overall- I didn’t think the story was too long like I’ve seen other reviewers say, but I thought the individual chapters were too long. There wasn’t good pause points. Also, I wanted to know more about what freed Secunit Three was going through, since Murderbot gave it the instructions to hack its governor module at the end of the last book. Plus we’ve now got at least one more Secunit in this book that we only know is going to go back to work and try to hide this fact.
Will be looking forward to future Murderbot stories.
One of the overarching themes in System Collapse is the contrast between the Preservation Alliance Crew helping each other and the colonists of the alien remnant contaminated planet (and just overall being clever while doing so), and the Barish-Estranza reps from the Corporation Rim. Perhaps this is a bit of commentary on how we all feel like cogs in a wheel, and the current state of employer/employee relations?
Despite the blurb on the back of the book, Murderbot was not being hyper-competent, at least least at the beginning of the book because of redacted . Thank goodness we got past redacted- yes this was how it was written the text- and why it was dropping our protagonist’s reliability performance..
I really loved the story from about chapter 7 onwards. I was absolutely fascinated with Murerbot using its fascination for media to create a documentary to sway the colonist’s opinions about the how the Corporation Rim would treat them if they signed a contract, basically into indentured servitude.
Even though Murderbot is clearly the focus of the book, I thought the other characters were represented well.
The action picked up from there right until the end of the book. And the last two sentences of the book -aww, so adorable.
Minor quibbles I had overall- I didn’t think the story was too long like I’ve seen other reviewers say, but I thought the individual chapters were too long. There wasn’t good pause points. Also, I wanted to know more about what freed Secunit Three was going through, since Murderbot gave it the instructions to hack its governor module at the end of the last book. Plus we’ve now got at least one more Secunit in this book that we only know is going to go back to work and try to hide this fact.
Will be looking forward to future Murderbot stories.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Colonisation
Minor: Mental illness