Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by realadhdoug
System Collapse by Martha Wells
3.5
This installment of the Murderbot Diaries picks up right after the events of Network Effect (book #5), and it is way more focused on action than introspection. I enjoyed the expansion of his non-human friends as they join in on missions with the humans he’s traveling with. The line between human and synthetic intelligence has gotten increasingly more blurry throughout the series.
While the cast of the characters has expanded and the pace has picked up, I do kind of feel like the character development of Murderbot himself has taken a step backwards. We get less of his internal struggle in this one. And I guess that could be a good thing if the endless existential musings bug you, but that’s my favorite part of the series. In terms of the actual plot, I have a really difficult time visualizing what’s happening because the world is described but rarely explained. If you asked me what actually happened in this book, I don’t know if I could tell you.
While the cast of the characters has expanded and the pace has picked up, I do kind of feel like the character development of Murderbot himself has taken a step backwards. We get less of his internal struggle in this one. And I guess that could be a good thing if the endless existential musings bug you, but that’s my favorite part of the series. In terms of the actual plot, I have a really difficult time visualizing what’s happening because the world is described but rarely explained. If you asked me what actually happened in this book, I don’t know if I could tell you.