The Murderbot Diaries: Obsolescence, Compulsory, Home, Rapport by Martha Wells Format: ebook
Source: purchased from Amazon
Formats available: ebook
Genres: science fiction, short stories, space opera
Series: Murderbot Diaries #0.1 #0.5 #2.5 #4.5
Pages: 92
Published by Tor Books on various dates
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org
Goodreads
My Review:
Martha Wells is the Guest of Honor at this year’s Worldcon, which has just begun in Seattle. So, I was looking for something appropriate to review, but there’s no new Murderbot novel this year. Howsomever, there is a new short story, so here we are with a review of, well, Murderbot shorts. (I keep wanting to refer to this collection as ‘Murderbot’s shorts’, but that would be something different altogether. So I resisted. Barely.)
The first gleam of Murderbot – or at least Murderbot’s universe – is a lot further back than I thought, as well as a lot closer to now than I expected. The earliest story, Obsolescence, doesn’t talk about Murderbot at all. But it does explore a bit of the corporate-controlled universe that Murderbot inhabits. This one is a murder mystery, set in the early days of the Luna and Mars colonies, at a point of transition where the exploration has been completed, the initial colonies have been established, and life is starting to settle into its new normal. It’s a time when the part-human, part-cyber ‘Rovers’, Murderbot’s ancestors, are mostly retired if not deceased, but are still known and celebrated as early heroes. (Also the stars of a serial that Murderbot eventually watches). But the corporate hegemonies already exist, as they do, and are already doing evil in the universe and leaving their cast-off, obsolescent former forced laborers to make their own ways in the galaxy. No matter who it costs.
Escape Rating B: The story is better as an SF mystery than it is anything else, and seen from that perspective it’s a lot of fun, but the knowledge that this is the world that gave birth to Murderbot puts a sting in the tale, as all of Murderbot’s own stories do. (This story is available as an ebook for free as part of the collection Take Us to a Better Place.
Compulsory is the first ‘real’ Murderbot story, and it’s the only one of these shorts that is told from Murderbot’s own point-of-view. In other words, it’s the first instance of Murderbot’s singular voice and it would be fascinating from that perspective alone. It’s at a point in Murderbot’s existence where they have already ‘borked’ their governor module, but are still pretending – mostly – to be an ordinary SecUnit while spending over 90% of their time, energy and attention watching entertainment serials. But they are already very much who they are in this story, and it’s refreshing to read that voice and know that their personality, complete with snarkasm, coalesced early on.
Escape Rating A: It was just so damn much fun to read that voice and that perspective again. It’s been two years since System Collapse came out, and Murderbot wasn’t feeling all that much themself during a whole chunk of that story. It was good to hear them again. At the same time, this story is very much Murderbot, being very salty about the stupidity of humans and the even bigger stupidity of systems designed to serve them, while sticking their neck out just enough to save someone – quite possibly because they’ve been inspired by the serial they’re watching at the time.
The final two, so far, Murderbot shorts are Home and Rapport. Home takes place right after the events of Exit Strategy. Home – and also Rapport – are not told from Murderbot’s perspective. We don’t hear their voice, but their presence and influence lies heavily on both stories. We view Home from Dr. Mensah’s perspective, at the point where she’s desperately attempting to cover up her PTSD after the events of Exit Strategy. She’s shaken because she very nearly didn’t have one of those, Murderbot saved her life, and now it’s her turn to save them. If she can. Even though Murderbot is still saving her – this time from herself. They serve as a steadying presence, and sometimes an immovable wall, giving her time and space to take the steps she needs to complete the rest of her journey back to wholeness.
Escape Rating A-: This story is titled Home because Dr. Mensah is having a hard time reclaiming her sense of home and safety, even as she’s doing her damndest to give a home, or at least a safe harbor, to Murderbot. Quite possibly whether they want one or not. This story provides a lovely coda for the events of Exit Strategy, and it was a great story to focus on Mensah and her team from a more compassionate – or at least less snarky – perspective. And by seeing Murderbot from the outside, it’s an opportunity to see just how much they’ve changed from Compulsory.
The final story is Rapport. At least it’s the one most recently published. It’s actually #2.5 in the internal chronology, set after the events of Artificial Condition – although I’ve seen references that it should be read after Network Effect which is where my memory says it belongs. In any case, it’s a mission that Murderbot’s frenemy ART told Murderbot about, but the SecUnit isn’t present. Instead, it’s a story about Murderbot’s and ART’s influence on another machine intelligence, Perihelion. Peri seems to have picked up a lot of tips and tricks from Murderbot by way of ART, and it seems as if Peri has a bit of a crush on Murderbot. Or, at least I hope it’s on Murderbot because ART’s first name is ‘Asshole’ and they are happy to live down to that epithet whenever possible.
Escape Rating A: This is a story that spreads Murderbot’s influence out into the wider world, gives readers a perspective on inter-machine communication, and is just generally a fun story set in this fascinating universe. It’s a lot of fun to see an entirely different machine intelligence applying the lessons that Murderbot has mostly learned the hard way, and it’s a great story to put a pin in this collection of Murderbot shorts.
The next novella in the series, Platform Decay, is scheduled for publication in May, 2026, and in spite of the somewhat ominous title, I can’t wait to see what happens next!
I am also a Murderbot fan. I watched the Apple series, even though I felt it missed the mark with the humans.