Only giving 4 stars in case they get even better!! ( )

Continues the story directly after the end of All Systems Red.

I love Murderbot and ART. I could read about them all day. ( )

A fun second novella in the series. If Columbo were a robot . . . This is not perfect, I got tired of Muderbot saying "I assumed this is what would happen" and then every assumption plays out even though assumptions are more often than not at least partially incorrect, and MB has no programming to empathize, and empathy is the only route to the sorts of assumption MB makes. Still. MB, like Columbo, is entertaining and improbable in several ways including being improbably charming.

Yesterday was a lovely day here so I met a friend to wander around the Russianish neighborhood near me (mostly Jews and mostly from former Soviet satellite countries) to search for bulk smoked paprika, sesame candies, disgusting Joya jelly ring candies for Passover gifts to old people and kachapuri. It was super fun (and I am eating the reheated leftovers of the excellent kachapuri as I type this.) When we parted ways I wandered back home with the audio of this novella keeping me company. The 15-minute walk turned into a 2-hour walk as I passed my house (with its taxes waiting to be done) and kept walking until I hit a tea house I am fond of and hung out there, listening to MB all the while. Somehow the combination of the day's activities and the story brought me to the Columbo association, and it made me like this one even more than the first. Light as air, smart and fun, perfect for a single sitting (or walking in my case) read on a beautiful day. ( )

Excellent follow-up to the first in the series, All Systems Red.

Strong characters, great plot, excellent dialogue (narrated by the killer SecUnit). Love, love, love the series. ( )

Oh-oh. Murderbot ran away from its owner and is now making its/their own way through the galaxy in the second book in this series. It's been doing a lot of "thinking" about why it left and what it wants to do now.
Hitching a ride on an automated transport to their destination might not be the best decision because the transport is sentient and seems evil. It's amazing to read about the contact between these two. They are bots with human/sentient parts learning about themselves from each other.
Murderbot needs to visit a distant planet to investigate an incident in their past, but they look too much like a bot to get through all the security points, so ART (aka Asshole Research Transport) helps them.
Imagine "the giant transport bot is going to help the construct Sec Unit pretend to be human. This will go well." Read it and see how well it goes. ( )