I came close to not reading this series. “Murderbot” made me think that it was going to be a horror/sci-fi lash up, heavy on the horror. Movies are often like this. They get billed as sci-fi, but the only sciency aspect is that the creature/bug/mutant/virus originated in a lab or on a space station. From that point on, it’s just Halloween Part 47 with different props.
Skipping Murderbot would have been a tremendous loss. Wells has written a wonderful character and a brilliant universe.
Murderbot is a construct (android) who is hired out by its company to provide security for clients. As a SecUnit, Murderbot is somewhat different from its fellow constructs in that it managed to hack its own governor module and is now both self-aware and doing its best to hide that fact. It’s a snarky, self-deprecating SecUnit with a love of media and an appreciation for its own failings. One of its best lines is: “As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”
We join Murderbot and quickly learn that it is scornful of its human clients as they seem intent on doing all manner of stupid things that will get them injured or killed.
I plowed through the entire series, as it currently exists, in less than two weeks. This was the first book in a while that tempted me to call in sick so that I could keep reading.
Murderbot is a strong 10 on the Feral Scale for the story, and an impressive 8 for the science. Wells clearly understands the capabilities (parallel processing, partitioning, etc.) of computing devices and explains this happening in Murderbot’s “head” in a way that helps the story flow. You don’t need any science background to love the story. A bit too much hand waving (or ignoring the science) resulted in the downgrade.
The series won several Nebula, Locus, and Hugo awards. The Hugo is what put it on my reading radar.
The series is mostly novella-length pieces. I read about half and listened to the other half and recommend either. The narrator is superb.