Our
protagonist describes themself as: "A construct
made of cloned human tissue, augments, anxiety depression and
unfocused rage...", Unsurprisingly they have given themselves
the un-complementary name of "Murderbot", and
this is the fifth novella in the Murderbot series.
Since all these novellas are written exclusively in the first person Murderbot's personality and their narrative capacity is essential to their success. This is a huge score, the thing about Murderbot is their candour, both about themselves and their reactions but especially in their view of humanity. Murderbot doesn't really approve of most humans, with a few honourable exceptions, and their deadpan portrayal of humanity's many, many foibles and their reaction to them is one of the most engaging aspects of these stories.
Murderbot was originally a
security bot conceived specifically to protect the "human
capital" investments of intergalactic insurance
companies. (Please note these are not spoilers you will find a
summary of Murderbot's back story in this novella). This involved taking
on alien predators but more often than not, other humans.
Murderbot's personality is
that of a surly but gifted and conscientious teenager. That they
come over as youthful and immature is hardly
surprising given that in the first novella, they
somehow acquired the ability to hack their governing module and
began to think and act for themselves. And what did Murderbot want to
do once it had acquired the precious gift of freedom? Why, of
course! Spend hour upon hour streaming trashy telenovelas... But
sometimes it just has to go out and deal with a few pesky humans.
So, to sum up, Murderbot
is basically a killing machine with the personality of a surly
teenager and the candour of a saint, addicted to
watching TV series with a romantic bent.
Happily, it has fallen
in with a group of basically decent and intelligent
humans and this is where we find them at the beginning of this
novella, being loaned out, completely at their own volition, to
act as an external security consultant for the
human-run team of a space station tasked with solving a puzzling
murder with possible terrorist implications.
This is the first
novella where we have seen Murderbot take on the role of
detective and it works. The dry humour mostly at humanity's expense, but
occasionally at Murderbot's, is as fresh and vivid in this most recent
instalment as it is in the others.
If you like your sci-fi with
laughs, read Murderbot.
