Network Effect by Martha Wells - 5 stars

[Theresa]

This is a rip roaring non-stop action scifi thriller that kept me reading late into the night. Murderbot is just as snarky and touching as ever, in fact even more so. As all the plot twists and turns set a fast pace in this story of a kidnapping during a research mission where Murderbot is providing security, Murderbot's growing sentience and friendships or, as she continues to insist, non-friendships are explored, with both human and other AI. And don't worry, there are plenty of mentions of the various media serials Murderbot loves so well.

Just before starting this, I read the very short story Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory which provides an amusing bridge into this plot from the Murderbot Diaries. Interesting but not critical.

[Nicole]

Love these books!

[Joy D]

Nicole wrote: "Love these books!"

Me too!

[Olivermagnus]

I loved this book and the character.

[Robin P]

Interesting that you called Murderbot "she". I have done the series on audio with a male narrator so I always think "he". Of course, as a non-gendered entity maybe some other pronoun is needed. (There are characters in the series with various pronouns.) The first book was fine, but Murderbot really grew on me and I liked that this one was a longer story.

And having this for friendship is brilliant, I was delighted to see an old friend show up in this installment of the series.

[Theresa]

Actually, I try saying 'it' but slip all the time. I tend to default to female I think. There's really nothing either specifially male or female about the character. Others in Feminerdy - who are much younger than me - have no problem refering to 'it' or even 'they' (a fair amount of the SFF we read has gender identity themes and 'they' is popping up more and more). Bless them. I am not sure I will ever adjust -- and partly I think that's because I know 2 foreign languages well - French and Spanish - that give gender to every noun.

@Robin - when I started reading it and realized ART was back I was thrilled - not just because I love ART but also the whole concept of friendship for Murderbot really started with ART. And this really really treats the concepts of friendship on so many levels and in so many different relationships. Amena is one of my favorite new characters.