Fugitive Telemetry
By Martha Wells
Tom Doherty Associates, 2021
Fugitive Telemetry is the sixth Murderbot book, and after a brief break for the long-form Network Effect, we have returned to the novella format. This is a great series, but you should start reading it at the beginning. The first book in the series is All Systems Red.
Murderbot is having a perfectly normal day, when someone finds a dead body. There have been times in its existence when this would not be remarkable, but Preservation Station is a calm backwater, and here dead bodies are significant events -- and specifically, the sort of significant event that didn't happen until Murderbot appeared on the scene. This one is totally not its fault (unless this was done by the interstellar organization that it escaped from, the one that makes all the SecUnits, CombatBots, and misc. etc., and wants Murderbot dead; leading them here might technically be considered its fault). Anyway, Murderbot is good at dead humans, and station security is not, so it decides -- with some encouragement -- to help out with the investigation.
This is a fairly compact whodunnit, and I can't say much more without giving spoilers. It is a twistier -- and less violent -- mystery than most Murderbot adventures, but still true to type. While solving a murder and protecting the station is important, the secondary plot is essentially Murderbot convincing (unintentionally) yet another group of humans that it is actually a human being (not technically, but you know what I mean), and probably won't murder them in their sleep. The format is admittedly getting a bit familiar. While it is an enjoyable book and I recommend reading it, we are also getting to the point where it is perhaps no longer so important to read the books in order; if you know where Preservation Station is, you have enough context to follow the story without feeling lost.
SciFiQuest 3021