In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists is conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid–a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, Murderbot wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is, but when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and Murderbot to get to the truth.

This was my very first science fiction book, so you can take my review with a grain of salt since I am not well-versed or a seasoned reader of this genre. 

This story was just mediocre for me. I think the biggest strength the story had was Murderbot itself and its highly entertaining personality. It is witty, sarcastic, cynical, pessimistic, funny with dry humor, and also a bit self-deprecating. When it gets irritable, we see it complain, which are some very funny scenes. So we begin to form this perception of this robot, at least on the surface, but then we dive a little deeper and begin to see how it gets attached to its humans that it’s trying to keep safe. It does hint at something darker and nefarious in its past while charming us and keeping the reader attached to it. We begin to experience what it experiences, which becomes incredibly relatable and fun to follow along. I also loved how Murderbot just wanted to lounge and binge-watch TV shows. I thought that was hysterical. 

However, the bigger story as a whole was a disappointment. It was pretty slow, so I got bored with it. It was a bit too technical and “sciency” for my liking, and I got confused at times. Then, nothing really happens until the last quarter of the story, which wasn’t even that interesting. The plot didn’t seem important to the story. It was more character-driven; however, I didn’t really care about any of the side characters. They had no depth and felt very one-dimensional. I couldn’t relate to or connect to any of them, so ultimately, I didn’t care about any of them. 

Because it’s a novella, the world-building was extremely lacking. I really wish we had explored this world more; maybe that would’ve piqued my interest more. Plus, the characters were underdeveloped, which was unfortunate. 

With all that said, though, I enjoyed the ending of the book and would like to read book two to see if I want to continue in this series. I listened to the audiobook, which the narrator did a great job on and was enjoyable to listen to, so it was nice that it was a super short book. It was a little over three hours, so I didn’t feel like I wasted too much time on it. I will listen to the next audiobook at some point. 

If you’re really into science fiction stories without a lot of plot that are more character-driven, and you like sassy robots with attitudes, then you may really enjoy this one.