Modern Monday: Network Effect by Martha Wells

Martha Wells is a truly amazing talent. She's stacked up so many awards over the last four years that it's impossible not to recognize her. She has normally been known for her fantasy and young adult works, but there is one series which is undoubtedly science fiction, and it's one of the best around.

The Murderbot Diaries follows the adventures of Murderbot, a mostly-robotic cyborg who hacked his own governing module in order to watch his favorite entertainment shows. Having freed himself in this way, he has the power to kill thousands of humans, but chooses not to do so - not out of a sense of ethics or morality, but out of enlightened self-interest. He is blunt about this from the very beginning, and this makes his character instantly likeable.

Murderbot is not his real name. He does have a name, as he readily admits, but keeps it secret, calling himself "Murderbot" as a byline. He is a Security Unit, or "Sec Unit," as they call him. Ostensibly his job is to keep his humans safe, but he has a dark past, as records show that he slaughtered a large group of humans under his charge before Book 1 of the series even began. He has no memory of this, because the corporation he worked for erased it. But his biological side remembers some small part, and it disturbs him deeply. After rescuing his current owner, Dr. Mensah, and her team, he goes on a quest to discover who made him kill all those people, and why.

The origin story, and Murderbot's quest, cover the first four books of the series, all of which are short novellas. By the time we get to Network Effect, which is Book 5, Murderbot has already solved the mystery of why his corporate owners had made him slaughter so many humans years earlier, and brought those responsible to the feet of justice. In this story, Murderbot's current assignment is to protect Mensah's daughter, Amena, and her team. But they are attacked by a hostile research vessel. Murderbot recognizes the ship, and it's robot pilot, whom he knows as "ART" (for Asshole Research Transport), and is perplexed as to why it would attack. (Back in Book 2, they met and became friends.) When the research vessel captures Murderbot and Amena's team, they realize that ART is under the control of a hostile group of grey-skinned humanoids. Murderbot defeats them and liberates ART, but is resentful that ART would have endangered his humans just to save his own hull. But ART is not done with them yet. He will not bring them home until they have rescued his crew. Like Murderbot, ART's first loyalty is to the humans under his charge.

Along the way, Murderbot's feelings towards ART go from resentment, to hatred, to mild forgiveness, and then finally back to the friendship he felt when he first met ART back in Book #2.

Network Effect is the first novel-length book in the series. As such, it puts Martha Wells in a position to potentially win a Hugo Award for both best novel and best series. The first book in this series won a Hugo, a Locus, a Nebula AND the Alex Award (which awards the best adult book which appeals to young readers). Altogether, the series has won major awards six times and been nominated for major awards thirteen times! The guardians of what's best out there right now have judged: This is one of the best reads you'll have all year!

With a sixth book, Fugitive Telemetry, now just released (and I'll do a review of that one, too!) catching up on the series and reading Network Effect is a must for any sci fi lover.

Eric

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