Network effect

Everyone's favorite Murderbot is now working as a security consultant for Preservation Station. While accompanying several members of Dr. Mensah's family on a research outing, they're attacked by a ship that looks a lot like their old friend, the transport ship ART. Murderbot and Amena, Mensah's daughter, are kidnapped and taken aboard, where they uncover a plot that leads back to a strange planet, corporate machinations, and a possible alien contagion. The Murderbot novellas were perfectly paced to fit a ton of action into a short form. Network Effect is just as action-packed, but the pace is now calibrated to fill a full novel, which gives it more breathing room and opportunities to explore the characters and the setting in greater depth. Relationships between all the characters are richer and more nuanced. Wells reveals more about Dr. Mensah's family and some surprises about ART and establishes more details about how the Corporations function, the contrasts between the Corporate Rim and Preservation Station, the politics at play, and some of the history of pre-Corporate planetary colonization attempts. It's a welcome expansion of this universe and lays the groundwork for more stories to come in a series that continues to grow and impress.

Hugo- and Nebula-winner Wells's excellent first full-length Murderbot Diaries novel (after the novella Exit Strategy) sees her hilariously humanlike Artificial Intelligence Security Unit recount a routine space mission gone horribly awry. SecUnit would rather be streaming its favorite shows than protecting the rather fragile human crew it works for, even if it has become somewhat partial to them. Unfortunately, being captured has become a matter of course for the crew's missions, and this time the kidnapping brings SecUnit face-to-face with its pseudo-creator, ART (Asshole Research Transport). Turns out that ART, another AI, needs SecUnit's help to rescue it from a hostile takeover by alien remnant technology. SecUnit's gloriously candid, frequently confused assessments of its crew and their predicaments allow for an amusingly childlike perspective on what it means to be human. Wells puts an astonishing amount of technical detail into SecUnit's narrative, which will please hard sci-fi readers without detracting from the engaging story line. Series fans and anyone who enjoys humor-infused space operas won't want to miss this. Agent: Jennifer Jackson, Donald Maass Literary. (May)