No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.
When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)
Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!
I realize I might be a bit of an outlier with this one, but I felt this was a decidedly mixed experience. I loved "All Systems Red", and thought Murderbot was probably the most relatable character I'd come across in fiction, but the subsequent novellas were rather less satisfying and I'm afraid this one is no exception. There's still a little of the charm of the first book, but it does rather feel submerged in exposition and parenthetical asides.
This is a bit of a 'flashback' novella set when Murderbot's first few weeks in Preservation. It was a neat chance to see more of how Preservation works in comparison to the Corporate Rim. As for the investigation itself, I had an inkling as to who the culprit was, but not the motive or the how and regardless it was still enjoyable.
A fun story, where Murderbot gets to play a detective to solve a murder mystery on Preservation Station. The investigation would involve determining if the murder was part of an attempt on its client's life by the company, GrayCris, that Murderbot and its client royally screwed in the previous Murderbot stories.
Also involved in the investigation would be Station Security, who are reluctant to work with a rogue SecUnit (aka Murderbot) who they think would murder them all in an instant (and they wouldn't be wrong). To allay their fears, Murderbot had earlier promise not to hack their security system, which limits what kinds of data Murderbot can access, which makes it very unhappy (it needs all the info to make sure the case wasn't part of a GrayCris plot).
Eventually, Murderbot works it all out and determines not just why the murder occurred, but also the method and who …
A fun story, where Murderbot gets to play a detective to solve a murder mystery on Preservation Station. The investigation would involve determining if the murder was part of an attempt on its client's life by the company, GrayCris, that Murderbot and its client royally screwed in the previous Murderbot stories.
Also involved in the investigation would be Station Security, who are reluctant to work with a rogue SecUnit (aka Murderbot) who they think would murder them all in an instant (and they wouldn't be wrong). To allay their fears, Murderbot had earlier promise not to hack their security system, which limits what kinds of data Murderbot can access, which makes it very unhappy (it needs all the info to make sure the case wasn't part of a GrayCris plot).
Eventually, Murderbot works it all out and determines not just why the murder occurred, but also the method and who did it. And now it and Station Security have a better working relationship.
Written from Murderbot's point of view, the story features a lot of internal monologues and Murderbot's opinions about humans on the station (mostly sarcastic and funny), which adds a lot of laughs to the situation. Of course, there are moments of sheer violence, but Murderbot keeps the enemy body count low compared to previous stories.
