Art done by Jaime Jones
Blurb: (From Book 1) "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
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 are 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, all it really 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 their Murderbot to get to the truth.
Review: This is a fantastic series of short novels. The characters are well written, and you find yourself caring for them and interested in their stories even given the length constraints. The sci-fi setting is inventive without getting too crazy, with the Corporation Rim being an especially nice take. The highlight is just travelling around with Murderbot though, their inner monologue and POV really makes the novels great. I think these novels have a perfect blend of relaxing and tense situations and somehow makes them all feel balanced in such a short time frame. I cannot recommend this series enough, because I don't think it's targeted towards any one audience, and is short enough for everyone. It's fucking fabulous. (Heads up that Network Effect isn't as short. Fugitive Telemetry goes back to the short style.)