Network Effect

william_1844 reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

High action, philosophical, fun

4 stars

Even better than a season of Sanctuary Moon.

An action packed page-turning novel that managed to fit in a pretty good whodunnit mystery, a big dose of humour along with some rather serious philosophical pondering on free will and the nature of ethics, all without slowing the pace down. I thought about calling this a rollercoaster, but it's more like being strapped to a high-speed rocket weaving through a star wars style asteroid field . It's totally unrealistic, and if you've read the book you'll understand why that's a compliment.

pdotb@wyrms.de reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

An absolute blast!

5 stars

Such a fun read! Action-packed, almost breathlessly so, with much less of the exposition that I think slowed down the later novellas, still plenty of humour, but also deeper relationship-building. Murderbot (aka 'SecUnit', when it wants to be less, I don't know, murderey) remains easily the most relatable character in today's fiction.

Wild Woila reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5)

Perfected the recipe

4 stars

She's perfected the MurderBot recipe: awkward AI-AI relationship, friendly humans, emotional discomfort, clever conflict.

Reading time 3 days, 117 pages/day

#BookReview #Books #Bookstodon #BookWyrm #SciFi

dare@kirja.casa reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

The first Murderbot story I actually liked.

4 stars

Hugo Best Novel 2021, and I can kind of see why. The Murderbot stories do not normally speak to me, but this one was actually gripping and had a bunch of interesting turns. The people still feel somehow wrong, but the scifi story here works.

Strakul reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5)

A great addition to the Murderbot series!

5 stars

This was a great book. The familiar characters and settings of the Murderbot series, but a longer tale to really flesh out the growing relationship between it, ART, and other humans. It also ends with the promise of more adventures, too! If you're a fan of Murderbot you should pick this one up.

For a full review, check out my blog: www.goodreads.com/review/edit/52381770-network-effect

Frank Burns reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5)

Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Full length Murderbot! And it totally delivered as you can no doubt tell from the score I have given it.
Murderbot is such a strongly realised creation that it could carry an average story on it's own, fortunately this novel has a strong story to go along with Murderbot. The author wisely keeps the shenanigans at a small enough scale that you can relate along with Murderbot's increasing confidence in being free. This is still Space Opera however so there are still plenty of bangs for your buck.
The whole series remains highly recommended but they really need to do an omnibus of the first 4 novellas at a reasonable price.

2022 Re-read
Score still stands. I must say I particularly took my time with the last third on this read through and it paid off with some new gems that were in there. This is a very strong novel, …

Full length Murderbot! And it totally delivered as you can no doubt tell from the score I have given it.
Murderbot is such a strongly realised creation that it could carry an average story on it's own, fortunately this novel has a strong story to go along with Murderbot. The author wisely keeps the shenanigans at a small enough scale that you can relate along with Murderbot's increasing confidence in being free. This is still Space Opera however so there are still plenty of bangs for your buck.
The whole series remains highly recommended but they really need to do an omnibus of the first 4 novellas at a reasonable price.

2022 Re-read
Score still stands. I must say I particularly took my time with the last third on this read through and it paid off with some new gems that were in there. This is a very strong novel, just quality entertainment from start to finish.

alx@bookwyrm.social reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

4 stars

Enjoyable, but I got bogged down in the middle for a good while: I suspect I prefer this kind of story at novella length.

Paul reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries #5)

Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

So, this is substantially better than the first novella - to which I gave 1 star and would have been a 'did not finish' had it not been for a book club. There's a proper plot this time, a bit of character development, and some interaction between characters rather than a tedious monologue. It was easy to read and I got through it in a few evenings.

However, the main problem I have with this book is that the author has chosen to go with first person narration, so everything is told from the viewpoint of the main character (hence diaries). This has three potential issues:

1. It is, in my opinion, harder to get right than third person.
2. You don't find out about anything that doesn't involve the main character. (This is what makes diaries of any sort sometimes difficult to read, as you potentially miss big chunks …

So, this is substantially better than the first novella - to which I gave 1 star and would have been a 'did not finish' had it not been for a book club. There's a proper plot this time, a bit of character development, and some interaction between characters rather than a tedious monologue. It was easy to read and I got through it in a few evenings.

However, the main problem I have with this book is that the author has chosen to go with first person narration, so everything is told from the viewpoint of the main character (hence diaries). This has three potential issues:

1. It is, in my opinion, harder to get right than third person.
2. You don't find out about anything that doesn't involve the main character. (This is what makes diaries of any sort sometimes difficult to read, as you potentially miss big chunks of the story).
3. You have to like the main character.

Wells is a competent author so number 1 is ticked off. Number 2 can be an issue in some stories, but given that the humans in this one just sit around arguably/crying until Murderbot tells them what to do, the fact that you don't hear anything from their perspective isn't a huge loss.

Number 3 however is the killer for me, as I just don't like Murderbot. It reminds me of a more annoying and less funny version of Kryten from Red Dwarf - another android which has broken its programming (yes Murderbot has organic components, but given that it seems to be able to recover from any injury I'm slightly dubious as to how important those are). Like Kryten, Murderbot is still subservient to the person who freed it from its programming, and hasn't worked out its place in the world. The fact that it is completely introverted and doesn't like interacting with people (or other systems) is a bit of a problem when interacting with others is what your main character needs to do to keep the story going. If Murderbot gradually progressed and opened up it wouldn't be too bad, but by the end of book 5 it's still stuck in its shell and refusing to come out.

Oh and Murderbot's continual asides (and asides to asides) at the end of sentences is REALLY ANNOYING.

Overall, if this was the first book in a series I might read the next one, but I really expected more from book 5.

Kévin reviewed Network Effect by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #5)

Review of 'Network Effect' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

It turns out I've been up all night finishing off this book, thank Murderbot it's still lockdown.

Was it worth pre-ordering? Yes. Did it blow my expectations? Totally.

Having the three narratives at one point took a tiny bit of adjustment, but for me it genuinely made the action come more to life. I've also noticed that things tend to be described just enough that you're able to set your own visuals along with the series.

I certainly hope there is another Murderbot novel in the works, as I've been sucked in deep to this series