Good series and getting better

This lady is going to ruin my budget for new reading material.
Nuff said, but I got to add six more words, so give it a try, samples is free! But be warned you'll buy it ( )

After multiple rounds of abandoning my intended to-read, I decided that the only way to get to COVID was to read like I was a teenager again: back-to-back science fiction and fantasy, preferably in serial form. Good news: in the two decades that have passed, spec fic has gotten super high-brow. Murderbot carried me through all of July. In this, second outing, despite it's best intentions, Murderbot keeps making friends. ART, arguably Murderbot's best friend, is my favorite character. Fresh off of its first human friendships (and unwilling to acknowledge them as such), Murderbot needs another bot to be friends with. And ART is not human, although charmingly a bit arrogant, and definitely more than a bit pedantic, ART is a beautiful foil to the sardonic and asocial Murderbot.

The second book in the series spools out some of the backstory hinted at in the first, but the central focus is exploring what makes a bot itself and not just any generic construct. I loved this: I think it had a lot to say about people, growth and relationships. ( )

Omg, I love this series SO much! For anyone coming to this series for the first time, be sure to read the books in order so that you understand the back story.

In this second in the Murderbot series, our rogue SecBot from book #1 has a goal of going back to the scene of the crime from its past to find out what really happened. It wants to know what really caused the horrible massacre that resulted in its naming itself Murderbot. Was it really the fault of Murderbot, or was something else at play? With the help of a research transport vessel that it names ART (I laughed out loud at this acronym), the rogue SecBot (now self-named Eden) makes more self-discoveries as it navigates its tenuous position between human and bot. And Eden again finds itself responsible for the safety of a group of humans, a species that it finds itself starting to care for more than it likes to admit. ( )

Following straight on from where All Systems Red left off, Murderbot is now a free agent with no humans, corporations, or security systems to answer to.   That is, as long as no one realises that he's a rogue SecUnit: which is a bit of problem when you're a clone and exactly like every other SecUnit in existence.

Not to worry, Murderbot meet ART, "Arsehole Research Transport", who offers to help Murderbot blend in a lot better.

And so begins our next installment of shenanigans as Murderbot goes off to the mine where it murdered dozens of humans it was supposed to be protecting in it's dark, distance past.   The only problem being is that he now has to pretend to be an augmented human security consultant for a group of human programmers in order to get anywhere near the mine: and we all know how Murderbot feels about being around humans.

Once again, it's only a novella length story, but Martha really knows how to pack a big story into a small space: don't forget to take a breath occasionally.

And once you've had a quick breather, dive straight into the next installment, Rogue Protocol. ( )

Just as much of a page turner as the first one, with slightly less humor*, but more pathos toward the end. I love this series!

* That being said, my favorite line from the book is, "I could feel ART metaphorically clutch its function." The horror of another bot proposing to kill all the humans! ( )