System Collapse

This will probably be the unpopular minority opinion, but here goes...

This book was still enjoyable, but the first half was extremely slow. It picked up once we got into the action, but it was somewhat more subtle this time around. There is nothing wrong with the book, but it feels like Wells thinks she needs to do more to evolve this character, but doesn't really know what, so we just get tiny bits.

System Collapse is the direct sequel to Network Effect (Book 5), therefore, it is highly recommended to review it prior to diving into this one. There is no introductory summary, and initially there are characters aplenty that would make you feel confused if you've totally forgotten the previous story.

Murderbot is having more feels, even if it doesn't like it. It continues bonding with more humans, and consuming digital media on the side to help it cope with everything going on. We still see it analyzing and overcoming the many situations it gets into (or rather dragged into by its humans), but it is struggling as it bears the weight of the recent events.

This new story has a more introspect and trauma-overcoming tone compared to Fugitive Telemetry's murder mystery and the action-focused Network Effect, but the action scenes are still there and still great.

The series has been really relatable to me so far, and this is no exception. I continuously see glimpses of my own experiences and inner monologues in Murderbot. This one went a bit deeper though. I also have a diary where I've redacted a traumatic event that I tend to not think or talk about, and I had to learn how to process it. I don't blame Murderbot for not knowing how to process things; I'm human and I don't know how to process 90% of my emotions (yeah, I just had my performance reliability drop by 4 points). This read left me feeling emotions so I'm going to the couch to process them in private.

I'm really glad to have given the whole series a read over the last couple of months 🤖💜