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The Murderbot Diaries, Book 7

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By: Martha Wells
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
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About this listen

The million-copy, New York Times bestselling Murderbot series is back in another full-length novel adventure!

Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.

Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.

Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there's an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can't have the planet, they're sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.

But there's something wrong with Murderbot; it isn't running within normal operational parameters. ART's crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza's SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they're going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what's wrong with itself, and fast!

Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.

©2023 Martha Wells (P)2023 Recorded Books Adventure Science Fiction
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If you've loved the previous Murderbot stories, you'll love this one too. Murderbot deals with trauma, squabbles with ART, and continues to try and keep its humans safe in-between freaking out and watching The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Kevin R. Free nails the narration as always.

Murderbot forever

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I truly hope there are more Murderbot stories brewing in the creative brain of Martha Wells.
The continuing adventures Murderbot is becoming an addiction and I have re-listened to them all, several times and this is a great addition to the series.
Is there going to be a compiled edition published with everything in chronological order? It gets a bit confusing sometimes, remembering which one comes after the previous one.
4 stars all round.

Murderbot, despite himself, strikes again!

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Great narration of a good story. Murderbot still has it's characteristic snark, but is expanding its list of humans it likes.

An excellent addition to Murderbots story

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Murderbot is such a great, solid character. I'm really enjoying the team up with Art and the possible new avenues for story with the other sec units.

I just found the entry into this story a bit disorienting giving it's a continuation of the book before the previous book. Wells could have given us some clues and reminders about what was going on. The story just launches into it and so I ended up having to go back and re-read/listen to the previous two books.

Aside from this, I ate it up, can't wait for the TV series and more stories.

Loved it, but...

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This is really part 2 of the last story. It starts with a bit too much murderbot-reports-speech, so it's a tad slow, but the wrap-up is lots of the normal murderbot mayhem, so this book is well worth purchasing for Murderbot and ART fans.

And speaking of purchase decisions, Kevin R. Free as narrator is an auto-purchase for me (even beyond tge Murderbot series). Free's performance is brilliant, as usual. comfortable to listen to; effective separation of characters; embues the text with layers of meaning about the characters' un-verbalised feelings...just brilliant.

Murderbot keeps maturing

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I’ve loved the Murderbot series from the start, and I generally enjoyed this book, too. That said, there were a few small things I felt were worth noting (you know, because clearly I’m a multi-award winning best seller with years of experience and a vast body of authoritative work that gives me the platform to speak to this… anyway).

1. It lacked the epic scale of previous Murderbot books. I had been fed vast-spanning, fast-paced, and potentially-deadly, intertwining and multi-arc scenarios in previous books. This focused on one main location, and didn’t venture far. The team were rarely in any real danger, it was a little more pedestrian. There were life and death stakes for sure, but not to the same survival level of previous books.

2. I am unsure if it’s been too long between listens, and I love Kevin’s personification of Sec Unit, but the reading pace felt too ponderous that I could only comfortably listen to it at 1.1x speed. The delivery lacked urgency to the point of affecting the urgency of the story. It was a minor speed tweak on my part, and probably comes down to personal preference, but it cut down the pauses, so the narrative flowed instead of oozed. Again, no shade or hate on the accomplished and talented voice performer, just thought it might be worth pointing out. Or not, you choose.

Looking forward to the next installment!

Good, with caveats…

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Another reason to fall a little more in love with murderbot and ART. Already hanging out for the next in the series. Kevin R Free brings it all to life so well.

Loved it

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Once again a wonderfully exciting & unusual plot filled with characters we love. Funny, sarcastic and full of wit Murderbot is evolving. I love how his emotions have been developing and truly hope Martha writes another sequel. Cannot get enough Murderbot! Excellent narration by Kevin R Free who has become Murderbot and everyone else and no one else could possibly fill his place. Thoroughly enjoyable!!

Murderbot series

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What I disliked? That it ended. 😭 Legit heartbroken that I’ve finished this series, it is so flipping good! Murderbot is a kindred spirit and I’ve been enraptured with every story in this series. I only wish there were more. Martha Wells is now a new favourite author, I also heavily suspect she may be part of the neurodivergent club like me because Murderbot legit is so relatable it’s bonkers. Only other neurodivergents can be that insightful.

Brilliant and emotional

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great continuation of the series, love murderbot's rapport with the new humans. the narration is spot on as usual

the only negative is that I've finished it already

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