Library Staff Recommendation
Book five of The Murderbot Diaries, the first of the series to be a full-length novel, and winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards.
Wells has used the extra length of this book to perfection. While the writing retains the same tone and style as the earlier novellas, with the longer page length we are given a vastly more complex story in addition to some surprising character development. As usual, Murderbot is trying to keep its humans alive and find enough time to watch Sanctuary Moon, but events conspire to put everyone in danger and force it to confront its fears, its emotions, and make choices about what truly matter to it.
The novel was a wild ride from start to finish and concludes in a way that leaves me excited to continue to the next book. I was already a huge fan of the series from All Systems Red, but Network Effect takes it to a new level and manages to improve on everything I loved about the previous books. Fans of the novellas need to continue into the novels, but anyone interested in Space Opera with a humorous twist owes it to themselves to try the series.
5/5 Stars
Reviewed by Rebecca.