by Martha Wells
Part of The Murderbot Diaries, book 1
First published 2017
The SecUnit assigned to Dr. Mensah's planetary survey team has a secret. It hacked its governor module and now thinks of itself as Murderbot, though it would never say this aloud to the humans it protects. The android finds humans irritating and mostly wants to watch entertainment feeds in peace while doing the bare minimum to keep its charges alive. Corporate cost cutting means the team operates with cheap, unreliable equipment on this distant world where they conduct surface tests. When the neighboring survey mission stops responding to communications, Murderbot and the scientists must investigate what happened to the missing team. The SecUnit discovers that figuring out who it really is becomes much harder when the humans it's supposed to guard start depending on it for survival.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, action, artificial-intelligence
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Distant World
152 pages · Paperback · Tor.com