Fugitive Telemetry

Murderbot Diaries, Book 6

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

The New York Times best-selling security droid with a heart (though it wouldn't admit it!) is back in Fugitive Telemetry! 

Having captured the hearts of audiences across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it's "one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I've ever read"), Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today. 

No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall.

When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people - who knew?). 

Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans! 

Again!

©2021 Martha Wells (P)2021 Recorded Books

Another great Murderbot novella!

Murderbot Diaries is my favorite series and Fugitive Telemetry does not disappoint. Set between Exit Strategy and Network Effect, this satisfying story fleshes out what happened next, after Murderbot retrieved Mensah and saved the day. I loved the HelpMe.file shared in Network Effect and wanted to know more so I am pleased that Fugitive Telemetry starts shortly after Murderbot decided to stay (temporarily) on Preservation Station.

At the end of Exit Strategy, Murderbot had decided to try out Preservation since, “I still didn’t know what I wanted. But maybe I had a place to be while I figured it out.” In Fugitive Telemetry, it struggles to integrate. Boring, safe Preservation Station is no paradise for a rogue SecUnit - impeding on its freedom and annoying it by requiring it to promise it won't hack into any private station systems and fueling its anxiety by requiring it to choose a publicly identifiable feed ID. After understandable angst, it reluctantly and rebelliously chooses: SecUnit, gender=not applicable.

At Mensah's urging, to improve its relationship with station security, Murderbot reluctantly agrees to help solve a murder (a very rare occurrence on Peservation). Murderbot gets to work, begrudgingly *not* hacking systems and thus having to rely on "thousands of hours of category mystery media, so I had a lot of theoretical knowledge that was possibly anywhere from 60 to 70 percent inaccurate shit." It gets to work with (and around) some new, wary humans and encounters various "free bots", that it generally resents and is annoyed by. We also get to spend some time with favorite humans Mensah, Ratthi, Gurathin, and Pin-Lee).

Bonus tie in: the boxes of intel drones, the tiny ones, in action – first discussed in Well's short story from Mensah's point of view: "Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/

As always, Martha Well's plot is tight and interesting and deftly woven. Her world building is believable and never gratuitous. The action is entertaining and exciting (not just pew pew pew blah blah blah). Best of all, her characters are smart, competent, and very funny. Murderbot always makes me laugh out loud (and want to hug it). I can't wait for more stories and was so happy to hear there will be at least three more coming.

Kevin R. Free once again masterfully brings Murderbot (and all the characters) to life and is a huge reason why I laugh out loud. As soon as I finished Fugitive Telemetry, I started again.

Murderbot Detective!

I enjoyed seeing MB take on a murder mystery in its own very Murderbot manner. Kudos to the author for creating a character that is so entertaining to follow and so believably adept at taking on different scenarios, while remaining someone vulnerable enough to engender a feeling of connection with all us human readers. The mystery was well paced. The story was interesting and continued to gradually expand our understanding of this universe. While I'm still not sold on the overly-utopian Preservation (it could so easily be a really good place with really good laws and people, while still retaining enough realistic flaws to make it a believable society), I was pleased to see the introduction of some realistic tensions between Station security and MB, and even more pleased to watch them gradually be overcome through working together. People learning to accept MB and it learning to tolerate them in turn is always a highly satisfying part of the stories in this series and this one was no exception.

My one complaint is that the use of profanity felt a little excessive. It didn't seem entirely necessary and limits the audience with whom I can share or recommend the story (no family car trips lol). Not sure though if it was actually more than in the previous stories, or if I just noticed it more because I was really wanting to share these stories since I find them so entertaining. Oh well.

ALSO, I want to take a moment to compliment the excellent narrator that brings these stories to life. Too often I forget to mention readers when reviewing, but they're so important to the enjoyment of an audiobook, and this narrator does a wonderful job bringing MB's personality to life through his narration with just the right balance of emotion and nuance.

A fun entry in a fun series, I was sad that it was over so soon! Looking forward to the next adventure!

Still going strong

Kevin E. Free IS Murderbot. I can't imagine any better performance. And he give separate, discernable voices to the other characters as well.

rushed ending

I was so excited for this book to come out, huge murderbot fan. maybe expectations were too high for any book?
anyways, this had a lot less of murderbot awkwardness and character development that I love so much. and the ending was so rushed with way too many bizarre events to force the plot to fit that were all crammed into the last few pages and not explained well at all. almost like the author ran out of time and just published a sketchy outline for the last chapter. kinda bummed. but I still love murderbot so much, so.
Kevin r free was fabulous as always

Different, but enjoyable

More detective noir than the space romp of others in the series. It's still Murderbot, in the end, so it's all good.