I can’t talk about Martha Wells’ sci-fi novel “Fugitive Telemetry” without talking about the series it’s a part of, called “The Murderbot Diaries.” Partly because it’s the sixth book in the seven-book series, but also because what makes the book interesting is how it both meshes with and deviates from the overarching story of Murderbot. “The Murderbot Diaries” is, on surface level, a series about a grumpy, sarcastic cyborg’s misadventures.
It is forced to keep rescuing imperiled humans when all it wants is to watch its favorite TV shows in peace. Murderbot itself, with its hilarious dry sense of humor and deep care for its friends (that it vehemently denies), is the heart of the series. There’s a lot to love about the world Wells has created and the exciting sci-fi action storylines she has woven.
But the best part of the series, in my opinion, is the (somewhat ironic) deep humanity of Murderbot. Murderbot was designed to be a piece of security equipment. Its job was to make sure that the humans who rented it didn’t get hurt or hurt each other, to handle cyber security, and yes, sometimes to kill people to eliminate threats to its clients.
The book series follows Murderbot after it has hacked the equipment that used to control it and is now theoretically free to do whatever it wants. The problem lies in figuring out what it wants. By the time we hit “Fugitive Telemetry,” Murderbot more or less knows that answer.
I won’t spoil anything, but it�.