Martha Wells’ latest installment in The Murderbot Diaries comes out today, November 14 from Tor! System Collapse is a quick-paced and satisfying escapade that takes place almost immediately after the novel Network Effect leaves off.
System Collapse
Martha Wells
Tor
November 14, 2023
Please note: This review does not contain spoilers for System Collapse, but it sure as heck contains spoilers for Network Effect. After the first four novellas of the series saw Murderbot head to Preservation, the full-length novel Network Event showed an ambitious departure, in which the cast of recurring characters expanded dramatically, as did Murderbot’s conception of the world outside the Corporation Rim.
In System Collapse, Murderbot and its friends are still on the same planet they were dealing with in Network Effect. ART and its crew, and the Preservation team, are all working together to convince the colonists to trust them rather than the corporate villains of Barish-Estranza, who are attempting to manipulate the colonists into signing themselves over for forced labor indentures. Murderbot is working security, dealing with agricultural bots that are malfunctioning and proving threats, and helping Three, another SecUnit, get used to its new freedom.
The whole plot takes place on this planet, and while System Collapse is technically novel-length at 243 pages, it feels more like one of the novellas in its scope and pacing. The entire plot takes place in a short span of time, and the cast of characters and much of the setting are already familiar to readers and to Murderbot itself. For this reason, I recommend having Network Effect fresh in your mind when reading System Collapse.
In a lot of ways, System Collapse delivers exactly what fans have hoped for: a fast-paced, satisfying plot, and further insight into character relationships we care about, such as ART’s interactions with its crew and Murderbot; and Three’s slowly gaining independence. Furthermore, various observations of Three and offhand comments from Murderbot about SecUnits in general emphasize what an outlier Murderbot must have been, even before it hacked its Governor Module.
For instance, Murderbot reminds us that SecUnits can’t hack, an amazing revelation since we know Murderbot certainly can. Also, Three does not yet have the verbal acuity that Murderbot had in All Systems Red, and presumably gained from its staggering media consumption. In one scene, Three simply leads Murderbot to something and points rather than discussing it. This is a huge contrast with Murderbot, whose love of unrealistic fiction was shaping its world view before we ever met it, and in System Collapse, it turns out that being media savvy offers many advantages.
This contrast is highlighted by the fact that Murderbot’s voice in System Collapse has even more personality and individualism than it ever has before, since it’s been getting more assured in its personhood for several books now. Even if you don’t have your copy of System Collapse yet, you can get a heaping helping of Murderbot’s voice from the first three chapters (almost thirty percent of the novel) that Tor has made available as a palate teaser.
For instance, in Chapter 5, it asks itself rhetorically, “Murderbot, why are you like this?” And readers, I think we know.
In other ways, System Collapse delivers heavier emotional content than fans might be expecting. Early in the book, Murderbot is redacting parts of the narrative that readers can tell refer to an event that occurred between when Network Effect left us, and when System Collapse began. When Murderbot finally explains what the event was, readers get greater understanding of its psychological problems.
That said, as always in The Murderbot Diaries, the focus is on the rollicking adventure plot and Murderbot’s ability to help the humans and others around it, in the face of various dangers. Overall, System Collapse is a wonderful episode in The Murderbot Diaries, as it both wraps up its plot in a satisfying way and leaves readers eager for more.
