Book Review: System Collapse by Martha Wells

System Collapse by Martha Wells

In a continuation of the previous Murderbot novel, our hero's group is at a colonized planet that has an alien contamination. The colony did not quite get off the ground, so the groups of humans are scattered. The colonists have been there long enough that a separatist group is hiding somewhere. Muderbot's team, sponsored by a university, wants to evacuate the colonists and do research on the alien bits. The colonists are not well organized and a corporation, the Barish-Estranza, is trying to plunder the planet of its most valuable resource--the colonists. The corporation is offering jobs on other planets but they want to trick the colonists into slavery. Can the university crew avoid trouble as they try to restore some order to the planet and take care of the human inhabitants? Obviously not, or this would be a boring book.

The set up takes a little while but once things get going, the action comes fast. The last half of the book is exciting and reads quickly. The action is peppered with Murderbot's insecurity and sarcasm, making the situation more dramatic but not overly grim. There's a little mystery about something that happened to Murderbot that turned out to be underwhelming. The story is told from Murderbot's perspective (the series is called the Murderbot Diaries), so it's more traumatic for Murderbot than for the reader once the mystery is revealed. Otherwise, the novel is a lot of fun.

Recommended.