Review: Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"But maybe I had a place to be while I figure it out."

Reader, as I read the last lines of the last Murderbot installment until 2020 I had a complex emotion.

The emotion was 80% sad longing for more Murderbot, plus 10% of wishing Martha Wells could write the forthcoming Murderbot full-length novel much faster, and yet another 10% of wondering how I will get Tor.com to give me that one ASAP. Because until then, I'll be missing Murderbot.

This is such a splendid series and I'm frankly a bit in awe of how Martha Wells can cross so smoothly back and forth between high fantasy (Hugo finalist Raksura Series) and Sci-Fi. Murderbot is a compelling character that I almost (please don't ever tell him I said this!) forget that he's an AI and not a human. This is a SecUnit with more humanity than many people have nowadays. (Do you watch the news?) A SecUnit with loyalty, morals, and courage. And cunning. And who likes a good solid currency card and also a hotel room with a very large display surface. Also, humans who let SecUnits handle security because really, we humans are so oblivious to what's important we should leave it all to someone like MurderBot. But if you want to contract with them for your security you're going to have to talk to their legal counsel first. Because this SecUnit has plenty of friends and colleagues looking out for them and their best interests. (Please don't stand too close and for heaven's sake, don't stare with awe. Murderbot detests that sort of thing.)

With a satisfying end of the novella story arc and a solid platform on which to build a novel story arc, all I can say is...

Is it 2020 yet?

I received a copy of a paper ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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