Network Effect (A Murderbot Novel 5) (2020) by Martha Wells.
GoodReads meta-data is 350 pages rated 4.46 by 6,122 litizens.
Genre: Sy Fy.
Verdict: High octane.
A sarcastic and sardonic SecUnit cyborg protects clients at all costs, but sometimes it has to destroy the client to save the client. That’s life (and death) for you! That’s Artificial Intelligence logic at work. It may be a machine, mostly, but it is very definitely a man-machine. SecUnit’s best friend, however, is an unembodied computer program called ART.
Adventures follow. Being kidnapped by thugs is a minor irritant to SecUnit — nothing he cannot handle — but when they murder his Bestie, ART, program by erasing it he gets serious about killing all of them in excruciating ways, but first he has to free the other hostages. Yes, there are hostages. While multitasking, he gets clues on what to do by watching in background mode on light speed fast forward media entertainment like Space Cowboys, Planet Hoppers, Orion Defenders, Sanctuary Moon (his favourite),and more! Crazy ideas work sometimes – not always. Well, seldom, but desperate times and all that.
Buckle up and get the abacus ready for the body count as SecUnit goes to work reducing the number of target hostiles. Bystanders are not innocent when this happens. Fast and furious is an understatement.
This Tin Man has a heart and wishes he didn’t, a twist on that old theme.
Martha Wells needs no sleep. How else could she have produced 41 novel(lla)s since the first in 1993. There has to be a fireplace in every room of her home to make room on the mantle piece(s) for all the prizes and awards her books have accrued. For certain she does not have a dog demanding to go to the park in perfectly good writing-time. This is the first full length novel featuring the murderbot but fifth in the series. No, I haven’t figured that out, but a problem shared is a problem offloaded. Let the humans worry about it, as SecUnit might say.
By the time I get around to posting this, I will have read all seven in the series!