Exit Strategy

The (currently) last part of The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells is aptly called Exit Strategy. I liked it, just as I liked all the Murderbot Diaries. It’s not quite slice-of-life, but it’s got a protagonist that dearly wishes to live in a slice-of-life novella instead. Think Rincewind, only here it’s filled with competence and charming snark, and touching not-quite-humanity (we’re still talking about a hybrid life form with dominant artificial intelligence!). Murderbot acts with human levels of procrastination and self-deception, super-human hacking and combat skills, and adorable coming-of-age behaviour in this novella: It disovers that its humans are in danger and need saving (yes, yes, this is the complete plot). Murderbot charms, and while it’s a novella and I’m not sure the full book price is justified, I enjoyed reading it, I felt for the main character, and if the story wasn’t terribly deep, or the language wasn’t particularly overwhelming: so what.