"Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel (The Murderbot Diaries, 5)" by Martha
Wells
https://www.amazon.com/Network-Effect-Murderbot-Novel-Diaries/dp/1250229863/

Book number five of a seven book series of science fiction novellas,
short stories, and full length novels according to the publishing date.
However, this is book number six of the seven book series according to
series chronological date. I reread the well printed and well bound
hardcover published by Tor in 2020 that I bought new from Amazon. I
purchased the hardcover since it was cheaper than the trade paperback at
the time. The series won the 2021 Hugo for the best series. I have all
seven books in the series and am reading the seventh book now.

Dr. Arada really wants Murderbot to stop calling hostile people
"Targets". But, Dr. Arada is a terminal optimist. Murderbot is
providing security for Dr. Arada's latest planetary survey when they are
held up for food and ransom by a gang in a large boat on a water world.
Dr. Thiego was attempting to negotiate with the Targets when the leader
shot Murderbot. Murderbot seems to always be the first to get shot.
And the last to get shot. As Murderbot resolves the situation, they
launch their vessel from the ocean, and join the tractorship in orbit.
They return to the Preservation system but are kidnapped almost as soon
as they emerge from the wormhole by a unknown spaceship and are dragged
back into the wormhole to an unknown system.

Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and
severely modified human brain. The brain is supplemented by the AIs in
the cpu embedded in its head. There are lungs, there is a blood mixture
with a synthetic, there is human skin over the entire body, there is a
face, there is hair on the head and eyebrows. Everything else is
machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched with electricity as there is no
stomach or intestines. But, there are arteries and veins to keep the
skin and brain alive. It has a energy gun in each arm and several
cameras. The SecUnit can sustain severe damage to everything but the
head and still survive.

There is a personal MedSystem that continuously monitors the health of
the SecUnit and gives constant updates to the SecUnit. And controls the
clamps on the various arteries and veins throughout the torso and
extremities of the SecUnit in case of damage. And shuts down the
SecUnit in case of total system failure. Or reboots the SecUnit if needed.

There is a personal SecSystem that has a threat awareness module that
continuously updates the SecUnit on any and all threats it perceives.
And monitors and controls up to thirty drones.

There is a Governor that monitors what the SecUnit is doing versus the
current orders (verbal or embedded) and punishes it using pain sensors
in the human brain until it complies. And the governor will fry the
brain of the SecUnit when if it leaves the vicinity of the controlling
authority or the controlling authority leaves vicinity of the SecUnit.

Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance
with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no
longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It
prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as
episodes of "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon" and "WorldHoppers (aka
Stargate)". Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface
with humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it
sees fit to do so.

Murderbot is an incredibly interesting character. It handles horrible
situations easily and personal interactions difficultly. Like I said,
interesting.

Quotes from the book:
1. "I am actually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of
my problems are."
2. "Anyone who thinks machine intelligences don’t have emotions needs to
be in this very uncomfortable room right now."
3. "There is a lot about what is going on here that I don’t understand.
But I am participating anyway."

Warning: There is violence and death in the books. Books one through
four are a series of novellas, not regular length books. Book five is a
regular length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is
a full length novel. You can buy a collection of the first four
hardbacks at a nice discount.
https://www.amazon.com/Murderbot-Diaries-Artificial-Condition-Protocol/dp/1250784271/

There is a free short story "Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory"
between books four and five.
https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/

The author has a website at:
https://www.marthawells.com/

There is a much better review at:
https://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/dont-let-it-show

My rating: 6 out of 5 stars
Amazon rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars (21,222 reviews)

Lynn