Review: The Murderbot Diaries 1-6 by Martha Wells with @Dinipandareads

I’ve had the pleasure of reading this entire series with Dini @Dinipandareads ! We started back in like March, I think. We did have to wait for books to become available (my library) and work around our ARC and Blog Tours. It has been a blast and we are currently buddy reading another series. haha. She’s the best. I will link her post to her reviews once they are up!! Thank you for doing this with me Dini and I think it would be great to just keep going. haha.

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I had a little bit of a time getting into this. There’s a lot of Sc-Fi jargon and probably why this isn’t a genre I pick up. It didn’t take me long to get attached to our Murderbot. His dry humor is fun and entertaining. I love how he’s attaching himself to humans and their welfare. The fact that these are novellas and fast reads is a big plus. I did think that the ending was lacking. Everything wrapped up in like two pages and I was expecting so much more. It was quite anti-climactic after such a mysterious beginning and middle.

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This one felt like it had much more of a fluid plot. I really enjoyed the fact that he has this inkling to really help and care for humans when he is not. I enjoyed his relationship with ART and I really hope more comes from that. There are a few places that I think have a potential for plot holes but I’m hoping that overall it comes together. I love her ability to really get you to connect to these characters she introduces in each book. I’ve been enjoying my time with these and can’t wait for the next one!

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I have a feeling that Murderbot is starting to learn what it’s like to be a bit more human. He is also getting quite the humor and I find myself laughing more and more. I really loved Miki in this one too! There’s a lot of the sci-fi elements and wording that did confuse me at times. It’s generally why I don’t read a lot of sci-fi. It can have some real technical elements that just go over my head. Overall, I really loved the plot to this one and I cannot wait to see what adventure comes next!

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This is my favorite one by far! I think the fact that things are coming full circle and we get to see more of the original group. I love that they had to work together and I think they really learned so much more about each other in this book. There’s your intrigue and wondering how on earth Murderbot is going to get out of that mess. It seems to happen every book but that’s the fun in it! There’s so much going on and it makes it for a rather interesting time. I do think that Murderbot has come a really long way and I cannot wait to see what other adventures we have in store. I hope that we get to see a lot more of the past characters meeting up with this group!

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This is the only full length novel in this series. I think because it was so long there was a ton more scientific jargon that I didn’t understand. It made for some of the chapters to feel quite lengthy. We do get some of blasts from the pasts in this book. I loved seeing ART again. His relationship with Murderbot is so entertaining and special. We also get some new faces but they are tied to his friends (who definitely are not his friends) that have been a constant throughout the series, in a way. There were times that Murderbot acted like a scorned teenager when it came to ART. I’m glad that once he worked through those things we were back to a relatively less annoying Murderbot. haha. Overall, it was a fun ride but I do think that the novella type works are much more enjoyable for me.

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This one was a bit confusing for me at first. I didn’t realize that it was before the last book. I totally thought he should have been out exploring with ART but we are not. We are back on the Preservation Station. I think it was before book 5 but I’m still not sure about that. It was a different plot than our previous books but it was a nice change. It’s more murder-mystery and it was fun. I wish that we would have gotten more of the characters we love but got an array of new characters. The little snippets of our regular group was not enough. I’m just being picky though. Although, this was an enjoyable read, it was a bit of a downer because it’s not what I was expecting (ART). lol I am looking forward to more Murderbot though!!

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I will say that it has been such a joy reading these books. Murderbot has a sense of humor that really works with the intense situations and well, murder. It’s something I never expected to like because Sci-Fi isn’t my genre at all. I still do struggle with some of the jargon but I think I’ve come around a bit. Overall, I really enjoyed the series and the novella stories really work! I never feel like things are rushed or there’s not enough information. She does a great job with the balance of storytelling and pages. If you have been on the fence about this series this is your reminder to pick it up! 🙂