This installment of the Murderbot diaries was a bit disappointing, especially when compared to the past two or three entries in the series. It could not have topped Network Effect, but it couldn’t outdo Fugitive Telemetry either.

The biggest issue here is that the story is essentially incomplete. Our team, including SecUnit, make their way to a separatist colony on the planet in Network Effect in order to talk to them about alien contamination and request that they give permission for research expeditions while ensuring them of their rights on the planet. Unfortunately, the Barish-Estranza Corporation arrives before the protagonists, and the B-E group attempt to convince them to leave the planet. Effectively, they would become contract laborers slaves on whatever mining project B-E plans to work on.

Things escalate between the Preservation group (our heroes) and the Barish-Estranza Corporation. We learn that there are factions within the company and a mutiny takes place. Our heroes then become consumed with departing the planet and protecting themselves.

While the main characters do create a documentary that convinces separatist colonists not to go with B-E, we don’t actually see their stories play out. After the team escapes, we learn in the last chapter–entirely through exposition–that the Preservation group came out on top. It concludes with a sense of the fractures overcoming the Corporate Rim. The story merely ended: there was no neat tie-up of loose ends.

For instance, we discover that SecUnit has developed PTSD as a result of his contamination in Network Effect. We witness this having an effect on him once, it’s mentioned a few times, but it didn’t add anything to the story progression. Maybe future novellas will bring this up? But, that isn’t fair to the readers: there is no guarantee that we will read future stories at all, and anything presented in this book should be addressed in this book.

The main challenge in the text is that SecUnit can’t rely on drones or video imaging, nor can he rely on ART’s overpowered scan systems. As a result, he is forced to confront issues as a human might. This would be a neat intervention if it hadn’t already been addressed in Fugitive Telemetry, when SecUnit is not permitted to use public systems. He is as blind in that story as much as this one.

Lastly, the book is not as emotionally sensitive as some of the earlier books. Side characters fall into the background, and there is little navigation of human dynamics. Those dynamics are what had previously made the series so compelling, and this volume falls short. It is a Sci-Fi/Action novel, sure, but the genre isn’t what made the Murderbot Diaries great in the first place: it lacks the emotional thrust.

I just saw that Wells will be releasing a new entry of the series in the spring, and I’m hopeful that she won’t make the same missteps she did here. Part of me thinks she must have gotten tired of this story, and she has worked on some other interesting fantasy novels. Maybe they’ve invigorated her some, and she’s come back to this project with new life. Fingers crossed!