This latest Murderbot installment is short (150 pages) but full of the snark and excitement one has come to expect from the series. It is missing the usual cast of characters (including my favorite ART) but it introduces some new ones and of course focuses on everyone’s favorite SecUnit.
The action of Platform Decay occurs on a torus, that is, a space station ring surrounding a decaying planet. The torus is man-made and contains a variety of biomes, mining and farming zones, habitation areas and offices for the villainous corporation known as Barish-Estranza. Murderbot and Three, a SecUnit that has used Murderbot’s hacking codes to override its command module and make itself free, have come to this remote outpost to free three members of Dr. Mensah’s family. Given Dr. Mensah’s work on behalf of oppressed people and against corporate overlords, she is a target of said overlords who would like nothing better than to take as hostages members of her family, and possibly even send them to work colonies as indentured labor. Mensah’s loved ones are in a safe house awaiting extraction thanks to the assistance of an old nemesis. The catch is that this nemesis wants Murderbot to do her a favor in exchange for her help. The problem is that Murderbot is on a tight schedule to get its charges to the rendezvous point or miss their ride home and risk falling into Barish-Estranza’s hands. And on top of that, Murderbot, having installed a mental health module in itself to “monitor organic neural tissue”, frequently gets messages to check its emotions. These emotional check-ins are pretty funny, especially when young humans are around.
Anyway, as you might guess, the story involves a lot of close calls while Murderbot and company are on the run. Hacking security systems, jamming comms and orchestrating daring rescues, all while feeling stressed and trying to ‘act normal’ are just another day at the office for Murderbot. I wished the story had been longer and that more of the characters from the previous books had been involved, but it was still good fun and an enjoyable, if short, read.
