Bingo Square: And (part of a series)
I usually read these right when they come out but I realized when I did that with the seventh one that I would need to do a series reread before the next one because I was a bit lost and didn’t remember anyone. Thanks to my library’s Hoopla account, I listened to first seven last month.
The funny thing is that I almost didn’t need to – yes, it has a connection to the Barra-Esperanza corporation introduced in books 5 and 7, but for the most part this very much feels like a side quest. This story is Murderbot with a whole new group of people to deal with and save. Two groups, even: one of them are family members of Mensah and the other group is related to the BE corporation plot.
If you are here for the sarcasm, action, critiques against capitalism and awkward interactions, you will likely enjoy this novel (at 245 pages, I think it’s too long to be a novella?). And don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it but I also think it was one of the weaker Murderbot stories. Now, I haven’t fallen nearly as hard for Murderbot as the rest of CBR (I prefer Wellls’s fantasy novels) so definitely take my comments with a grain of salt. And, is it fair to judge a book based on what you expected it to be vs what it is?
But, having just completed the reread, I’m also very much looking at this and how it fits into the series/where the series is going. The first four novellas formed a complete arc together, and then left space for the follow on books to explore Murderbot as a free agent. When book 5 ends, Murderbot made the decision to stay with ART; book 6 ended up being set before book 5, following Murderbot on a murder investigation on Preservation station, and book 7 dealt with fall out from the events of book 5; this one is more fall out from books 5 and 7, but if Wells hadn’t decided to explore that angle, I wouldn’t have expected there to be any more story related to that plotline. ART wasn’t even in this book!
I guess I thought we would have more books like book 2 & 3 where Murderbot is off on some adventures (that also are part of its bigger goal), and meet new people while also reconnecting with old ones along the way, except that now it would be ART and Murderbot together on adventures as ART’s crew goes on missions. We were missing some of the banter of the early novellas, and none of the new characters made as much of an impression as Mickey did in book 3, as one example.
There are a few small things that occur that might hint at where the series is going but I know Wells has also said the next Murderbot book might be the last, which makes this one feel even more odd. If we were getting tons of more stories, then random side adventures like this make more sense than when this might be the second to last entry. Or maybe it will all make sense after the next release.
