Written by Martha Wells

Number 6 in The Murderbot Diaries

Publisher: Tor.com
Pages: 168
Genre: Science Fiction
Published: 2021-04-27
Original Language: English

No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall. When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?) Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans! Again!

Read from 2024-07-22 to 2024-08-10
Read in English
Rating: 4/5
Review: Fugitive Telemetry was a very fun pallet-cleanser between the more substantial drama going on in the other books in the series.

Confusingly, this book isn’t in the order of the other books as they are released (I’m assuming it takes place some time before the previous book in the series) - but it’s a break from the, somewhat stressful, main story that I didn’t know I needed!

It takes the form of a bit of a whodunit, in which out favourite Murderbot gets to apply it’s skills as a detective, as it tries to find out why Preservation Station suddenly has a dead body lying about.

The book has all the enjoyable elements that make up a good Murderbot story - snark, sarcasm, dry humour, and a type of humanity that you can - oddly - only get from a being who is in the process of discovering, questioning, resenting, and holding on to their own humanity.

There are a lot of funny books, even with this style of humour, but the way it works when combined with Murderbot as a character has something magical to it, and no less so in this book.

And while the highlight of the book is definitely how the story is told, the story itself is solid.

The Murderbot series has become a regular feature on my list when people ask me for general book-recommendations. Fugitive Telemetry does nothing to change that.