Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.
Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.
But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!
Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.
Am I making it worse? I think I'm making it worse.
Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back.
Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical corporation out there, Murderbot has yet to find it, and if Barish-Estranza can’t have the planet, they’re sure as hell not leaving without something. If that something just happens to be an entire colony of humans, well, a free workforce is a decent runner-up prize.
But there’s something wrong with Murderbot; it isn’t running within normal operational parameters. ART’s crew and the humans from Preservation are doing everything they can to protect the colonists, but with Barish-Estranza’s SecUnit-heavy persuasion teams, they’re going to have to hope Murderbot figures out what’s wrong with itself, and fast!
Yeah, this plan is... not going to work.
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The Murderbot Diaries
The Murderbot Diaries
25 books in catalog
Award-winning science fiction and fantasy storytelling spanning decades reaches across intricate world-building, high-stakes adventure, and deeply introspective characters, most visibly in The Murderbot Diaries series. Martha Wells established her presence in speculative fiction with her debut novel The Element of Fire in 1993, building an expansive body of work that encompasses original secondary-world fantasy, character-driven space opera, media tie-in novels, young adult fiction, and essays.
Born on September 1, 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas, Wells grew up reading science fiction and fantasy from her local library and writing fan fiction during her youth. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Texas A&M University, where she also attended a speculative fiction writing class taught by author Steven Gould. Her academic background in anthropology provided foundational tools for constructing realistic, complex societies across her fiction.
Her 1993 debut led to the multi-volume Ile-Rien series, including the Nebula-nominated novel The Death of the Necromancer and the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. Over her career, Wells expanded her bibliography with major series such as The Books of the Raksura, media tie-in projects for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: The Gathering, and standalone novels including City of Bones and Wheel of the Infinite. Honored with Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, Locus Awards, an Alex Award, and a Dragon Award, she is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and serves as a consulting producer on the Apple TV+ adaptation of her Murderbot books.
Central to Wells's writing is a grounded, anthropologically informed approach to world-building and character agency. Rather than relying on standard fantasy and science fiction tropes, her stories explore non-human cultures, social hierarchy, corporate exploitation, and the psychological impact of trauma and isolation. Her narratives frequently feature reluctant protagonists who navigate complicated political systems while forging quiet bonds of loyalty and trust.
25 books in catalog
Award-winning science fiction and fantasy storytelling spanning decades reaches across intricate world-building, high-stakes adventure, and deeply introspective characters, most visibly in The Murderbot Diaries series. Martha Wells established her presence in speculative fiction with her debut novel The Element of Fire in 1993, building an expansive body of work that encompasses original secondary-world fantasy, character-driven space opera, media tie-in novels, young adult fiction, and essays.
Born on September 1, 1964, in Fort Worth, Texas, Wells grew up reading science fiction and fantasy from her local library and writing fan fiction during her youth. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in anthropology from Texas A&M University, where she also attended a speculative fiction writing class taught by author Steven Gould. Her academic background in anthropology provided foundational tools for constructing realistic, complex societies across her fiction.
Her 1993 debut led to the multi-volume Ile-Rien series, including the Nebula-nominated novel The Death of the Necromancer and the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. Over her career, Wells expanded her bibliography with major series such as The Books of the Raksura, media tie-in projects for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: The Gathering, and standalone novels including City of Bones and Wheel of the Infinite. Honored with Hugo Awards, Nebula Awards, Locus Awards, an Alex Award, and a Dragon Award, she is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame and serves as a consulting producer on the Apple TV+ adaptation of her Murderbot books.
Central to Wells's writing is a grounded, anthropologically informed approach to world-building and character agency. Rather than relying on standard fantasy and science fiction tropes, her stories explore non-human cultures, social hierarchy, corporate exploitation, and the psychological impact of trauma and isolation. Her narratives frequently feature reluctant protagonists who navigate complicated political systems while forging quiet bonds of loyalty and trust.
