 | Martha Wells hit her stride in this fourth and final novella in the award-winning Murderbot Diaries, Exit Strategy. Murderbot has incriminating evidence on corporate baddie GrayCris, it plans to give to its former employer Mensah. But an unknown security force is hunting Murderbot, and Mensha is being held hostage on the GrayCris corporate station. Although it suspects a trap, Muderbot decides to go rescue Mensah. |
Murderbot’s inventiveness is the star of this story. The human-robot cyborg has developed enough understanding of human behavior to mimic it when necessary (to pass as an augmented human) and to predict how actual humans will behave in stressful situations.
 | It’s a delight watching Murderbot navigate the challenges presented by station security forces and the clumsiness of the humans trying to free Mensah. Murderbot’s frantic scrambling during the climactic chase scene reminded me of the best of action-hero Jackie Chan’s stunts, such as his amazing ladder-stunt scene. Like Jackie Chan, Murderbot improvises on the fly, utilizing its environment, both physical and digital to evade GrayCris and station security. |
I don’t want to give away any of the fabulous plot twists. I will say the ending was satisfying and celebrated Muderbot’s character growth over the series. The author wrote two full-length novels after Exit Strategy, one of which, Network Effect, won the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards for best science fiction novel. I put Network Effect on my reading list at the library, which is currently at 459 (for novels), so I'm not sure how soon I’ll get to it!
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