Review of Platform Decay (Murderbot #8) by Martha Wells

The novel's danger, attempted evasion, and daring escape focused largely on logistics, but I am all in for spending time with SecUnit and its dry humor, always and forever.

In Platform Decay, we catch up with the delightfully grumpy Murderbot (SecUnit), who in this eighth book in the series is faced with another high-stakes rescue attempt--this time, of its beloved Mensah's family.

Then SecUnit, along with its charges, finds itself confronted with an additional time-sensitive side rescue effort, adding challenge to the group's own escape from evil corporation pursuers.

The inconvenient "emotion checks" SecUnit has been tasked with exploring allow the reader insight into the grumbly, begrudgingly invested ties it develops with the messy, imperfect humans under its protection. However, they occur so frequently, I found them somewhat jarring, particularly early in the book.

I found the frequent focus on logistics and off-screen political and business loyalties a little bit tedious, and I didn't have time to become invested in SecUnit's charges so that their need to find safety felt immediate and compelling (as its original team's would have). While I understand the need to branch out to other characters and storylines, I couldn't help wishing for more significant Mensah-SecUnit page time. And without SecUnit's opportunities for much interaction with ART in this installment of the series, I felt that we missed out on opportunities for some of the best dry humor Wells provides.

We got a few beloved Sanctuary Moon references as well as mentions of new media. I adored the scenes in which MurderBot communicated with a preteen and MurderBot's perfectly astute assessment of that media-focused encounter.

I love being in SecUnit's deadpan, introverted, always-assessing point of view. One of my favorite elements is SecUnit's constant analysis of escape routes, outlandish or ambitious options of coping with threats, and ability to manipulate technology for knowledge, evasion, and deception. It doesn't ultimately matter what the current danger or mission is; I'm in for all Murderbot Diaries books, forever.

I received a prepublication version of this title courtesy of NetGalley and Tor Books.

More Murderbot Gems

You can click here to find my Bossy reviews of Murderbot books 1 through 3, as well as the sequels Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, and System Collapse.

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