Fugitive Telemetry

Murderbot Diaries, Book 6

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins

Publisher's Summary

The New York Times best-selling security droid with a heart (though it wouldn't admit it!) is back in Fugitive Telemetry! 

Having captured the hearts of audiences across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it's "one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I've ever read"), Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today. 

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!

©2021 Martha Wells (P)2021 Recorded Books

Another great Murderbot story

It's not made clear from the description, but Fugitive Telemetry occurs earlier in the Murderbot series. Being listed as Book 6 (its publication order) adds to the confusion. Unfortunately there's no ART in this story, but on the other hand, it's all about Murderbot. Which is great. I love Murderbot stories. (I especially love the ones with ART in them, but that's beside the point.)

Fugitive Telemetry fills in a blank area in the storyline. It’s a fresh adventure showing the introduction of Murderbot to Presevation’s society. It takes place after the dust has settled from Exit Strategy (and a short story about Mensah, Home: habitat, range, niche, territory), but before the incident recounted in the HelpMe.files in Network Effect.

While the rest of Murderbot’s people are busy getting back to their normal lives Murderbot’s at loose ends, unsure of what to do with itself except ‘guard Mensah’. Annoyed at the lax security measures on Preservation Station making its risk assessment of a GrayCris attack high, it’s been locking horns with Station Security and the Port Authority, because they're unreceptive to its suggested improvements. So when a dead body is discovered in the Station’s mall, Mensah sees this as the ideal opportunity for everyone to work together. Station Security, the Port Authority and Murderbot are not thrilled by this opportunity, but with grudging acceptance Station Security agrees to hire Murderbot as a consultant to assist in the investigation.

The story's also about personal bias, ignorance, fear and winning over people's trust presented in an intriguing murder mystery that not only advances Murderbot's personal development it expands the as ever excellent world building in its universe.

Kevin R Free does a terrific job on narration, bringing Murderbot's typical snarkiness, humor and wit to life (as well as all the other character's attitudes) that makes the stories so enjoyable to listen to.

To avoid any further false ART expectations, here's the chronological order of everything Murderbot related that's out so far:

Obsolescence (2020) Short Story
Compulsory (2019) Short Story
All Systems Red (2017) Novella
Artificial Condition (2018) Novella
Rogue Protocol (2018) Novella
Exit Strategy (2018) Novella
Home: habitat, range, niche, territory (2020) Short Story
Fugitive Telemetry (2021) Novella
Network Effect (2020) Novel

The Literary Equivalent of a Spa Day

I rarely give written reviews because there are so many people who are so much better at it. That said this series can easily be described in two words- addictively satisfying. A genuine gift to yourself.

Seems to take place before the novel

A nice enough story limited to Preservation Station, but I would have preferred to have Murderbot go somewhere new and explore with ART.

Another great Murderbot novella!

Murderbot Diaries is my favorite series and Fugitive Telemetry does not disappoint. Set between Exit Strategy and Network Effect, this satisfying story fleshes out what happened next, after Murderbot retrieved Mensah and saved the day. I loved the HelpMe.file shared in Network Effect and wanted to know more so I am pleased that Fugitive Telemetry starts shortly after Murderbot decided to stay (temporarily) on Preservation Station.

At the end of Exit Strategy, Murderbot had decided to try out Preservation since, “I still didn’t know what I wanted. But maybe I had a place to be while I figured it out.” In Fugitive Telemetry, it struggles to integrate. Boring, safe Preservation Station is no paradise for a rogue SecUnit - impeding on its freedom and annoying it by requiring it to promise it won't hack into any private station systems and fueling its anxiety by requiring it to choose a publicly identifiable feed ID. After understandable angst, it reluctantly and rebelliously chooses: SecUnit, gender=not applicable.

At Mensah's urging, to improve its relationship with station security, Murderbot reluctantly agrees to help solve a murder (a very rare occurrence on Peservation). Murderbot gets to work, begrudgingly *not* hacking systems and thus having to rely on "thousands of hours of category mystery media, so I had a lot of theoretical knowledge that was possibly anywhere from 60 to 70 percent inaccurate shit." It gets to work with (and around) some new, wary humans and encounters various "free bots", that it generally resents and is annoyed by. We also get to spend some time with favorite humans Mensah, Ratthi, Gurathin, and Pin-Lee).

Bonus tie in: the boxes of intel drones, the tiny ones, in action – first discussed in Well's short story from Mensah's point of view: "Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" https://www.tor.com/2021/04/19/home-habitat-range-niche-territory-martha-wells/

As always, Martha Well's plot is tight and interesting and deftly woven. Her world building is believable and never gratuitous. The action is entertaining and exciting (not just pew pew pew blah blah blah). Best of all, her characters are smart, competent, and very funny. Murderbot always makes me laugh out loud (and want to hug it). I can't wait for more stories and was so happy to hear there will be at least three more coming.

Kevin R. Free once again masterfully brings Murderbot (and all the characters) to life and is a huge reason why I laugh out loud. As soon as I finished Fugitive Telemetry, I started again.

Takes place before the author's previous book

I love the story, but the author covered it during the previous novel using flashbacks. This is a detailed look at that part of the story, which is nice, but I am bummed it is not moving the narrative along.

Great Book

Awesome book. Loved the story. But, as with all great books, it was too short

Disapointing

These are short books so I expect a great story for my money. This one falls far short. There isn't much character development and the conflict in the story is resolved at the end with Star Trek like technobabble. I never cared about the characters, the conflict to be solved, or the process used to solve the conflict. I almost asked for a refund.

Love this series!

I don't know how to adequately express my love for this whole series.

In this 6th book in the Murderbot Diaries, Murderbot is confronted with a mysterious death. Convinced that it has something to do with GrayCris, Murderbot has to convince station security that it needs to help solve the murder.

I've said it before, and I will say it again, Murderbot is my favorite character ever. It's such an amazing character and I've loved seeing its growth throughout the whole series. This book in the series was interesting. I found it fun that Murderbot was helping solve a murder. It was fun to see some of the original characters again along with meeting new ones. I had so much fun reading this one, and I do hope that there will be more to come!

Even better than the last one!

This was even better than the last one! So much Murderbot personality in this one! It was also great to be able to spend some time with Ratthi, Gurathin, Pin-Lee and others of Murderbot's humans.

so happy! love this series

i was hooked by the first book and narrator kevin r free really brings murder bot to life. i love all these books and hope there will be many more to come. they are fun!

Not book 6, but still great.

This book should be described as 4.5 as it seems to take place before the events of book 5. That was a little disappointing when I'd been excitedly awaiting a continuation of the story after book 5, involving ART and Sec Unit 3.
Other than that, the book is great, a really fun story. A little predicable, but the ‘who did it’ stories always are. Once again Kevin R. Free does an amazing job Narrating.

I love Murderbot.

And if you've made it this far into the series, so do you.


[Extra words...]

Hot dang!

I did not have very great hopes for this series when I first started listening to this series. Every instalment raises my expectations - and the joy I experience when those expectations are exceeded.

This (the whole series, really) is a masterful blend of plot, setting, characters and dialogue.

Excellent - and the narrator does the material justice.

great but too short

Good story, brought to life by a great narrator for this series. Would prefer a longer book since this is 1/3 of the length of a normal book in this genre.

awesome as per usual

MB's evolution throughout this series is extremely compelling. The narration is pitch perfect for the way the story is written.

"Only if it's really weird" is such a involuntary badass line, love it

I just couldnt get into this one.

I was recommended this by a friend but just couldn't get into it. I tried three times but no. If you are really into sci-fi then it might be ok. I am more of a lover of stories and will go with anything but this is tek porn and it just slows things down. A crime story with jargon added.

Murderbot is a Mood

Another brilliant installment in the murderbot diaries. Murderbot continues to protest that it cares nothing for humans and is a heartless robo-human construct. Luckily for it's human friends it actually cares deeply. It just doesn't understand why humans need all this stuff like 'hugging' and 'eye-contact'.

Same, murderbot. Same.

Murdetbot in action

another story with Murderbot.
i think it's missing a proper explanation of why the bot killed someone. other than that I did enjoyed it.

Very satisfying, for what it was.

In the tradition of the diaries, the story was good. It would have been perfect if it furthered a bit the MB story, than the nominal acceptance, but it was ok. Action and murder mystery in space from the unique perspective of the construct. I guess, soap operas are teaching well on human behaviour. :-)

I just love Murderbot

I love this series, so it was a no brainer for me to pre-order.
I was just disappointed it was so short, wish it could have been longer