Network Effect

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Martha Wells' New York Times and USA Today best-selling Murderbot series exploded onto the scene in 2017, and the world has not been the same, since.

Murderbot returns in its highly anticipated, first full-length stand-alone novel, Network Effect.

You know that feeling when you’re at work and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you're a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you're Murderbot.

Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable AI you’ll listen to this century.

I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90-plus percent of my problems are.

When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.

Drastic action it is, then.

©2020 Martha Wells (P)2020 Recorded Books

This series is amazing and continues to be so book after book

Highly recommend for Sci-fi fans that enjoy well written plots, world building, action coupled with humor. Kevin Free's narration is top notch ans I'd be devastated if anyone else was the voice of sec unit (murderbot).

Re-listenable

Re-listenable. It's my highest accolade. A book that you can listen to again and again. A combination of a good book with the right narrator. Network Effect ticks all the boxes for me. I'm happy that Martha Wells expanded to a full length book for Murderbot, the snarkiest human/robot construct you'll ever meet. And she brings back ART, my second favorite character in the series, and sets the stage for more stories about Murderbot and ART, the unlikeliest crime-fighting duo ever.

I do have a few minor nits. First, as other reviewers have mentioned, while most of his voices are great, Kevin R. Free's teenage girl doesn't sound remotely like a teenager. It needs work. Second, and more importantly, it's the word "foyer". I've listened to a lot of sci-fi, and I don't think I've ever heard it in that genre before. Martha Wells makes up for that lack in this book. Suddenly every place, whether it's on board a space transport, in a lab facility, in a space dock, suddenly everywhere has a foyer. If you think I'm exaggerating, listen again and start counting. It's used dozens of times. Ms Wells, there's hallway, corridor, vestibule, atrium, lobby, to name a few. Find another word, please.

Only one…. Criticism

I hate to start out with a complaint of something that I liked. And yet… the narration was mostly fine, but he reads the voice of a petulant teen more like a petulant English dowager. That part was utterly distracting in its rather profound “wrongness”. If that character and narrator are in the next one…

robot dealing with his own complex emotions

not my favorite narrator. I feel he misses some of the infection from time to time. I've gotten used to the different voices at this time. stories great love short stories too.

what a wonderful series!

the last series I was addicted to was Bobiverse. this is just as good!