The Murderbot Diaries is a series of novellas by Martha Wells. They’ll all be published this year. The first two are out now, with #3 due in August and #4 in October.
As novellas, they’re an easy length and they don’t get bogged down in too much worldbuilding arcana. It was a nice change from The Luminaries.
The premise of the first book:
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
The fist two are good reads. It’s not genre-defining fiction or anything, but there are some really cool ideas and it’s written well. I’m looking forward to the rest.
Thumbs up.