As promised, I finishing the final part of what ought to really be the first complete book starring Murderbot. I do believe this may well be my favorite entry of the set of four as there is somewhat less combat in here and instead Murderbot mostly has to deal with infiltrating a large space station while posing as a human and spends a lot of his time agonizing over meeting his original crew again. Finally we get the conversations and emotional closure I’ve been longing for over Murderbot being accepted as a person. This doesn’t redeem the series as a whole in my eyes but it does make bring it to a suitably fitting end.

Murderbot is on his way back after his excursion to Milu when his ship is diverted to a dock near station security. He sneaks off the ship and into the station via alternate means and soon learns that security teams are likely looking for him. Tuning into the news, he learns that GrayCris is in a very agitated state, likely due to his own actions at Milu, and have accused Dr. Mensah of corporate espionage. Furthermore she is missing and he determines that she has likely been kidnapped and is being held at the corporate hub of TranRollinHyfa. He is aware that this may be a trap set for himself but goes anyway. There he finds a gunship outside the station, likely hired to free Dr. Mensah but unwilling to take on the whole station. Furthermore three other members of his original crew are already on the station despite the danger. Therefore he has to make use of his improved ability to disguise himself as an augmented human to enter enemy territory, contact the crew members and find a way to extract Dr. Mensah.

There’s still plenty of action here of course and Murderbot even sensibly brings along the armor-piercing projectile weapon from the last book to give himself an edge. But that is preceded by extensive scenes of him infiltrating the station and trying to pass himself off as human. This includes having him check into hotels, buy and wear new clothes, and even consider if he should try to pretend to consume food and drinks. All this is much more entertaining to me than more combat scenes. It’s hilarious to read about him being amazed by the huge size of the wall screens in an expensive hotel room and puzzle over the other facilities. The most satisfying part is when he finally makes contact with the original crew of the first book again. We’ve all been waiting so long for Murderbot to realize that the humans do love and trust him and see him as being more than a robot or a pet. On their part, the humans also unquestioningly and immediately defer to Murderbot’s superior skills and experience with dangerous situations, obeying his orders as he carries out his plan. It’s particularly gratifying to have Murderbot and Gurathin both declare that they dislike each other but of course they actually do trust each other completely and are on the same side.

Still even if it’s better, many of the annoyances from the previous books are still here. Murderbot’s leverages his primary advantage of being able to outhack just about everyone to a truly ridiculous extent, taking over the systems of hotels, transport tubes, drones and hauler bots in a large and busy station. He explains that his abilities seem to have been improved after his encounter with ART but it really strains your credibility that a large powerful corporate power like GrayCris still underestimates him so badly even knowing about his previous exploits. Once again, I’m also disappointed about the sparse worldbuilding. The corporate rim seems like a free-for-all warzone if GrayCris can get other corporate entities to do whatever they want just by paying them enough. Why would anyone ever think they were safe in such a dystopia? Why haven’t thing long ago degenerated into open warfare? It’s a setting that just doesn’t make sense. We’re told that dealing with alien artefacts is illegal but made illegal by who and is anyone enforcing it? There’s no attempt to describe any overarching government in charge of things.

It is satisfying to get to this final book and it’s so good to have Murderbot and Dr. Mensah work their relationship out. The entire series is easy enough to read so it’s not like getting through it was a great chore for me and I was curious about why it’s so popular. I still maintain my opinion that it’s a decent and entertaining series for adolescent readers but adults should really be reading something more complex. I think it’s a disservice to other great writers that something so comparatively simple and unambitious keeps winning all the awards. Anyway Murderbot’s adventures continue but I no longer have any interest in following them.