Book Review
Title: Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries Book 4) by Martha Wells
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
After finishing Rogue Protocol, I couldn’t wait to jump into Exit Strategy and see Murderbot return to PreservationAux and Doctor Mensah. Before Murderbot even gets back from Milu, Ship is diverted and Murderbot wisely exits Ship and makes his way through the station thinking of how best to get the information it has back to Doctor Mensah, possibly without having to see her again. We can definitely see that Murderbot is becoming more human like both in appearance and in the way it is acting but it falls back to its SecUnit way of interacting when it is uncomfortable or overly anxious which seems to be all the time right now.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Murderbot witnesses a ton of armed guards surrounding ship from the company, Palisade and they have been hired privately to specifically search ship for a rogue SecUnit, so Murderbot is now aware that it is being hunted down. However, after purchasing new clothes it learns through the feed that Doctor Mensah has disappeared and it is immediately panicked. Looking back through the reports it learns that GrayCris brought allegations against Doctor Mensah for corporate espionage and she was facing charges of her own. The rest of the crew has returned to Preservation and Doctor Mensah was meant to follow but she had been summoned by GrayCris to their headquarters on TranRollinHyfa and Murderbot knows that Doctor Mensah would have not gone willing. When it thinks about what could have scared GrayCris so badly that they would kidnap Doctor Mensah it realises its actions on Milu may have caused it which sends Murderbot into a spin. Murderbot debates on whether to go to Preservation or straight to TranRollinHyfa and decide to head to TRH because it is sure Mensah is there. Once Murderbot arrives these suspicions are confirmed by a presence of a gunship sent to retrieve Mensah but had somehow been blocked from docking and it is now also aware that potentially four other PreservationAux crew members are also on TRH that it will have to retrieve or find. It manages to get through security and has already posted the data chips to Mensah’s partners on Preservation for safe keeping but it needs to be careful because there are two companies on TRH that advertise SecUnits so it will be harder to remain unnoticed by them but we can see Murderbot is adapting with the information it has been learning.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Murderbot manages to locate the other team members of PreservationAux that came to TRH but they are being followed by GrayCris agents so it can’t risk getting close just yet. Murderbot observes them for a while before makings its move and ends up getting to speak to Pin-Lee. Pin-Lee explains that after Murderbot left GrayCris thought that Mensah had sent it off to gather information on them and when they learned about the situation on Milu they kidnapped Mensah and are holding her for ransom as they are desperate for money as they can’t sell the alien attempts they were mining. In the aftermath of the kidnapping, Preservation dropped their lawsuit against GrayCris and are trying to get the money together to buy Mensah’s freedom but it isn’t going as well as they planned. Murderbot tells Pin-lee that it has a plan and it needs more information to carry it out which is gladly handed over before they go to reunite the remaining members of the team.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, Murderbot and the others discuss several plans for getting Doctor Mensah but the only one that has a vague chance of success is the one where they get GrayCris to bring Mensah from their headquarters to a neutral location for the exchange. However, they have to lie about having the ransom as they don’t have it yet but all they need is for Mensah to leave the headquarters so Murderbot can track her. This doesn’t go to plan as GrayCris sends someone ahead to check the ransom is there, which it isn’t, but Murderbot blocks his feed so he can’t abort the exchange but they have a limited amount of time before the other operatives notice. Murderbot renders the agent unconscious just as he locates Mensah but they have an armoured SecUnit with them which is going to be major problem but it orders the others away so they aren’t there when Mensah arrives and it heads to intercept them hoping to save Mensah before its too late. As they leave the tube transport, Murderbot is able to communicate with Mensah and prove to her that it who it says it is but something tells me that this rescue isn’t going to be easy or as smooth as Murderbot is trying to convince itself it is going to be.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Murderbot manages to deal with GrayCris’ human agents and the single SecUnit fairly easily grabbing Mensah and making a break for the shuttle where the others are waiting. As they travel to the docks, they have a brief time to talk where Murderbot is coming to realise it ran from Mensah not because she owned it because it had come to view her as a friend and that gave Murderbot emotions it wasn’t comfortable dealing with yet. However, when they reach the docks and alert is triggered locking down the ports meaning they are trapped with GrayCris agents and more SecUnits moving in. Murderbot manages to convince the Port Authorities to allow Mensah through the barriers where she can get to the shuttle but it is going to have to face the three SecUnit and the host of human security agents as well and it is aware that there is a high percentage chance that it might die there. Murderbot manages to take out two of the three SecUnits and it realises the final one has halted to analyse its movements which isn’t good and the drone and bots Murderbot deployed are being used as cover for the other SecUnit. In the background of all this, Mensah is screaming at Murderbot that they are trying to open a barrier for it but it doesn’t want to give GrayCris the chance to get their hands on Mensah again and needs to finish the fight now while they still have a chance of escaping with or without it.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, Murderbot engages with the Combat SecUnit but it quickly realises it isn’t going to win this fight but Mensah and the others manage to get a barrier open for the injured Murderbot to come through but the Combat SecUnit isn’t happy about this. They treat Murderbot’s injuries as quick as they can and get the shuttle back to the company gunship where they have to arrange a new bond to allow Murderbot on board but it is quickly resolved. However, GrayCris is closing in to attack them and the ship moves to engage but SecSystem is attacked by something that is able to mostly disable the system so Murderbot tries to help it the way ART helped it before. They manage to trick the GrayCris ship carrying the Combat SecUnit that the information it wants from Milu is on a disengaged shuttle but the second Murderbot re-enters its body something strange happens to it and it collapses.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Murderbot awakens and realises that its memory is in fragments and it takes a lot of time to put itself back together. During this time, it has the ability to reflect on all the memories it has amassed leading up to this point and think, something Murderbot hasn’t really had time to do throughout the series for one reason or another. By the time Murderbot has restored itself it has accepted that Mensah and the others are all its friends even if he doesn’t like one or two of them too much. Murderbot also realises that it still doesn’t know what it wants to do with its new freedom but it still has a purpose in protecting humans which it wants to preserve. It is Doctor Mensah who makes Murderbot realises that it isn’t that black and white and it does have options. In addition to that, Murderbot has a place in Preservation where it can take and space to make those decisions without being pressured by others to make a decision or feeling like it is being forced to do something. Over the series so far we have seen Murderbot develop a lot in that time and it is finally beginning to see its place in the world as a rogue SecUnit without the murderous implications of that title and I can’t wait to see what Murderbot does going forward in the future been as there are only two more books and one novella and I am not ready for it to end yet.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: All Systems Red
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