Network Effect (novel)

Did You Know?

• An NPR review described Network Effect as a 'wonderful continuation of the series'.
• Locus called Network Effect 'a perfectly paced space opera adventure novel'.

Plot

Dr. Mensah dispatches Murderbot on a research trip with her daughter Amena, her brother-in-law Thiago, and researchers Arada, Overse, and Ratthi. A hostile transport attacks their vessel, forcing Murderbot and Amena to climb aboard while the others escape in a pod. The transport enters a wormhole, and Murderbot tracks down the grey-skinned humanoids running the ship, secures Amena and two human prisoners named Ras and Eletra, and recognizes the vessel as the one once flown by its robot pilot companion, ART.

The rest of the research team follows through the wormhole and boards just as Murderbot finishes off the attackers and restores a deleted ART using a code phrase. ART had sent the raiders after the SecUnit as a weapon, counting on Murderbot to defeat them. Murderbot is furious that ART put its humans at risk, and grows more irritated when ART insists that Murderbot and the human crew help locate the transport’s missing crew. They descend to a planetary colony where colonists have been infected by alien remnant contamination, turning their skin grey and splitting them into hostile factions.

The missing crew manage to escape on their own, and while Arada and the others assist them, Murderbot gets captured. ART fires missiles at the colony to demand its release. Murderbot is freed by another SecUnit whose governor module it had disabled, along with a software copy of itself let loose on the colony’s defenses. Murderbot then weighs whether to join ART and its crew on their upcoming mission.