Divided love

When I last visited the Murderbot Diaries, in Exit Strategy, the part-human, part-robot at the center of the series had feelings for Dr. Mensah, the woman for whom it is more or less working. (After having deactivated its governor at the start of the series, the SecUnit is a free agent, but it likes protecting Dr. Mensah because it likes Dr. Mensah.)

In the next installment, Network Effect (2020), however, the self-described Murderbot develops feelings for an intelligent spaceship, a research transport named Perihelion. Murderbot calls it ART. They quarrel like lovers. Is that what they have become?

In the novel, Murderbot works to protect Dr. Mensah's daughter, a teenage girl named Amena. But she, Murderbot and others are kidnapped and find themselves aboard ART. The novel is more technical and complex than others in the series, and it is also much longer than the others, but readers can get the gist as Murderbot struggles to protect its humans, rescue ART's humans from evil ones simply called Targets and return to Dr. Mensah — with the news that it is leaving her for ART.

Along the way, Murderbot must duplicate itself, creating Murderbot 2.0. Murderbot's faithful readers won't want to miss Network Effect, despite all the difficulties it poses both for them and Murderbot.