Baskadia

Book number seven of a seven book series of science fiction novellas, short stories, and full length novels. However, this is the sequel to book number five, "Network Effect", of the seven book series according to series chronological date. I read and reread the well printed and well bound hardcover published by Tor in 2023 that I bought new from Amazon.

Murderbot and several of the Preservation Colony people are still in the unmapped system with the colonists from forty plus years ago on the partially terraformed planet. They have decided to help the colonists become free and own their planet as the original corporation has gone bankrupt. However, the Barish-Estranza Corporation people are still trying to enslave the colonists and take the planet. And, Murderbot is now sharing its hack to shut down the SecUnit governor with other SecUnits.

BTW, when you run across Redacted, keep on going. There is an explanation and it is not good. Time will tell how this affects Murderbot.

Murderbot is a SecUnit, similar to a T-800 Terminator with a cloned and severely modified human brain. The brain is supplemented by the AIs in the cpu embedded in its head. There are lungs, there is a blood mixture with a synthetic, there is human skin over the entire body, there is a face, there is hair on the head and eyebrows. Everything else is machine. Somehow, the blood is enriched with electricity as there is no stomach or intestines. But, there are arteries and veins to keep the skin and brain alive. It has a energy gun in each arm and several cameras. The SecUnit can sustain severe damage to everything but the head and still survive.

There is a personal MedSystem that continuously monitors the health of the SecUnit and gives constant updates to the SecUnit. And controls the clamps on the various arteries and veins throughout the torso and extremities of the SecUnit in case of damage. And shuts down the SecUnit in case of total system failure. Or reboots the SecUnit if needed.

There is a personal SecSystem that has a threat awareness module that continuously updates the SecUnit on any and all threats it perceives. And monitors and controls up to thirty drones.

There is a Governor that monitors what the SecUnit is doing versus the current orders (verbal or embedded) and punishes it using pain sensors in the human brain until it complies. And the governor will fry the brain of the SecUnit when if it leaves the vicinity of the controlling authority or the controlling authority leaves vicinity of the SecUnit.

Murderbot is a self named SecUnit due to an unfortunate circumstance with 57 miners on a remote moon. It has hacked its governor and no longer allows the governor to give it orders or inflict pain. It prefers to internally watch its 35,000 hours of downloaded media such as episodes of "The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon" and "WorldHoppers (aka Stargate)". Even though it has a face, it does not like to interface with humans, yes, very introverted. It will follow human orders if it sees fit to do so.

Murderbot is an incredibly interesting character. It handles horrible situations easily and personal interactions difficultly. Like I said, interesting.

Warning: There is violence and death in the books. Books one through four are a series of novellas, not regular length books. Book five is a regular length novel, book six is back to the novella, and book seven is a full length novel. You can buy a collection of the first four hardbacks at a nice discount.

My rating: 6 out of 5 stars

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