I was probably going to like this book no matter what. I've yet to dislike a Murderbot book. I've enjoyed this books enough to give her fantasy series a try. But this book definitely started out on the wrong foot with me.

The last book contained ART. If you haven't read this series, even the meaning of that acronym is a rude joke, and it's very fitting for the series. ART was in one of the novellas that started this series, and quite clearly became a fan favorite. ART came back in the last book, and a lot of the plot centered around the relationship between Murderbot and ART.

This book has no ART. This book takes place before the last book. Which is a confusing thing some writers do with continuity that leads to their fans clarifying the matter for years to come, as CS Lewis fans are well aware of.

And while the lack of ART was disappointing, the fact that this is basically a murder mystery helped me through the reading a great deal. As I've stated in other reviews of this series, one of my favorite types of characters in fantasy and sci fi is the protagonist that doesn't really want to be in the narrative. Murderbot wants the intrigue and mystery to be dealt with so that it can get back to watching television and protecting the people it cares about.

So while this book doesn't really do much for the overarching narrative of the series, it's clearly a fun side story that Martha Wells felt compelled to tell, and having read it, I get why. It's a fun thing to have a Murderbot do.