33. Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #5) by Martha Wells

Now that the initial plot cycle of Murderbot going rogue and then re-uniting (and rescuing) the original survey crew of mellow humans has finished, we can move on to further episodic fun.  This time we get a classic domestic murder mystery, taking place on the space station outside of the Preservation system (the home world of the mellow scientists).  Murderbot has to navigate his new role in this relatively free society, where sentient bots are considered living beings but they have never actually tried this with a secUnit (who have a reputation to be wildly dangerous and most humans fear).  He also is still very paranoid about GreyCris the evil corporation trying to get revenge on Senoir Mensah.

Though fairly straightforward plot-wise and quick reads, there are a lot of layers to this series.  For instance, the portrayal in the media of SecUnits is mostly as out of control killers or every now and then self-sacrificing heroes.  They are basically slaves.  Starting to see the connection?  She doesn't shove it down your throat but the issues are there and explored and exposed subtly to add depth to the reading and make you think about our own world.  Despite that, Wells never fails to deliver the cool sci-fi stuff and action the reader also wants.  The resolution to the mystery in this one works perfectly to do this (won't give away anymore).  I stayed up past my bedtime finishing it.  Enough said.

Now annoyingly, I have to go find the novel, Network Effect, because it takes place between Fugitive Telemetry and System Collapse which are both together in a single volume, argh!