Platform Decay
The Murderbot Diaries
Tor Books
May 5, 2026
256
So I just finished reading the latest Murderbot book and I had caused me to realize I have questions, but we’ll get to those in a moment. This book is fairly standard Murderbot fair — Murderbot is doing something they think is dumb because their humans asked nicely. Very Bolo Tank if you will. The book is ok, for what I would call a “travel book”, but it does feel like the overall plot isn’t being progressed much in these recent books. Like I get it. Corporates bad, weird hippy dumb circle planet and university with mercenaries good — but shouldn’t there perhaps be something bigger happening here?
That brings me to my questions though. I do think this book opens the door to some interesting exploration of possible Deus Ex Machina things. How did Murderbot hack their governor? Or did they? Is there an outside force manipulating events? Is this part of something bigger?
I really really hope its part of something bigger, because I can’t take many more travel books before I give up.