Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Network Effect by Martha Wells

14 reviews

pacifickat's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

"Please calm yourselves and stop talking. Plan A01: Rain Destruction has been superseded by Plan B01: Distract and Extract." -Parihelion

Fun, if not a little confusing. I adore the Murderbot series, and Network effect is a worthy, novel-length addition. Definitely did a lot to push the emotional growth of Murderbot forward, adding in a whole cast of new characters, as well as bringing back some old favorites. 

I love how Wells writes Murderbot's unique interactions with various sentient beings beyond its human clients. I also have enjoyed Murderbot's

slowly dawning realization over each new story installment that it is valued, admired, and perhaps even loved by a whole host of individuals it has met over its many adventures since going rogue. It may have been designed to be a disposable tool, but to its friends and found family it is worth fighting for, and never to be abandoned. It's original purpose may have been to sacrificially defend others, but it has developed something more than factory-set objectives and parameters, grounded in an unflinching resolve to maintain personal agency even among those who see it as an object without personhood.

These books are so very fun, deeply empathetic, and manage to pack so much character development between fast-paced storytelling and wonderful action sequences. 4 stars for this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Cursing, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gun violence, Death, Abandonment, Confinement, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

maddie_can_read's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I realized I was expecting a lot more from this full length Murderbot when I started and had a hard time getting into it. I felt a bit disappointed. 

I still love the characters, did enjoy the book, and am excited to see what's next for Murderbot.

So happy to see ART again, loved meeting his crew, thought the new characters were good, enjoyed the humour (but thought there could have been more), thought the concept of people getting muttated was really interesting but we didn't go as deep into that as we could've, and loved Murderbot "making a baby" with ART, and Murderbot finally successfully freeing another Secunit from their governor module.

I think shorter-form/ faster pace Murderbot stories work better. 

especially if the book follows the same exact plot of Murderbot has to rescue people, develops along the way. I think I felt so disappointed because I thought given the longer format, something out of format would occur? Like we'd see Murderbots relationship with Dr Mensah develop more? But what ended up happening was just a lot more details about like the fight sequences and the the technical aspects of the book that were never why I loved the series because I have a difficult time visualizing these things. So this one felt confusing, especially the audiobook version! Where the new Secunit sounds identical to Murderbot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Violence, Confinement, Abandonment, and Blood

eleanora's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Gore, Medical content, and Colonisation

tahsintries's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping and Abandonment

helfire124's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Violence, Confinement, Gore, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Slavery, Confinement, Vomit, Colonisation, Forced institutionalization, and Trafficking

alexalily's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Confinement, Gun violence, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Slavery

qrschulte's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

YESSSS MORE ART! I still really enjoyed this book, but it was a bit of a slog at some points. I think the novellas work a lot better for Murderbot stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Grief, Gun violence, Violence, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement and Colonisation

Minor: Dysphoria and Pregnancy

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is my favourite novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Violence, Abandonment, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, and Grief

Moderate: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Blood, Sexual assault, Slavery, Body horror, Gore, Kidnapping, and Medical content

bookgirl's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

murderbot novel perfect no notes. reading this series really came at the perfect time in my life. I guess I needed a snarky emotionally avoidant companion with a lot of recognizable coping skills but also a lot of love and care in its partially augmented but mostly organic heart. 

enough feelings! book thoughts. I love the various levels of consciousness and activity. It’s like having multiple screens of interesting inputs but in narrative form. I’ve never read anything like it before and it’s super entertaining, fun, and modern. A wonderful representation of how we interact with modern tech, but made more fanciful and fun and accelerated because of Murderbot’s enhanced  processing abilities. Basically it’s fun to feel like you’re just as smart as murderbot, processing so many interesting inputs at once as he is. It’s like you get all the benefits and satisfaction of the analysis and hard work, without doing any of the work. I think it’s a triumph of creativity and readability! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Classism, Mental illness, Abandonment, Death, Colonisation, Confinement, and Violence

boglord's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Blood, Gun violence, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Medical content, Xenophobia, Slavery, Abandonment, Violence, Gore, Medical trauma, and Trafficking

Minor: Death and Emotional abuse