Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells is Murderbot Diaries book 6. This time Murderbot plays detective investigating a murder at Preservation Station that only it can solve. After the epic Network Effect that was my favorite in the series comes the sadly lackluster Fugitive Telemetry that is my least favorite so far. The plot is okay, it’s not really a murder that can be solved but the right beats are there, The problem with this one is Murderbot doesn’t have that much interaction with anyone, and the action is really limited. This has been one of my favorite series but this book just didn’t gel with me. I read Fugitive Telemetry through advanced readers copy curtesy of Netgalley and Macmillion-Tor/ Forge books. Fugitive Telemetry is published on 4-27-21.

The Plot: Murderbot discovers a body on Preservation Station. He’s the main suspect for a while thinking he got hacked, but Murderbot convinces and works with the local security to solve the crime. Murderbot has vowed not to hack his way into security, so this case is going to be harder than he thought.

What I Liked: The couple glimpses of Murderbot personality are good. The plot was not that bad. I did enjoy the twist reveal, and what the killer turned out to be. The Murderbot and Dr. Mensah still works and is still the most interesting. I liked the couple call backs to past novels.

What I Disliked: When we last saw Murderbot he was staying on a transport with ART saying he must go away, so I was pretty shocked to see him already back on Preservation Station with Dr. Mensah who he just told was leaving. This novel felt like it was the Murderbot before he was changed at end of the last book. Not enough witty Murderbot scenes.

Recommendations: This is the only Murderbot book that I have not recommended. There’s not much character development in this one the lowest amount so far. It seems this was an experiment it just didn’t work out for me. I still love this series and eagerly await the next installment. I rated Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells 2 out of 5 stars. I raked the 6 book series so far in order from best to worst: Network Effect, Artificial Condition, All Systems Red, Exit Strategy, Rogue Protocol, and Fugitive Telemetry.