This was a lot better than Fugitive Telemetry, this felt like a return to form and the real feel of the Murderbot Diaries, however it still felt....off?

I can't quite place it, I just didn't enjoy it as much as the first five books. I felt a portion of this book was confusing and disjointed, the redacted parts were super annoying, it got to the point were I thought I missed something and checked to see if I missed a book in between the last one I just finished (like how you watch a TV show and didn't realise you skipped a episode and it feels off and you're confused and you go looking to see, yeah, just like that). I think that was really badly executed.

I liked the new characters that were carried over from the previous books, ART's gang Iris etc, even though I like Iris, I do feel like she's essentially the same character as Mensah at times, this is an issue Wells has with the series were some characters feel somewhat one dimensional and she'll introduce new characters that are very similiar to others which is kinda annoying.

Much like Wells usually does, there are some loose ends unsatisfactorly dealt with, we've had hints over the books that Murderbot has memories locked away, this new memory that surfaced unclearly to Murderbot was affecting it during the course of this book, Breaking it's concentration and occupying it's thoughts instead of focusing on mission, I presumed we'd get near the end of the book and have more information about that memory, but alas we'll have to wait for the next book to see anything more about it.

The series doesn't feel like it is going anywhere. We're seven books into this hella interesting world and there doesn't feel like much is going on at all, I thought it would be like some TV shows where in the first few episodes it feels like there's no overarching storyline or that the subplots connect to eachother and that it's just a glimpse into the events the team have to deal with, until you realise later there are connections to a larger plot that can affect the way everything is. But no, we're seven books in and I can't see anything connecting.

I'm so intrigued by Three, Murderbot finally had another free SecUnit around and they rarely interact and we barely get to see how it's thinking or evolving, I think in the next book or two we might see it with Three with the other ART that is her rival or something that annoys her (I forget it's name). I think they'll develop a dynamic similiar to Murderbot and ART. That'd be fun.

Overall it was fun, it was lackluster but still fun. I definitely think the books are better suited in this short form rather than the size of Network Effect.