So far the weakest book imo. It felt like a filler book. The other books started as small little missions where Murderbot would grow a bit and meet new people that could come back later, such as ART and Mensah.

This book felt like it didn't affect anything, Murderbot is the same as it was at the beginning and the end of the book, Gurathan, Ratthi and Mensah made a few cameos, however most of the book featured the new character who's head of Preservation Security, Insah. She doesn't like Murderbot because he's a SecUnit, a recurring theme in this series, and of course it manages to make her like / respect it by the end of the book (Gurathan all over again), it felt like a rinse and repeat. There were a few more new characters, such as Aylin, who disappeared at the end of the book, and a couple more I can't recall as they weren't memorable.

As for the plot itself, the story felt very confusing and convoluted. It also was kinda boring and didn't have any implications for the rest of the characters. What I liked about the other books were we'd meet new characters that'd feel like they'd pop up later and bring something cool to the plot, like ART. I'm about to start reading System Collapse, but I have a feeling I could have skipped this book and went from Network Effect to System Collapse and it wouldn't affect anything, just a prediction.

I believe Insah will return as a character, maybe even Aylin, but those are the only things I can see coming from this book.

It wasn't even as funny as the other books.

I'm glad the book returned to it's shorter form roots, I thought Network Effect was good but too long, I think these books are almost like the Sci-fi version of the Witcher books / games, where there's a main character who's quite human but not actually and is different than his kind and is more emotional, who takes on jobs of protecting people and feigning reluctance but has a deep compulsion to help those in need. The same could be said about Geralt from the Witcher.
The Murderbot Diaries in their short length books were each like a side quest from a game or book, a small story but enriched in an interesting little narrative and the main character picks up new allies and new upgrades and grows along the way. Same thing here with Murderbot. This book however, breaks that narrative loop that made the Murderbot Diaries the Murderbot Diaries. If the book was about Murderbot exploring a place and collecting things, it would have been more interesting than this plot, and most know of the grueling task of finding all the collectables in a game can be some of the most boring parts.

I have to give this book a 3/5 star, the plot was convoluted, unimportant, boring. No character development from the main character and few appearances of the usual characters. A filler novel.