I really enjoyed four out of the five stories. One story was, for me, a little difficult to follow and somewhat convoluted, but overall it’s a very enjoyable book with great takes on time travel, as well as traveling between worlds.
It’s silly, insane, jumps around, and makes little sense especially if you read the first book. If you didn’t read Gideon the Ninth, I suggest you do, if you did – brush up on it before starting this one. The narration in this book is so unreliable that it doesn’t only alters what Harrow remembers, but attempts to alter what the reader remembers as well.
I really enjoyed the overall premise to he series, but in this last book I’m not sure what the author wanted to convey, or if he had a trilogy planned out at all. It seemed like a bunch of story-lines thrown together for good measure, crossing fingers they would somehow work and make sense.
The second book in The Origin Mystery trilogy, a science-fiction story following a genealogist out to save the human race from the brink of extinction.
To my surprise, this techno-fiction book became, about half way in, a world spanning espionage and intrigue story. Everything is drive, of course, by this new technology that would set the world into a new age that everyone wants to get their hands on.
I specifically enjoyed the author’s weaving of scientific and geological occurrences, like the Genetic Bottleneck theory and The Youngest Toba eruption which had nearly wiped out all humanity 70,000 years ago. I actually had to go and do my own research because the theory was so far-fetched.
Andrew Dahl, an expert in alien religions and xenobiology gets assigned to the spaceship Intrepid along with four other new ensigns. The Intrepid is known for its unusual high rate of casualties among low ranking crew members.
The author just didn’t write a shoot’em up space western, he really put a lot of effort into trying to weave into the story to politics of this futuristic world.
Book 4 of 4 of The Murderbot Diaries tells of the humanization of Murderbot, a weaponized cyborg that became self-aware, one stop forward by making him… care about Dr. Mensah, who is in grave danger. But is Dr. Mensah his owner or friend?
While this book could be a standalone, I would highly recommend reading the first two. This novella would make a lot more sense, and would be much more enjoyable instead of reading it as a standalone book.