Anyone who has spent time with me in any fannish setting since 2017 knows that I am solidly Team Murderbot. I've loved the novellas, I've even bought them as presents for people. So I admit that coming into this first novel-length book I was tremenduously excited.

The start of the book was amazing - it was everything I could have hoped for - battles, sarcasm, twisty mystery, a certain transport craft who shall remain nameless - I remained excited.

The problem is that, having finished that first part of the book, Wells seems to have kind of lost her way. The middle third is confusing, repetetive and, honestly, a little boring, something that was never true of the novellas. As a result, Murderbot's snarky self-referential personality comes across less endearing and more as a complete asshole. There are still flashes here and there of the Murderbot I've come to know and love, but these are rarely seen, far too rare for true enjoyment.

Thankfully, this isn't a problem in the final third of the book, which dives straight back into battles, sarcasm, twisty … you get the idea … and is utterly satisfying as a result.

What really annoys me about this is that Wells is an accomplished writer. She's more than capable of writing a novel, as shown by her Ile Rien novels or the Cloud Roads, both multi-novel series which have never earned the plaudits they deserve. I really wanted this to be on a par with those wonderful books, but for some reason it doesn't all hang together.

If this were three novellas, and the three parts are all novella length, then they'd probably earn 5-star ratings for the first and third, and maybe 3-stars for the saggy middle - the type of ratings you'd see for a difficult second novel or a weak second album for a new writer or band. Wells is better than this.