Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells

1) All Systems Red - 150 pages
2) Artificial Condition - 160 pages
3) Rogue Protocol - 160 pages
4) Exit Strategy - 160 pages
5) Network Effect - 346 pages

The first book in this series won pretty much every novella award there is for SciFi:
Winner: 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella
Winner: 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella
Winner: 2018 Alex Award
Winner: 2018 Locus Award

This a great gripping series that is a first person narrative of the evolution of the self-named "Murderbot" into a free being making its own choices.  It's a darkly funny look into a future where planets are dominated by corporations controlling all levels of commerce and daily activities.  Murderbot hacks its governor module to find out the truth of its own past with the added bonus of being able to watch as many shows as possibly in the media feed.  (We all can relate to that for sure!)   I highly recommend this series and look forward to the next one.

Tightrope by Amanda Quick

Tightrope by Amanda Quick - 309 pages

A man has just been killed by a robot in front of an entire audience during a demonstration.  Amalie is horrified at what she sees.  However, she's is even more horrified when the newcomer to town shows up at her bed and breakfast investigating the murder.  Matthias has ties to local mobster Luther Pell.  Now, to save her business before it fails from all the negative publicity, Amalie must work with Matthias to discover just what happened.

This is the third book in Amanda Quick's Burning Cove mystery series set in 1930s California.  It is also the first one to reintroduce her popular Jones family from her previous Arcane Society series.  I enjoyed the book.  I thought the mystery was well done.  The book did a good job of hiding the identity of the villain until the end.  I did find it strange that after all the Arcane Society books which wholly embraced the idea of psychics that this book did its best to downplay the idea -- never coming out one way or the other on whether it was true they existed or not.

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke

Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke - 220 pages

I thought this was the first book in the graphic novel series having misread the title as "The Legend of Zita the Spacegirl".  I was wrong.  It is the second book.  While I wasn't sure how Zita became lost in outer space it was a fairly easy story to pick up.  This volume tells of a robot who tries to take over Zita's life and how Zita becomes a space criminal because of it.

I found the book fun to read.  In fact, I think I will probably go back and read the first book and then the third before waiting for the fourth to be published in two years.