Platform Decay, which will be published on March 5, is the eighth book or novella in The Murderbot Diaries (there are a few short stories, too) by Martha Wells. It’s a fun extension of the series, but I strongly advise against coming in cold, without having read most of the series, or at least having watched the Apple TV show that’s based on it. The book starts in the middle of another infiltration mission, but we don’t find out the objective until halfway through the third chapter. So if you don’t already know a lot about Murderbot and its universe, you’ll be lost.
At the beginning of this book, at some point after the events of System Collapse (2023), the SecUnit that calls itself Murderbot is traveling to a space station, clamped to the outside of a shuttle alongside Three, who isn’t explained at this point, but readers familiar to the series will understand is another SecUnit, sort of partially memory-cloned from a previous version of Murderbot. They’re being sneaky because part of the station is controlled by Barish-Estanza, the particularly evil corporation encountered in a couple of previous books. They’re going there on a rescue/extraction mission. Eventually, it is revealed that some additional people will have to be rescued, as part of a package deal, and things get really complicated.
I can’t think of any reason for the book to start with so little explanation given as to what Murderbot is doing. Usually I blame the in medias res marketing trend for this kind of thing, but it’s not like we’re starting in the middle of an exciting fight to draw in people who can’t stand infodumps. It’s just that instead of starting with “I guess you’re wondering why I was clamped outside this shuttle,” Murderbot explains a bunch of procedures that it initiates to infiltrate the station, without incident. To me, that’s pretty close to infodumping anyway, without the benefit of reminding readers (or telling newbies) what’s happened so far.
One new development for Murderbot is that it has installed a mental health module to evaluate itself, to help monitor and mediate flashbacks and hallucinations that it’s been experiencing after some traumatic events. For the reader, the main effect is that various asides in Murderbot’s narration of events will be preceded by the words “Emotion check:” whereas previously, it would have just gone ahead and said something snarky, or talked about its efficiency dropping after an unpleasant surprise, or whatever.
There are quite a few asides in this book concerning Murderbot’s irritation with the poorly designed transportation system, or lack of such, in this station. These defects complicate the escape plan somewhat, but Murderbot frequently complains about human inefficiencies throughout the series, so that’s nothing new.
Really, there’s not a lot of really new stuff here; this book can basically be classified as Further Adventures of Murderbot. There’s a little more worldbuilding for the Murderbot universe (not just at this station), and there are a few little surprises, including the introduction of some new characters who may become important in future Murderbot-verse stories, and closing out some previous threads. For the time being, this is a ridealong with Murderbot; it’s fun, but I don’t think it’s trying to be much more (except for the usual illustration of how dystopic life under corporotocracy could be). So, enjoy! But I hope that whatever comes next from Wells will display more of her full creative glory, rather than settling for a pleasant continuation.
Platform Decay (256 pages), by Martha Wells, will be published May 5, 2026. You can order it here.
Content warnings: Slightly graphic violence and death, battles and murder; children in danger, family drama.
Disclaimers: I received a free eARC of this book for review from the publisher via NetGalley.
