Network Effect

According to the report 2.0 had downloaded to me, 3 had actually seemed to like the other two SecUnits on the explorer, as if they had been friends, at least to the extent that they had been allowed to communicate with each other. I’d never thought that was possible.

Maybe I’d always been a weird SecUnit; maybe 3 would have better luck communicating with other SecUnits.

Maybe I needed to get 3 a copy of Dr. Bharadwaj’s documentary, too.

Whatever. For now, keyword searching ART’s index, I think I’d found something even less realistic than Timestream Defenders Orion. I showed the description to ART, and it started the first episode.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Nancy Buchanan, first reader and first librarian, without whom most of my books would not have titles.

Thanks to my husband Troyce, and friends Megan, Beth E., Felicia, Lisa, Bill, and Beth L., and everyone else who read versions of this in its rough form and kept me going until it was finished.

Thanks to Jennifer Jackson and Lee Harris, without whom Murderbot would never have made it into print.

ALSO BY MARTHA WELLS

THE MURDERBOT DIARIES

All Systems Red

Artificial Condition

Rogue Protocol

Exit Strategy

BOOKS OF THE RAKSURA

The Cloud Roads

The Serpent Sea

The Siren Depths

The Edge of Worlds

The Harbors of the Sun

Stories of the Raksura: Volume I (short fiction)

Stories of the Raksura: Volume II (short fiction)

THE FALL OF ILE-RIEN TRILOGY

The Wizard Hunters

The Ships of Air

The Gate of Gods

STANDALONE ILE-RIEN BOOKS

The Element of Fire

The Death of the Necromancer

Between Worlds: the Collected Ile-Rien and Cineth Stories

YA NOVELS

Emilie and the Hollow World

Emilie and the Sky World

Blade Singer (with Aaron de Orive)

TIE-IN NOVELS

Stargate Atlantis: Reliquary

Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement

Star Wars: Razor’s Edge

City of Bones

Wheel of the Infinite

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

MARTHA WELLS has written many fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula Award–nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction. Titles in her New York Times and USA Today bestselling Murderbot Diaries series have won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards. You can sign up for email updates here.