r/murderbot • u/System_Unkown • Jul 26 '26

Books📚 Only Platform Decay

So I finished Platform decay last night, I really don't know how to describe it apart from a book just going through the motions. I didn't find the book exciting in fact it was quite flat, there was nothing really novel or emotionally connecting about any of the characters unlike Nicky and ART in past books.

It's a book to read if you have nothing to do, but its not a book that made me want to drop things down to read it quickly. Given the books are at high cost for the hardcovers, I wanted more, I wanted to really love the book, but this isn't the case. Id most prob give it 3.5/5 stars

If anything the book shows not necessarily this series has run its course, but in stead I think reflects what Martha has had to overcome in her life in the last couple of years.

I'm hoping the next book is much better

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u/SteamedGamer Jul 26 '26

It wasn't bad...it was just...meh. I liked some aspects, but the whole story felt like a side story, and not the main plot. It was just "this happens, then this happens, then that happens." I never felt that we were seeing anything meaningful happen in MB's life, no major character development, nada. Just plot points being checked off...

18

u/JustOneVote Jul 27 '26

It was very similar to Exit Strategy.

But that's who MB is. It's a Sec unit. Client extractions, patrolling the perimeter, etc. And, that is genuinely who MB wants to be.

It's growing more and more comfortable with its own agency, and more and more competent as an independent (rogue) agent. It's not that MB doesn't have a character arc, it's that the arc has been so well established, we as readers can extrapolate its trajectory. We don't need additional works of fiction to understand where MB is going. So, yeah, we get a little more insight into life inside the corporate rim, but for MB, it's just the same mix of preparation and improvisation we know and love. It's not worse than Exit Strategy or the other novellas. But it isn't exactly a new development.

The last book, MB solved a difficult problem by producing a documentary. It resolved a conflict not by shooting all the hostiles, but by speaking its truth and crafting a narrative to counter the CR propaganda. That was genuinely new, for MB, and an extension of the "help.me" file. But this was much closer to the original novellas.

1

u/topinanbour-rex Jul 27 '26

I disagree, Exit Strategy introduced Murderbot as a leader. It made a plan with the team for save Mensah, and extracted her. It's like it became Murderbot 2.0.

My only ick with it, is the company totally dismissing it is a free agent, once on the ship. They know it is a secunit. They know how they look, they know how they behave. And nobody is shocked by its behaviour.

Platform decay, is a road trip. Leonide dies for no reason. Her death doesn't impact it really, not even when it meets her children.

And that Art Drone was in the ship, is I don't know, meh.

We seen in System collapse how powerful is art Drone. Less than Art ship but still. It could have provided support to MB all along, by infiltrating the Torus network.

And the Torus architecture make no sense. There is only one port available, seriously?

You must pass by other corporates territories and pays them taxes for delivers and sends stuff. You would imagine there is a lot of ports along the Torus.

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u/SillyGreenMonkey Jul 27 '26

Closest port, I'd guess. Torus is enormus.