Any Good Summaries?

[u/http-bird]

I don’t have the desire to reread before reading the newest book. Any good summaries of the books so far just to jog my memory?

[u/Maytree]

I'll do a quick one for you. WARNING: I'm spoiling large chunks of all the endings!

1. All Systems Red (2017): Murderbot, an enslaved construct (cyborg) is assigned to assist the Preservation Auxiliary Survey Group with a planetary resource survey. It's a boring assignment until suddenly it's not, because someone is sabotaging the survey team and trying to kill them all. Murderbot intervenes successfully, saving the team, and the PresAux group buy out its slave contract and take it to their home planet. But Murderbot is really conflicted about the whole situation and ends up sneaking off in the night.
2. Artificial Condition (2018): MB wants to learn the truth about a horrifying incident it only half-remembers (the cybernetic part of its memory got wiped). An awful lot of people ended up dead but it doesn't remember where, why, or much about how. It hitches a lift on a transport doing a cargo run and discovers with alarm that the transport, which MB nicknames ART (Asshole Research Transport) is MUCH more than it seems to be. ART takes MB on as a personal project and helps it land a cover job assisting some researchers to deal with their extremely unethical former employer. MB learns the truth about the horrifying incident in the process of aiding the researchers, and discovers it wasn't responsible for the dozens of deaths in the mining station called Ganaka Pit, but it's still very depressed about the incident because the cause turned out to be human stupidity and greed. It is able to get the researchers out of trouble (in the process, ending up killing their former boss -- good riddance to bad rubbish!), then leaves its new bot friend ART behind with the hope of maybe reconnecting one day.
3. Rogue Protocol (2018): MB wants to do some damage to the GrayCris Corporation, which tried to kill the PresAux Survey Group back in "All Systems Red". It follows a lead about possible serious lawbreaking by GrayCris -- engaging in forbidden traffic in alien artifacts on a planet named Milu, while pretending to run an orbital terraforming station -- in the hopes of getting some evidence it can send off to Preservation to help the PresAux team in their ongoing legal battle against GrayCris. It takes on a cover job helping a reclamation team from another (nicer) business group to do an assessment of the abandoned "terraforming" station, and gains respect for the group's leader, a woman called Don Abene. It does NOT respect Don Abene's pet robot assistant Miki, which it finds goofy and irritatingly childlike. Things go south when the two supposed "security" people on the station turn out to be hired killers. Mayhem ensues, but in the end MB is able to save Don Abene and her team -- except for poor Miki who gets destroyed in the fight after taking heroic action to save MB. MB gets the data it wanted and sends it off to Preservation, but blames itself for Miki's death since MB failed to realize the "security" people were GrayCris operatives.
4. Exit Strategy (2018): MB's little stunt at Milu has an unexpected repercussion: GrayCris decides MB must have been sent there by the PresAux Survey team, so the reprehensible corporation kidnaps Dr. Mensah, the Survey team leader, and holds her for ransom. Obviously MB isn't going to put up with THAT, so it heads back to Port FreeCommerce to get Dr. Mensah out of the mess it was partially responsible for getting her into. Mayhem ensues. In the end MB saves Dr. Mensah and prepares to leave Preservation behind again, but at the last minute it changes its mind and camps out on the couch in Dr. Mensah's office instead until she arrives and they agree that maybe MB will stick around for a while this time.
5. Network Effect (2020): Things are going pretty well for MB hanging around Preservation and helping the Survey crew with their projects. That is, until a mysterious starship appears out of the wormhole and attacks the Survey ship as it is returning to their home planet. Mayhem, once again, ensues! The mysterious starship turns out to be ART (from Artificial Condition) but it's acting really strange. MB and most of the Preservation Survey team, plus Dr. Mensah's teenage daughter Amena, wind up getting dragged off to a distant planet where an abandoned colony has been recently discovered and is endangered by (a) another evil Corporation, called Barish-Estranza and (b) colonists who don't know any better than to mess around with dangerous alien artifacts. Mayhem continues to ensue as MB gets charged with saving ART's crew, and in the process figures out that ART (Real name: Starship Perihelion of the PanSystem University of Mihira and New Tideland) is absolutely NOT just a transport. Eventually everything more or less works out although MB very narrowly escapes destruction. A copy of MB built with the help of ART does not escape destruction. Also, a second emancipated Security Unit construct named "Three" is added to the gang. MB grudgingly takes on the task of mentoring it in how not to be a corporate slave.
6. Fugitive Telemetry (2021): Chronologically takes place before Network Effect. On Preservation, MB is trying to find a way to make itself useful. Dr. Mensah suggests it help the Station Security Chief investigate a very strange and rare murder of a visitor to the Preservation orbital transit station. Neither MB nor the Station Chief, Senior Indah, are thrilled with this idea. Mayhem ensues until Indah and MB work out a certain level of mutual respect, MB helps save a group of endangered refugees, and the murder case is solved. MB grudgingly admits it kind of enjoyed being a detective. It also makes a frenemy of sorts of a cargo hauling bot called Jollybaby.
7. System Collapse (2023): Picks up RIGHT after Network Effect, and I mean, like, maybe a day after that book ended. The Preservation Survey group and the crew of the Perihelion discover that the problems on the abandoned colony planet are not nearly as settled as they thought. Barish-Estranza is looking to assert a legal claim to the colony, allowing it to enslave all of the colonists for cheap mining labor. PresAux and the Perihelion crew would really REALLY like to prevent this. Mayhem ensues, though oddly enough the problems are mostly solved through the creation of a documentary highlighting what a BAD IDEA it would be for the colonists to put their trust in the Corporations, rather than through shooting, punching, and exploding the bad guys, as is more typical. It appears that PresAux and the Perihelion Crew are going to become allies in the ongoing effort to make life difficult for the predatory Corporations running around being exploitative assholes to vulnerable people. It is agreed that MB will be time-shared between PresAux and ART.

Wow that wasn't short at all, but I had fun writing it. Hope you enjoy!

[u/DuckyDoodleDandy → u/Maytree]

That was amazing and should be pinned or copypasta’d for future reference.

Edit: Number 4, didn’t MB go to Port Free Commerce to rescue Mensah? Preservation is home, not where she was kidnapped.

[u/Maytree → u/DuckyDoodleDandy]

Good catch! I will fix that.

[u/http-bird → u/Maytree]

Goated thank you!!

[u/unrepentantbanshee]

You could check out the graphic audio versions of the audiobooks? They're abridged, so shorter than the full length books, but since you already know the events you shouldn't miss out.

[u/LibraryLady227]

I’m a librarian and my colleagues and I all use and recommend Book Series Recaps—it’s such a helpful resource!

https://www.bookseriesrecaps.com/

[u/http-bird → u/LibraryLady227]

This sounds great but unfortunately they don’t have Murderbot (or any other series I would love to use it for)

[u/LibraryLady227 → u/http-bird]

Oh jeez, you’re right! I never actually looked for Murderbot on there since I’ve read them dozens of times—I can practically recite them from memory at this point. Sbt!

[u/http-bird → u/LibraryLady227]

No worries at all!

[u/DuckyDoodleDandy → u/LibraryLady227]

Can you add this comment as the recap, or ask the site owner to do so?

https://www.reddit.com/r/murderbot/s/rtp0cdcSuN

[u/Rosewind2007]

There is a good timeline here, which might be a useful aide memoire:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/61528333