Network Effect

 Network Effect by Martha Wells, 350 pages.

Murderbot is branching out, taking an escort job after a lot of convincing from its humans. A job that goes very wrong when it ends up kidnapped with one of the more vulnerable humans by forces much more incomprehensible than the average (very comprehensible) corporate nonsense. Then even more wrong when it finds out an old friend is in trouble, and it has to decide how much its willing to risk for a rescue.

I have mixed feeling about this book. On the one hand, it was very nice to see Murderbot being forced to confront emotional vulnerability and do some growing about it. On the other hand, this book has way more technobabble than most of the rest of the series, and a lot of it is plot relevant, which made this novel a little harder to follow for me. I did still enjoy it though, and will continue the series.