SciFi Novella Review: Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries #4) by Martha Wells

Exit Strategy (The Murderbot Diaries #4) by Martha Wells:

Exit Strategy is the fourth and final novella in Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries, which began with her Hugo and Nebula Award winning All Systems Red (Review Here), and continued in the following novellas "Artificial Condition" (Review Here) and "Rogue Protocol" (Review Here).  While it has been announced that Murderbot will return in a set of novels beginning in 2020, this is the conclusion of this story arc (so yeah, don't start with this novella).

It is, as expected, an excellent conclusion to Murderbot's arc and the first story to feature repeat characters (other than Murderbot of course).  Murderbot's human "friends" from All Systems Red return, as Murderbot finds itself compelled to rescue them from a situation that probably arose out of Murderbot's own actions in the past two novellas.  And the result is a satisfying conclusion to Murderbot's journey, both physically and emotionally.

Quick Plot Summary:  When Murderbot returns from Milu with more incriminating evidence to present against GrayCris (see Rogue Protocol), it finds two things waiting for it: 1. a security force looking to take Murderbot out and 2. that Dr. Mensah, Murderbot's friend and leader of the PreservationAux crew leading the suit against GrayCris (see All Systems Red) has gone missing.  A quick query reveals that Mensah has seemingly been kidnapped for ransom by GrayCris, prompted by GrayCris' mistaken belief that Murderbot's actions were at Mensah's direction.  

As a result, Murderbot takes off to another space station where Murderbot must reunite with her former PreservationAux clients, regain their trust, and rescue Dr. Mensah from a military force that..for once...is aware that Murderbot is likely coming.  And if Murderbot can survive the encounter, it will need to deal once again with the thing that it has been struggling with all along, especially since it first ran out on Mensah: its own emotions and feelings.  

Thoughts:  Exit Strategy is the first of The Murderbot Diaries novellas to feature Murderbot returning to people we've seen before, forcing Murderbot to deal with its connections and - more importantly - its emotions toward these people.  The core of this series has been reading Murderbot come to terms with not just being a solitary being others didn't know was an independent person (and watching media of course), but in having people who both knew about it and cared for it.  And with Murderbot - anxiety ridden and introverted to the extreme - learning to deal with its own emotions for these people in return.  Obviously Murderbot doesn't come to a Eureka! moment here, where everything makes sense, but Exit Strategy does feature it coming to terms with having some emotions to some extent - to its distaste of course.

And yeah there's plenty of action in this novella as well, as Murderbot finds itself face to face for the first time with a security force at least somewhat prepared for what it can do.  Murderbot is still underestimated, but only a little this time, and the resultant action scenes are excellent and Murderbot's methods and actions are clever extensions of its past tricks that its used and learned throughout this series (the finale of these includes a call back to Artificial Condition, for instance).  If you like these scenes you won't be disappointed, even if the emotional journey of Murderbot is the core of this story as with the others.