The Fifteenth Book of 2026: The Murderbot Diaries: Platform Decay, by Martha Wells

Read May 14 to 16, 2026

It’s always fun returning to Murderbot’s universe, at least as long as I don’t have to live there.

The latest book starts out more in medea res than almost anything I’ve ever read. I was more than an hour in before I had a really good idea of what was going on. I’m not complaining. Even if I didn’t know what everyone’s favorite SecUnit was up to, it’s always fun being inside the thing’s head. And its new emotions module really seems to help!

I probably should have re-read System Collapse before getting into this one. Several characters and events in Platform Decay depend on knowing who and what happened in the earlier book (though I was able to dredge up enough from memory to enjoy it anyway).