The Murderbot Diaries: What Platform Decay Means

The Nebula Prize-winning Murderbot Diaries has a new book on the horizon. Titled Platform Decay, the upcoming novel looks to be another chronologically aligned adventure featuring our favorite security unit-turned-reluctant hero, Murderbot, and its newest partner in adventure, the transport AI Perihelion (or ART, as the SecUnit insists on calling it). At first glance, the title might suggest another exploration of rogue corporate systems or broken space station infrastructure but it actually echoes a trend from real-world technology. And knowing Martha Wells’ deep commitment to research and layered worldbuilding, it’s no surprise that she’s decided to take this theme head-on. What’s exciting, though, is imagining how she’ll explore it in this particular universe.

In tech circles, “platform decay” is a phrase quietly tossed around to describe the steady decline of online services or software platforms. But it’s the more colorful and brutal term, enshittification, that’s gotten wider traction. Coined by author and digital rights activist Cory Doctorow, enshittification describes the lifecycle of many digital platforms: at first, a company rolls out a service that’s generous, free, and user-focused, in order to draw in a critical mass of users. Once that user base is locked in, changes begin. Features disappear behind paywalls. Ads multiply. Algorithms are tweaked to favor corporate partners or monetized interactions. Eventually, the experience degrades to the point that the product is no longer user-friendly but it’s too entrenched in our workflows to leave easily.

And if there’s one thing the Murderbot Diaries has consistently done well, it’s translate the nuances of corporate dysfunction and systemic rot into thrilling spacefaring narratives. Wells’ knack for realism shines not just in her worldbuilding, but in the fine-grained details of character behavior. Murderbot, for example, is more than just a rogue SecUnit; it's a software engineer in its own right. When it uses PascalCase to name its internal variable logs, or rewrites its own code to bypass command modules, that’s not just sci-fi color; it’s a subtle nod to the programming community. For readers who come from software or IT backgrounds (like me), these are delicious little easter eggs, the kind of thing that signals, “Yes, this author gets it.”

So, when we hear that the next book in the series is titled Platform Decay, it’s hard not to read between the lines. There’s reason to believe this novel might delve directly into the mechanisms of platform degradation: the slow corruption of systems not through violence or sabotage, but through short-sighted economic policy. In a series that already skewers corporate overreach and treats bureaucracy like a mid-level villain, enshittification could be the next thematic frontier.

Until now, the Murderbot books have tackled topics like consent, trauma, corporate exploitation, and the messy ambiguity of free will. But the economic and technological phenomenon of platform decay hasn’t been given a spotlight yet. That could be about to change. Imagine a plot where the infrastructure that ART relies on starts failing not because of war or sabotage but because the hosting corporation pivoted to profit-maximization, and now every function is locked behind tiered access or algorithmic bottlenecks. Picture Murderbot trapped in a system it can’t override because some marketing directive throttled access based on non-payment. Sounds chillingly close to real life, doesn’t it?

Fans like me will be heartened to know that Martha Wells has finished writing Platform Decay. That’s a major milestone. However, the manuscript is currently going through the editing and production pipeline. Tor Publishing has not yet announced an official release date, but it's reasonable to expect a launch in late 2025.

That gives us time to reread the earlier books and maybe speculate a little. Will we see ART compromised by decaying infrastructure? Will Murderbot have to code its way through deliberately crippled systems? Will platform decay be just a metaphor, or a literal system failure at scale?

There’s also a larger resonance here. We’re living through the enshittification of the internet as we knew it. Social media platforms that once connected us now corral us into algorithmic echo chambers. Software that started off as essential utilities now holds core features hostage unless you subscribe monthly. We see services get worse, more expensive, and more manipulative not because of malice, but because of business strategy.

In that context, a Murderbot story that directly engages with these issues feels not only timely but exciting as well. The devs like me will wait for the book, while writing our code with pascal-case or the camel-case variables.