The Murderbot Diaries Reading Order
By S Pavithran Updated:2024-11-09
The Murderbot Diaries is a series of novellas that has garnered critical acclaim and earned the author, Martha Wells,
couple of Nebula & Hugo Awards. It follows a part-human and part-robot humanoid construct which was
owned by a corporation that rented and sold humanoids with different specialized functions.
This construct's function is to provide security and protection for whichever client it is provided to as contract
between the client and the nebulous corporate entity always referred to as "The Company".
The books are written in first person perspective of the titular robot who privately refers to itself as "Murderbot".
The bot has released itself from the corporate control by self-hacking the governor module on itself.
The Murderbot Diaries - Author
Martha Wells is the author of The Murderbot Diaries. She has also written Ile-Rien and The Books of the Raksura along with a number of fantasy novels, short stories and other publications. Wells has won four Hugo Awards, two Nebula Awards and three Locus Awards for the Murderbot Diaries.
The Books of The Murderbot Diaries
The Murderbot Diaries is an ongoing series with three more Murderbot books to come. It currently has seven novels/novellas and 3 short stories. The books are self contained episodes of adventures of the humanoid construct,called "SecUnit" as the its' designated function is security and protection of clients. The order of the books are different when considering the in-story chronological timeline from the order when considering the publication time. The list of books in The Murderbot Diaries are:
Novels:
-
All Systems Red (2017)
-
Artificial Condition (2018)
-
Rogue Protocol (2018)
-
Exit Strategy (2018)
-
Network Effect (2020)
-
Fugitive Telemetry (2021)
-
System Collapse (2023)
Short Stories:
- Compulsory (2018)
- Obsolescence (2019)
- Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (2021)
Chronological Order of The Murderbot Diaries
If you are looking to re-explore the Corporation Rim universe through the eyes of the SecUnit in the proper chronological order, then below is the order of reading you should follow:
- Obsolescence
- Compulsory
- All Systems Red
- Artificial Condition
- Rogue Protocol
- Exit Strategy
- Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
- Fugitive Telemetry
- Network Effect
- System Collapse
Upcoming Murderbot Diaries Books
Tor.com Publishing has announced a six book deal with Wells, which includes three Murderbot books. So the adventures of the SecUnit is expected to continue together with ART, the AI which operates a transport and reasearch spaceship in the books.
