Platform Decay (Murderbot Diaries book 8) by Martha Wells (book review).
‘Platform Decay’ by Martha Wells is the eighth book in her ‘Murderbot Diaries’ series.
For those few who do not know, Murderbot is a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module. It has gone rogue but has been careful not to be caught and therefore disintegrated for spare parts. It just wants to be left alone to figure out what or who it is, and to watch media shows. It especially likes the long-running series, Sanctuary Moon. It has difficulty dealing with humans on a personal level and, as for eye contact…ugh! Which is why it has latched onto the human, Dr Ayda Mensah.
Through its various adventures to date, it has made friends with ART (Arsehole Research Transport) and Three, another rogue SecUnit that Murderbot is now mentoring, kind of.
Murderbot and Three have volunteered to rescue Farai, one of Mensah’s two marital partners. Farai, along with her mother, Nanna Naja, and her daughter, Sofie, had been in a detention camp courtesy of Barish-Estranza Corporation, but are now on a planet’s man-made torus (yeah, a whole ringworld around a planet), imprisoned in a safe house.
Three is doing its distraction thing, while Murderbot is sneakily doing its rescue thing. When Murderbot gets to the safe house, it finds more than it bargained for: Supervisor Leonide of the Barish-Estranza Corporation, a previous pain in the neck to Murderbot. She wants it to do her a favour in return for helping with Farai’s rescue.
Murderbot was angry at the start of this mission. It did not expect a mission without snags. But this many? This problematic? It gets increasingly angrier, which makes for consequences.
This is Murderbot mayhem, cynicism, comedy and poignancy at its best. There is silliness in places that is so in character, like Murderbot noting, ‘The problem with planetary toruses – torusii?’ It’s actually ‘tori’ if you know your Latin. Or like: ‘The numbers were in three different— number systems? Languages— What do you call numbers in different languages, characters or—’. All number systems devolve to bases, for the mathematically inclined.
We have seen Murderbot grow as a person over the last seven books, but does it grow in this novel? It certainly realises things, but do they change it? Not really. It is fun, enjoyable, hilarious in places and, in its own way, happily familiar.
If anything, I would say this is a cosy Murderbot story.
Rosie Oliver
December 2025
(pub: TOR Books, 2026. 242-page hardback. Price: $24.99 (US), £18.74 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-250-82700-5)
check out website: [https://torpublishinggroup.com/platform-decay/?isbn=9781250827005&format=hardback](https://torpublishinggroup.com/platform-decay/?isbn=9781250827005&format=hardback)
