Martha Wells · novel series
The Murderbot Diaries books in order
A science-fiction series narrated by a self-aware security unit negotiating autonomy, corporate exploitation, friendship, and its preference for entertainment over human interaction.
Choose your route
Reading order
Only reading orders present in the catalog are shown. Optional novellas and companion works can be hidden without changing the underlying sequence.
Publication order
- 1 All Systems Red
Book 1 · novella · 2017
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety. But in a society where contracts…
- 2 Artificial Condition
Book 2 · novella · 2018
It has a dark past -- one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself "Murderbot." But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more. Teaming up with a…
- 3 Rogue Protocol
Book 3 · novella · 2018
Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah's SecUnit is.…
- 4 Exit Strategy
Book 4 · novella · 2018
Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right? Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as…
- 5 Network Effect
Book 5 · novel · 2020
When Murderbot's human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action. Drastic action it is, then.
- 6 home: habitat, range, niche, territory
Book 5.5 · short_story · 2020 Optional
"Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory" is a short story set in the world of Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries. This story was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Network Effect, the fifth entry in the series. The events of…
- 7 Fugitive Telemetry
Book 6 · novella · 2021
Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it's "one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I've ever read") Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today. No, I…
- 8 System Collapse
Book 7 · novel · 2023
Everyone's favorite lethal SecUnit is back. Following the events in Network Effect, the Barish-Estranza corporation has sent rescue ships to a newly-colonized planet in peril, as well as additional SecUnits. But if there’s an ethical…
- 9 Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy
Book 7.5 · novelette · 2025 Optional
Perihelion and its crew embark on a dangerous new mission at a corporate-controlled station in the throes of a hostile takeover...
- 10 Platform Decay
Book 8 · novella · 2026
After volunteering to run a rescue mission, Murderbot realizes that it will have to spend significant time with a bunch of humans it doesn't know. Including human children. Ugh. This may well call for... eye contact! (Emotion check: Oh,…
