Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽'s Reviews > Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory

There are few better literary thrills than unexpectedly stumbling across a Murderbot story! Especially if it's an online freebie.

This story is set after the first four novellas in this series (and yes, you really do need to read them first). Murderbot is now in the Preservation System with Dr. Ayda Mensah, the closest person to a friend it has, and Murderbot has come a long way to even consider being friends with someone. Mensah is struggling with PTSD in the aftermath of being kidnapped in Exit Strategy, but she's assiduously hiding her personal trauma from everyone around her. The rest of Preservation is struggling with the problem of having a highly dangerous Security Unit on their peaceful planet (the words "killing machine" are thought, if not said).

This is a quieter story in the series, and not a lot happens, but it's always a pleasure being in this fascinating world. "Home: Habitat" is notable for being narrated by Mensah, and I liked being inside her head and seeing how she views Murderbot. They have such a unique relationship and respect for each other.

SecUnit is looking down at her. “You can hug me if you need to.”
“No. No, that’s all right. I know you don’t care for it.” She wipes her face. There are tears in her eyes, because she’s an idiot.
“It’s not terrible.” She can hear the irony under its even tone.

Read it here on Tor.com if you're already a Murderbot fan. If you're not, go find a copy of All Systems Red immediately!