Platform Decay

A new Murderbot book is always a reason for celebration, and one of the reasons for that is that Martha Wells tries hard to make them very different. Platform Decay is very much in the condensed thriller mode. It is also a book about airports.

The story opens very much in media res with Murderbot and his new SecUnit pal, Three, breaking their way through the security of a giant orbital platform. This is not quite Ringworld. It is only a ring surrounding a planet, not a ring surrounding a star, but it is impressively huge for all that. And Wells makes it obvious that she has read Larry Niven’s classic work and adapted it for her own purposes.

It takes a while before we are given the full plot, but it is not too spoilerific to mention the key point because it is in the sales blurb. Murderbot is on rescue mission. Some people that Murderbot cares about (yes, it can and does care about humans, how did that happen?) have been kidnapped. As it happens, this is the doing of our old enemies, Barish-Estranza. Someone has to bring them home.

Inevitably complications arise, and this requires our hero and his rescuees to travel through what is essentially a giant space station, parts of which are much less well adapted to human habitation than others. People want them dead, and it is only a matter of time before they are caught, unless they can get out before then.

The orbital is divided up into many separate zones, each controlled by a different corporation, or alliance of smaller corporations. It is like an artificial planet made up of many separate fiefdoms arranged in a big ring.

Which is where the whole airports thing comes in. Wells, being a famous author, has doubtless spent a lot of time in them over the past few years. They are, for the most part, horrible places. Some airports do make more of an attempt at being habitable than others, but they are all dedicated to precisely two things: Security and Shopping. It is an airport’s job to get you on the right flight with a minimum of danger, and to delay that process for sufficiently long to deprive you of large quantities of money while you wait.

The orbital, then, is a giant ring of interconnected airports, with living and office space attached. Wells is, I suspect, venting her dislike of such spaces. More power to her!

Except that Murderbot is quite at home in an airport. Indeed, the more anodyne and anonymous the better. Firstly, all the messy detail added to make humans feel comfortable is just another source of security risk. And secondly, if there is nothing going on for hours on end, it can just sit back and watch media.

Along the way there is also a story about how children, manipulated by an adult that they trust, can be persuaded to do terrible things.

Yeah, Murderbot, children are a pain in the butt. But adults, adults are Evil.

Title: Platform Decay
By: Martha Wells
Publisher: Tot
Purchase links:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Bookshop.org UK
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