Obsolescence

by Martha Wells

On a space station near Jupiter, station manager Jixy discovers one of her friends, Greggy, an “augmented human,” has been brutally murdered. The crime resembles past incidents on other stations where people were attacked and their augmented body parts stolen. A semi-mythical figure called Piecework has been blamed for the attacks. Determined to protect the others on the station, Jixy sets out to see if Piecework—or someone else—is responsible for the crime.

(First published in Take Us to a Better Place: Stories, now available as a free eBook and audio book.)

Genres: Science Fiction

ebook

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Martha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series, The Murderbot Diaries series, and other fantasy novels, most recently Witch King (Tordotcom, 2023). She has also written media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, Locus Awards, and a Dragon Award, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the British Science Fiction Association Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, the Sunday Times Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her books have been published in twenty-five languages.

She is also a consulting producer on The Murderbot Diaries series for Apple TV+.

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for 52 Book Club Challenge 2025 29) Shares universe with prompt 28.

Short story in the Murderbot universe based on a throwaway line in Exit Strategy. Murderbot watches a documentary about Mars Rovers, but rejects it as not being realistic as he finds it hard to accept any kind of friendly relationships between bots and humans. As ever, Martha Wells explores what it means to be human and inhuman, humane and inhumane. There are no easy answers but lots of interesting questions...

[Steven R. McEvoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read the first seven novels and novellas in this series. As I await the release of the eight I am going back and reading the 4 short stories. Two are prequels and two falls between other works. This one it is hard to tell where it fits. I am thankful I gave this series a try, it was highly recommended from an author I love. I read this volume and the other 4 shorter works on the same day.

The earlier stories in this series were novellas then a full length novel and now back in the novel range for book 7. This one was written a number of years ago. All of the stories in this series are excellent reads. And I was excited find out after reading this that an eighth volume has been announced for release early in 2026.

The description of this instalment is:

“On a space station near Jupiter, station manager Jixy discovers one of her friends, Greggy, an “augmented human,” has been brutally murdered. The crime resembles past incidents on other stations where people were attacked and their augmented body parts stolen. A semi-mythical figure called Piecework has been blamed for the attacks. Determined to protect the others on the station, Jixy sets out to see if Piecework—or someone else—is responsible for the crime.”

This story was originally in the anthology Take Us to a Better Place: Stories, published in 2020. This particular story is available online as both an eBook or as an audio book. Short fiction is a very different art form that writing novels and very short fiction like this is also a different skill. Wells is a master of all three, and has all three in the Murderbot Universe.

This is a wonderful little story in this universe. It does not have any direct or inferred appearance of Murderbot, but readers will recognize the universe and some of the technology, especially hybrids or augmented humans. It is a mystery story, and involves a serial killer. It is a tightly written story. It really adds some interesting information into the Murderbot Universe.

I read the stand alone version, but picked up the anthology and plan to reread it as I work through that collection. I have heard the audio version is excellent as well. A great read I can easily recommend.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this a while back, in a short story collection before the individual title was added to Goodreads, but I remember it vividly. That's one of the great things about Martha Wells' writing - there's so much imagery that I can easily remember it.

Overall I was disappointed in the story because of the ending. To quote myself, "It was an alright short story, a closed-door mystery, but the ending felt forced, rushed, and unfulfilling." However, looking back on it now, I also remember that (not focusing on the ending) it was extremely exciting and the characters were likeable. I was disappointed that it didn't have Murderbot, but Martha Wells has such a way of writing that just makes it impossible for me to not like. I very much wanted this story to tie back into the main Murderbot series later on. If it had, maybe I likely would have enjoyed the story more at the time. Maybe there will be more references to it in later books. That would be a treat.

[Lau · Rating 3 out of 5]

3, ó 2.75

Precuela de Murderbot, que no afecta ni aporta nada a la historia principal. Prácticamente sin relación.

Es un asesinato en una nave-colonia, y una "investigación" (creo que es mejor llamarle una búsqueda). Nada de otro mundo, irónicamente.

Casi podría ser parte de cualquier serie de ciencia ficción donde los humanos tengan complementos robóticos y estén colonizando el espacio. Se puede leer de forma aislada perfectamente.

[Christie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really MurderBot, but MurderBot adjacent in that there are augmented humans. I learned about rovers and want to find out more about them (I feel like I’ve come across this term in the MurderBot books but it was just one more term that went over my head). Anyway, I enjoyed it and would like to read more about KidLand.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

wished there was more about Piecework.

[Laura Shoults · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay but that was the very beginning of a story and not a whole story….