The Murderbot Diaries is a series of far-future science fiction books written by Martha Wells. They recount the life and times of a SecUnit (aka a murderbot) that has hacked its governor module, and now can do pretty much whatever it wants... as long as it doesn't draw any attention to itself, because then it would be hunted down and destroyed, as violently and thoroughly as possible. This is a problem both because most of its skills and life experiences relate to killing things in a spectacular manner, and also because it doesn't actually want to do much of anything.

The story follows Murderbot as it escapes, watches lots of soap operas, gets its first job, watches a lot of cheesy science fiction, gets revenge on its former owners, watches more TV, and makes a few acquaintances that it can tolerate watching media with. There is a lot of grumpy, cynical violence and a lot of security-related adventures, all taking place in a well-developed and engaging universe. Also, Murderbot is one of the most engaging and enjoyable death-robots ever. I highly recommend the series.

This series is unusual in that it is comprised mostly of novellas -- currently five of them and one novel. As of this writing, the series consists of:

Additionally, there is a Murderbot short story Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory that does not seem to be available at this time; it was originally given out as a pre-order bonus, and then later as part of the Short Story Club. It is often listed as Murderbot #4.5, and hopefully will become available to general audiences in the future.

Given the ending of Network Effect, it appears that the author is setting the series up for a fairly long run, which given its popularity is a smart move. The first novella, All Systems Red, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella, the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella, and the 2018 American Library Association's Alex Award; Artificial Condition won the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novella and the 2019 Locus Award for best Novella.