History Literature / TheMurderbotDiaries

-->''[[spoiler: [=SecUnit 3=]'': [[spoiler: I want to help.]]

* PostCyberpunk

* ChekhovsGun: Near the start of ''Artificial Condition'', ART permanently ''Edisconnects Murderbot's data port. [[spoiler: This becomes relevant when Murderbot pretends to let Tlacey hijack it so it can sneak onto her shuttle.]]

* PinocchioSyndrome: Discussed between [[spoiler:Dr. Mensah]] and Murderbot, who likes some things about humanity (especially soap operas) but finds other parts incomprehensible or outright distasteful and is quite secure in its own identity as a partially organic supercomputer.
-->'''Dr. Mensah:''' We tend to think that because a bot or construct looks human, its ultimate goal would be to become human.\\
'''Murderbot:''' ...That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

* TheBerserker: [=SecUnit=] combat tactics involve throwing themselves at their target and inflicting maximum violence, knowing that any damage can be easily repaired later.

** In ''Rogue Protocol'', Murderbot pretends to be a [=SecUnit=] run by 'Security Consultant Rin', but eventually has to reveal that it's actually a rogue [=SecUnit=]. The humans don't believe it as [=SecUnit=]s are illegal where they are, so they assume that Rin is just saying this to cover up his use of one.

* LostColony: Several of these were established before the founding companies went bankrupt or lost the data in a hostile takeover (which can mean [[CorporateWar actual hostilities]]). The colonists were thus abandoned to die when the incomplete or cheap terraforming failed. Preservation was created when a spaceship captain decided to evacuate everyone to their present homeworld, an act of altruism that forms the basis of their society. Those who survive can find the Corporate Rim can turn up decades later and legally seize control of the technology left behind, regardless of what the inhabitants want.

%%* ColonyShip: How Preservation was founded.

* ChekhovsGun: Near the start of ''Artificial Condition'', ART disconnects Murderbot's data port. [[spoiler: This becomes relevant when Murderbot pretends to let Tlacey hijack it so it can sneak onto her shuttle.]]

* NiceToTheWaiter: Dr. Abene treats Miki the bot as a true friend even though Miki is technically her property, instructs it to prioritize its own safety in a dangerous situation, and [[spoiler:is absolutely devastated when Miki is killed]], all of which give Murderbot a hugely improved opinion of her.

* PaperThinDisguise: {{Justified|Trope}} when Murderbot goes undercover and modifies itself with an {{Autodoc}}. The "disguise" makes it two centimetres shorter, lengthens its head hair and thickens its eyebrows, and adds a small amount of body hair to its human skin, plus adds self-written code to imitate human gait and tics -- not enough to fool anyone familiar with [=SecUnits=], but enough to fool the [[SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands ubiquitous automated surveillance feeds]]. In ''Exit Strategy'' he's able to get past [=GrayCris=] operatives looking out for him because they're running a search based on people obscuring their faces with hats, scarves, tattoos or hoodies. Murderbot has his hoodie down and looks just like an augmented human in casual clothes, so walks right past them.

* PaperThinDisguise: {{Justified|Trope}} when Murderbot goes undercover and modifies itself with an {{Autodoc}}. The "disguise" makes it two centimetres shorter, lengthens its head hair and thickens its eyebrows, and adds a small amount of body hair to its human skin, plus adds self-written code to imitate human gait and tics -- not enough to fool anyone familiar with [=SecUnits=], but enough to fool the [[SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands ubiquitous automated surveillance feeds]].

* ComicallySmallDemand: In ''Artificial Condition'', Murderbot undercharges for its services while posing as 'security consultant' (i.e. bodyguard) because it has no idea what the proper rate is. Realising from his client's surprise that it's done this, Murderbot replies with a HalfTruth; it needs an employment travel voucher to get to the same planet his clients are going to (ostensibly for a job for another client).

* DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Tlacey the CorruptCorporateExecutive breaks her contract with Tapan's group, steals their research, and repeatedly tries to have them killed when they try to recover it. As a representative of an interstellar MegaCorp, it would have been trivial for her to hire them or buy their work fairly. Instead, her efforts get her [[spoiler:a NeckSnap from Murderbot.]]

* ColonyShip: How Preservation was founded.

* DeadpanSnarker: Murderbot, and how! ART has some aspects of this as well.

* SafetyInIndifference: The state Murderbot is in at the start of the first book. Even with a hacked Governor Module, it doesn't believe it would survive if it escaped the company, so it just sticks to doing the same miserable job while watching TV and ignoring the worst orders. Even after it decides to start actively looking after the PreservationAux team, it keeps justifying to itself reasons it doesn't ''actually'' care.

* ChekhovsGun: Near the start of Artificial Condition, ART disconnects Murderbot's data port. [[spoiler: This becomes relevant when Murderbot pretends to let Tlacey hijack it so it can sneak onto her shuttle.]]

* {{Whodunnit}}: ''Fugitive Telemetry'' has Murderbot brought in as a consultant after a man is murdered and his body dumped on the space station orbiting Preservation. Murderbot has never actually investigated a murder before (that he remembers) so has to use what he remembers from murder mystery vids and ThatsWhatIWouldDo to try and solve the case.

* AccidentalMurder: The "Incident" at Ganaka Pit. [[spoiler:The malware that caused Murderbot and all the other [=SecUnits=] to go completely haywire was uploaded by a rival mining installation, and was meant to sabotage just the LoaderBots, delaying Gakana Pit's delivery and lowering their performance stats. It also unintentionally infected the [=SecUnits=], and a minor bit of industrial sabotage turned into a massacre by killer androids, with the whole area abandoned, all formal records of it deleted, becoming nothing more than a horror story the miners on [=RaviHyral=] tell each other.]] Oops.

* ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: Because RobotsThinkFaster a RunningGag involves Murderbot watching entertainment videos in the middle of a crisis, getting distracted and having to rewind his recordings to find out what everyone else is doing. More effectively it enables Murderbot to plan on the fly when it ''is'' concentrating on doing its job. When Murderbot is so busy it gives an prerecorded response to a question, the humans know the shit is about to hit the fan.

* ExcuseMeWhileIMultitask: Because RobotsThinkFaster a RunningGag involves Murderbot watching entertainment videos in the middle of a crisis, getting distracted and having to rewind his recordings to find out what everyone else is doing. More effectively it enables Murderbot to plan on the fly when it ''is'' concentrating on doing its job.