Occasionally I read other genres than mystery. Science fiction and historical fiction are two of my other favorites. This week I read System Collapse by Martha Wells.

I have read quite a number of novels and stories by Wells but this was a new series for me. Told from the viewpoint of a Murderbot, an android if you will, it tells of a hunt for some rogue colonists and a skirmish with a corporation determined to enslave the colonists and take the planet for its resources. Put like that, it sounds average but the murderbot’s voice is so human in so many ways that the story works. The bot, like Data in The Next Generation is both human and not and struggles with the dichotomy. Fun.

I also read Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice. In this outing, Finlay and Vero head to Atlantic City to save Vero’s cousin from a mobster and rescue the Aston Martin given Finlay by a Russian gangster. Needless to say, it does not go smoothly. Finlay’s ex-husband and mother insist on accompanying her and then Finlay’s hot cop boyfriend turns up. Laugh out loud funny.