If you have come to adore that marvelous, socially awkward construct called Murderbot—who would rather stream television serials than save humans, yet saves them anyway—then you have come to the right place, dear reader. For I shall tell you of other books that possess that same curious magic: tales of artificial souls learning to be more than their programming, found families knit together across the stars, and wit sharp enough to cut through any corporate hull.
So gather round, for here are fifteen splendid adventures to fill the Murderbot-shaped space in your heart.
For Those Who Love Artificial Hearts Learning to Feel
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Here is a tale most peculiar and wonderful: Breq was once a great starship called Justice of Toren, her consciousness distributed across thousands of bodies. Now she is reduced to one frail human form, seeking vengeance against an empire. Like our dear Murderbot, Breq must navigate what it means to have once been a weapon and to now possess something terribly like a soul.
This remarkable novel swept every major award in its year—Hugo, Nebula, and Clarke alike—the only book ever to claim all three. Leckie crafts a universe where gender matters not at all in language, where “she” serves for everyone, and where questions of identity run as deep as space itself.
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
What happens when a ship’s AI awakens in a body never meant for her? Lovelace—now called Sidra—must learn to pilot a single small form after knowing the vastness of a starship’s senses. She speaks of “the kit’s arm” rather than “my arm,” for the body feels borrowed, strange, too small.
Chambers writes with such tenderness about consciousness and belonging. Sidra’s journey interweaves with young Pepper’s tale of survival, and together they create something that feels very much like hope wearing a human shape.
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
This is not a story of great battles or galaxy-shaking events. It is something far more precious: a tale of the tunneling ship Wayfarer and her motley crew—human and alien, flesh and otherwise—becoming a family. The destination matters far less than the hearts that travel together.
If Murderbot makes you long for found family without the corporate interference, here is your next home among the stars.
Activation Degradation by Marina J. Lostetter
Unit Four is a biological robot with but ninety days to live, tasked with defending a helium mine from alien invaders. But nothing is quite as it seems—not the aliens, not the mission, not even the truths programmed into Four’s very being.
Like Murderbot discovering the lies of GrayCris, Unit Four must untangle misinformation from reality while developing something inconvenient: a conscience. The novel asks what happens when consent was never truly given, and the answers are both thrilling and profound.
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
In this jewel of a novella, a traumatized mindship called The Shadow’s Child now brews tea rather than travel the stars. War has left her broken. Then comes Long Chau, brilliant and eccentric, who needs transport into the deep spaces where a body has been discovered.
It is Sherlock Holmes among sentient starships, set in a universe where Vietnamese culture flourishes across the cosmos. Martha Wells herself recommends de Bodard’s work, and small wonder—the wounded AI finding purpose through reluctant partnership could be Murderbot’s distant cousin.
For Those Who Crave Clever Mysteries in Space
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Picture this: you awaken aboard a spaceship, floating in zero gravity, surrounded by blood—and then you see your own corpse drifting past. You are a clone, you see, with no memory of the past twenty years. One of your crewmates is a murderer. It might even be you.
This locked-room mystery earned comparisons to Agatha Christie set among the stars. The clones carry dark pasts, for only criminals took this one-way journey. As secrets unspool, you shall find yourself guessing until the very last revelation.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
“Lesbian necromancers in space” may sound like the beginning of a jest, but I assure you it is deadly serious fun. Gideon Nav is a sword-wielding cavalier with a mouth most vulgar and a heart most true. She serves Harrowhark, a bone witch of considerable power and even greater emotional constipation.
When heirs of the Nine Houses gather to compete for immortality, murder follows. Muir writes gothic horror threaded through with humor so irreverent you shall laugh whilst surrounded by skeletons. It won the Locus Award and nearly everything else besides.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Ryland Grace awakens alone on a spaceship with no memory of his name or mission. Earth is dying—a microorganism devours our sun’s light—and he is humanity’s final hope. But the true magic of this tale is Rocky, an alien spider-creature who becomes Grace’s dearest friend.
They share no language, no biology, nothing but the desperate need to save their peoples. What grows between them is among the most heartwarming friendships in all of science fiction. If you loved Murderbot’s reluctant affection for its humans, you shall adore this.
For Those Who Wonder What Makes a Person
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
This Arthur C. Clarke Award winner asks: what if spiders inherited the Earth? Not our Earth—a terraformed world meant for humans, where an uplift virus worked upon the only creatures available. Over generations, Portia and her descendants build civilization, develop technology, create art.
Meanwhile, the last humans drift toward this planet in desperate hope. Tchaikovsky crafts something magnificent: genuine alien intelligence that thinks in webs and pheromones, yet grapples with war, faith, and meaning just as we do. It is evolution itself as protagonist.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor
Bob Johansson sold his software company, signed up for cryogenic preservation, and then was promptly killed crossing the street. He wakes a century later to find his consciousness uploaded into a von Neumann probe—a self-replicating AI sent to colonize the galaxy.
The solution to loneliness? Make copies of yourself. Soon there are dozens of Bobs, each developing distinct personalities whilst making pop culture references and debating philosophy. It is lighter in tone than Murderbot but shares that same sardonic heart watching humanity from just outside it.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
In a world where robots gained sentience and simply… walked away into the wilderness, Sibling Dex is a tea monk searching for purpose. When they venture beyond the human roads, they meet Mosscap, a wild robot curious about what humans actually need.
This novella won the Hugo Award, and you shall understand why. It asks no small question: if you have everything necessary for survival, what then? Is purpose required for contentment? It is gentle philosophy dressed in moss and machinery.
For Those Who Love Wit as Sharp as Any Weapon
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Peter Grant is a London constable who discovers that magic is real, ghosts need policing, and the rivers of London are governed by goddesses. He becomes apprentice to the last official wizard in England, investigating supernatural crimes with very British understatement.
Martha Wells counts this among her favorites, praising its humor and richly detailed world. The voice shares Murderbot’s dry observations about absurd situations, though here the absurdity involves negotiating with the goddess of the River Thames rather than malfunctioning security drones.
Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
Commander Cordelia Naismith is stranded on a hostile planet with Captain Aral Vorkosigan—enemy soldier, possible war criminal, and eventually something more complicated. Bujold launched her beloved Vorkosigan Saga with this tale of two people discovering honor in unexpected places.
The wit here is rapier-sharp, the character work masterful. If you love Murderbot’s complex relationship with Dr. Mensah, you shall find similar satisfactions in Cordelia and Aral’s unlikely alliance.
Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather
Aboard a living ship that breathes and grows, a community of nuns travels between colony worlds offering aid and comfort. When they discover their order faces a choice between conscience and obedience, faith becomes rebellion.
This brief novella packs worlds into its pages—questions of gender, of belief, of what we owe to institutions that have shaped us. The living ship Our Lady of Impossible Constellations is herself a character, and the sisters’ devotion to her is quietly revolutionary.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
On the winter solstice, the sun will die—and Serapio has been shaped since birth to be its executioner. Meanwhile, Captain Xiala commands a ship crewed by those who fear her siren powers, racing to deliver Serapio to his destiny.
Martha Wells praised this as “really brilliant,” and she speaks true. Roanhorse builds a pre-Columbian inspired fantasy world of gods and monsters, where chosen ones may be heroes or horrors depending upon which side you stand. It shares Murderbot’s examination of what it means to be made into a weapon.
Your Next Adventure Awaits
There you have it, dear reader: fifteen doorways into wonder, each promising the elements that made you love Murderbot so fiercely. Whether you seek artificial minds finding humanity, mysteries that twist like corridors in space, found families choosing each other across the void, or simply prose that makes you laugh whilst your heart grows three sizes—these books shall not disappoint.
For the true magic of Martha Wells’s creation was never just the science fiction setting or the corporate satire. It was making us believe that something built for violence could choose kindness, that connection matters more than protocol, and that even those who feel most broken can become whole by letting others in.
Now go forth and read. Murderbot would want you to have something good whilst it rewatches its favorite serials for the forty-seventh time.
