I received Advance Reader Copies for Platform Decay, The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells, scheduled for publication on May 5, 2026. This one made Goodreads' most anticipated 2026 novels list. Also, the book We Burned So Bright by T.J. Klune, scheduled for April 28, 2026. Thank you to Tor for both!

Platform Decay by Martha Wells - 4.5 stars

I loved this book so much that I dragged out reading it. Couple points at the start: the plot didn’t rely on a detailed recall of past novellas or books, so there wasn’t much need to ‘catch up,’ which was nice. Second, I’m always hopeful ART will feature but alas, ART is not in this one. ART is still in Murderbot’s thoughts though (of course!)

This novella is an action-packed rescue adventure that builds a fascinating world on a giant station that rings a dead planet. Reminded me of NASA’s Retrofuturistic Space Art from the 70’s. This novella was chock full of competent!Murderbot - constantly improvising, taking in as many data points and moving parts of its situation to make judgment calls, and all with its iconic sense of humor. A joy to read; somewhat of a return to earlier novellas regarding a mission’s beginning, middle, and end. It was not heavy on character development or depth, but it was a super fun ride and an excellent installment of The Murderbot Diaries.

We Burned So Bright by T.J. Klune - 4 stars

If you liked Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), you might love this. I just finished this book and I’m so conflicted about it (lol, as I was for Seeking a Friend). This story was very well-written, even plainly-written, which was excellent - made it easy to get absorbed. Let’s start with the rough bit for me: there was very little internal narrative for our main characters. Reason: there’s a mystery to their melancholy - specifically: where are they going & why - that’s meant to keep you reading. Unfortunately, that meant it took awhile for the characters to endear themselves to me. And actually, they never really did. I mean I liked them more at the end, but a deeper emotional connection was forfeited for the sake of the road trip mystery. Honestly, that’s okay though, because here’s where the book killed it: Klune’s world-building was absolutely incredible. A black hole is bearing down on Earth to devour it into nothing, and Klune was able to cover the massive scale of this existential horror from acknowledging and describing how humanity at large was reacting, then narrowing it down to his two mains experiencing these pockets of natural beauty and phenomena, ugly on-the-ground violence, and unique layered characters. Every time a chapter started with something like “Saturn has been destroyed, Jupiter’s next” I was just like holy shit this is so compelling!

Thank you for stopping by and checking these reviews out! If you’d like to chat, join the decentralized social media movement and ping me at https://glammr.us/@librarymonster. Cheers to 2026!