All Systems Red

, #1

by

eBook, 156 pages

English language

Published May 2, 2017 by Tordotcom.

ISBN:
978-0-7653-9752-2
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ASIN:
B01MYZ8X5C
ISFDB ID:
2161845
Goodreads:
32758901

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(4 reviews)

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

2 editions

reviewed All Systems Red by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)

Strong but not deep

This book (and series) is about its protagonist, who is a joy to listen to. It's also fun to hear about the stuff it gets up to with technology. There are action scenes at the appropriate places to be exciting. I wouldn't go expecting a thematic interrogation of some idea though — the plot moves quickly and breaks things.

reviewed All Systems Red by Martha Wells (The Murderbot Diaries, #1)

Go Murderbot

From the plot alone, this novella would be a bit of perhaps cliche science fiction. What makes it both unique and compelling is that the story being told from the perspective of the "Murderbot" (hence The Murderbot Diaries), a cyborg generally treated by society as a piece of equipment.

Martha Wells's writing does a good job of showing Murderbot's personality, its particular anxieties, its relationships towards humans, and general attitudes towards life. Even if the plot is cliche, Murderbot as a character is the opposite.

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