All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Now available in hardcover, All Systems Red is the first entry in Martha Wells' New York Times and USA Today bestselling, Alex and Nebula Award-winning science fiction series, The Murderbot Diaries. "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. The Murderbot Diaries #1 All Systems Red #2 Artificial Condition #3 Rogue Protocol #4 Exit Strategy

Well, I can finally check this one off my “I really should read this” list. There’s a handful of books I feel obligated to read as a librarian and just never get around to, because there’s only so many minutes in a day, and new books are shiny. I was mostly pleased with this, and I think my only real hangups center around it being a novella and not a full novel. Things felt rushed in places, but when you only have under 200 pages to tell a story, things get streamlined.

The “shy murderbot” shtick is mostly funny and relatable, but I will say that towards the end it felt layered on a little heavy. Like the joke had been told just one too many times, and you’re left thinking “yeah I get it” rather than being amused. The ending was especially on-point with the MurderBot character, and I liked that the author played it the way she did.

So, only a very minor complaint to a short, enjoyable read. Definitely will read more in this series, especially to pad out a Goodreads Reading Challenge at the end of the year.

This was a totally fine little novella with some fun action and decent archetypical characters, but wasn't really anything more than that. I might continue the series just because they are so short.

Someone on Twitter called Murderbot “Janet from the Good Place, but with guns in their arms,” which is how I pictured them throughout this entirely delightful novella.

Originally posted on Geeky Galaxy.

The Plot

I know this is novella lengthed, but it seemed a little rushed to me. There's clearly word count left, but it seemed like the author wanted to write The End and move on before it was ready. They seemed to jump around from point to point just a bit too quickly, not allowing situations to fully develop before moving onto the next thing. For example, there was one part where they were hiding. It seemed to me like this would be perfect downtime from the action. Raise a little tension at the thought of being caught, get some more characterisation in of how the characters are reacting to the stressful situation they were in, etc. This didn't happen. I felt like we moved on before there was this opportunity. Other than the feeling that everything is a little fast, I did really enjoy this story. The idea of an unshackled bot and what would come of it if anyone found out was great.

The ending was well-rounded, sealing everything up with a pretty bow on top. I know there are more books, and there's more to Murderbot's story, but I didn't get the burning desire to read the next one straight away. Or maybe at all... I'm not sure.

The World

The setting of All Systems Red is well-built, with subtle pieces of information woven in, rather than it all being thrown at you at once. The reasons for the characters being where they are made sense and the description of this alien world was mostly good. I did feel like I wanted a little more occasionally. Like they're on a minimally surveyed alien planet with all sorts of weird and wonderful flora and fauna, right? I'd love to hear a little more about what that actually looked like. I'm just a sucker for good world-building that makes me feel like I'm stood on this alien planet right alongside the characters, and this didn't give me that feeling.

The Characters

Murderbot

Murderbot has some of the best quotes in this book. Murderbot doesn't have a specified gender that I saw, but because I related to Murderbot so much, I'm going with she. She's not a social person at all and I totally relate to that. I feel like some of the things she's said about humans have crossed my mind once or twice before. The voice this character was written in was just unique, and since this was told from her point of view, I really enjoyed seeing how she thought and processed things as a mostly bot with some human bits thrown in for good measure. I feel like Murderbot made up for some areas of this I felt were a little lacking, because of how relatable she was.

The accuracy of the below quote!

“Yes, talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful I dropped to 97 percent efficiency.”

There's more characters in this, of course. Murderbot is a SecUnit, which means her purpose is to provide security to the survey team she's with. However, Murderbot is clearly the key character. This series is called The Murderbot Diaries after all. The other characters did feel very secondary, like they were there to be protected and did serve a purpose, but not in any meaningful or memorable way.

Would I read it again? Maybe? I'm not 100% on this.Will I be picking up the next in the series? If it's on sale, sure.

Would I recommend it? It's a short, quick read. Murderbot is a fun character, so sure.

Is it going on my favourites shelf? No.