A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.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 … 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.
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I gobbled this entire series up. Murder Bot is the best!
All System’s Red is a deeply unique and clever take on one of my favorite sci-fi tropes (robot becomes sentient). It’s a very quick read, but full of heart and interesting characters and concepts. I loved it and can’t wait to read the rest of the series!
«All Systems Red» is the first story in the «Murderbot Diaries» series, which caught my attention by the title alone. It was all I had expected — and more. Much, much more.
Murderbot is a security android, part of a small scientific exploration team on a planet yet unexplored. It hacked its behavioral program, so it can do whatever it wants, without having to follow human commands (in other words, it can completely ignore the Asimov’s three laws of robotics). At first it thought of becoming a serial killer, but then it discovered cable TV and thought, “Oh, hell. I’ll just keep working.”
I wish there was a way of giving out six stars to titles here on GoodReads. The only “flaw” in this book is that it’s too short (only 160 pages in the paperback version, 3h17m in the audiobook). Needless to say, I picked up the second book, Artificial Condition, immediately after finishing «All Systems Red».
The story is told from the point of view of our protagonist. Murderbot reveals itself to be a deep and fascinating character. Most of the time it does a half-assed job, rarely working hard because humans never notice weather its job as a security droid is shitty or well done. Barren threats to “its humans,” Murberbot not only does not care about people, it actively avoids human contact, preferring to be stashed away in its cubicle watching TV or making its rounds through the habitat’s security systems. It hates human contact so much it almost panics at one point when the humans who hired it suggest that it takes off its helmet and hangs around with them in the mess hall. You see, Murberbot is very shy (or antisocial, depending on how much you believe in the narrator, which is Murderbot itself).
We are used to two types of stories involving androids: either they are threats to human life and will bring forth the apocalypse or they are Pinocchio analogies. Martha Wells proposes another philosophy for our Murberbot: it is not human nor wants to be; it does not care what humans think of him and it only doesn’t go about killing indiscriminately because… well, for why bother? Imagine Commander Data from «Star Trek: The Next Generation», except instead of imitating his colleagues, aspiring to be human, dreaming of being “a real boy,” he does his job with as little thought as possible, calling as little attention to himself, and returns to his quarters at the end of the shift to watch TV. The humans in «All Systems Red» constantly try to treat Murderbot like a person, but Murderbot finds it all ridiculous, as it considers itself little more than an appliance.
«All Systems Red» is an unexpected and welcome break in the literary patterns of robot stories. It’s incredibly well-written (no surprise here, as Martha Wells is a veteran of speculative fiction). It’s action-packed, has subtle world-building, and it’s full charisma and humor. Murderbot is a great character that I want to follow it forever: it’s contradictory, efficient (when it wants to), full of anxieties, at the same time caring very little what people think while being very self-conscious. The first book in the «Murderbot Diaries» series is a grand, if short, robot story.
Where has Murderbot been all my life? Absolutely LOVED this book and I’m excited to learn there are more Murderbot books! This is outside my normal reading genre (this is sci fi w/ no romance) but I did something I rarely do–after reading in ebook, I’ve bought the print version of this AND the rest of the series. That’s how much I enjoyed reading about this awkward, relatable AI.
I greatly enjoyed this novella, which won the 2018 Hugo Award and 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella. It’s the first entry in The Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot’s self-analyses and assessments of the humans with whom it works are by turns incisive, melancholy, and droll, woven through a fast-moving plot. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
Utterly captivating! If you read only one book this year, and you are a Sci-Fi fan, read the Murderbot Diaries.
Starts off with action and doesn’t slow down. A security guard human robot combination with a hacked command governor and an affinity for space operas. Why don’t they know everything about the planet and can they get off the planet alive? This short story left me wanting more.
The first book of four (so far), this is an amazing exploration of the life of an AI, part human flesh, mostly robot. Told from its 1st person POV, the story reveals what it’s like to be a “murderbot,” as it thinks of itself, built to be a weapon. There’s wonderful insight into how a being like this feels in interactions with humans – complete with anxiety and a self-soothing habit of watching long-running series on its visual feed. Not my usual thing, and simply amazing. Highly recommend.
When a grumpy robot gains self-awareness, all it wants to do is watch tv and avoid eye contact. But its scientist companions’ lives become threatened, so it is (begrudgingly) drawn into a strange murder-mystery plot.
This novella was a lot of fun. The story is narrated from the robot’s perspective, and barrels quickly from planet surface to space station. I’m not accustomed to the length and pacing of novellas — so I found myself getting a bit of whiplash — but loved the ride nonetheless.
The best thing about All Systems Red is the main character: we are introduced to a Security Unit who calls itself Murderbot. It just wants to keep its human clients alive but doesn’t want to have to talk to them or show its face all the time. Also … does it *have* to work? Because it’d rather just binge watch its soap operas in peace.
10/10 can relate. We are all Murderbot.
Love smart, action-packed books set in space? You need Murderbot in your life. This is a high-adrenaline, non-stop read, and now that I know it’s the first in a series, I have the feeling I’m going to be blazing through the further adventures of Murderbot ASAP.
Loved this book, it’s a four point five and would’ve been a full five except for the ending.
For me, great scifi is when the author doesn’t start out telling me how this new world works. I’m far more interested in how the characters act/behave/ survive in this world that is unfamiliar to me. Good scifi hits the ground running giving the reader enough credit to keep up as the author slowly metes out the world building while setting a very dynamic conflict.
My favorite scifi of late is Old Man’s War, what a great read (along with the two followups). All systems Red is on this same level for me. The story starts off at a run and doesn’t let up until the end. I loved it.
The minor problem for me is that in normal story arcs there are four sections, conflict, complication, crisis, and conclusion. This book has the crisis and the conclusion it runs so hot at such a frenetic pace the whole book feels like the crisis in the arc. Because of this the final crisis fizzles or pales to some of the wonderful earlier action scenes. This also happened for me in the book, Passages. The scene on train in that book made the ending feel like a fizzle. But oh, was that train scene something else.
Doesn’t matter though, I picked all the other Martha Wells books. She can really write a strong female character that is viewed through the eyes of a murderbot.
David Putnam author of the Bruno Johnson series.
I just finished “All Systems Red” and “Artificial Condition”, the first two stories in the Murderbot series. These short novels (novellas) have won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus and BFSA awards. They are great fun with lots of action (murderbot, doh!). The main character is a security cyborg / construct on the run with free will (this is *never* supposed to happen), a conscience, depression and an attitude. The stories are not particularly dark which given the body count is surprising. There is a bit of humor and the stories feel optimistic even though the universe described in the stories is very unpleasant. Definitely recommended.
I’d been hearing a great deal about Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series, so when Tor offer the first four books for free on their website this week (current week only), I snatched them up. “All System’s Red” (the first novella), won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award, all for Best Novella. The ebook is about 144 pages. When the combine the short length, plenty of action and intrigue, with the fact that it’s an easy read, I tore through it in two days. It’s a complete story that has a proper ending but left me excited about the series.
There are a couple of things about this novella that make it shine. The writing is clean, there is almost no exposition and most information about the characters, story, and worldbuilding are revealed seamlessly throughout the story. I didn’t notice any infodumps. It’s written first-person from the prospective of the Murderbot and I guess there are a few longer internal dialogs that explain things, but those never felt like info dumps to me.
If there are any negatives about this novella, it would probably focus around the characters. The Murderbot and two other humans are pretty well-sketched, but the rest of the characters are pretty shallow. In addition, the writing is never descriptive, relying on the character’s thoughts, dialog, and action to reveal the setting and surrounding world in a very basic manner. It’s not as if an Android is going to wax poetically about a planet’s flora and fauna.
The main character is some sort of android/cyborg that is this fantastic combination of a naïve, rebellious, extreme introvert, obsessive watcher of the future’s version of Netflix, and a badass, dangerous killer. When I read the blurb, I expected the Murderbot to be a baddie, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Feels a bit like Holden Caulfield, if he was a futuristic Cyborg murder machine. As I stated in the opening, Wells does a great job of dropping us in the middle of this Universe, and then continuously feeding us details throughout the story, without it ever feeling confusing or obtuse. The writing is straightforward, but the players, plot, and backdrop are so fun, it all really works wonderfully. You’ll want to know more from the first page to the last. Four and a half stars for this amazing launch of a creative and well-told tale in the first of an already well-respected sci-fi series.
Really liked the not-actually-human viewpoint & all the non-human data flows!
Five stars for making me care about a robot!
This short book has the potential to live up to all the hype that preceded it’s original release. A Security Unit humanoid-robot has developed the ability to override its governor protocol and instead of killing everyone, begins to tap ethical protocols and to “think” for itself, discovering that the company who made it wasn’t as neutral as it claimed to be.
Having destroyed its previous “renters”, it calls itself “Murderbot” and in the beginning it really is a snarky self concerned little …snit. However, as it begins to interact with the humans working with it, it begins to care…and then things get really interesting.
This was fascinating and I’m off to reserve the next in the series. Highly recommended. 5/5
All Systems Red is the first of the Murderbot series and I will definitely be reading more! This is not your Asimov robots! I love the plot, the human and semi-human characters, science fiction, adventure, and the terrific imagination that went into making this story come to life. Wow, can’t wait to read the next book!
Murderbot is one of science fiction’s most beloved and misunderstood heroes right now.
I read this award-winning novella for the first time recently and was immediately struck by the connection I had with the murderous, self-aware android who is its main character.
After hacking its governor module, all Murderbot wants to do is be left alone long enough to figure out who it is—and binge-watch TV shows, of course.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to Murderbot and the scientists he’s been assigned to protect to get to the truth.
Martha Wells
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the voice of the so-called “Murderbot,” a bored, unfulfilled robot working pointless, dangerous missions for profit. Heaven forbid anyone find out that she has FEELINGS!