All Systems Red

Book Review of All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1), by Martha Wells

I borrowed Martha WellsAll Systems Red from my local library.

Description from Goodreads:
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.

Review:
Really quite marvelous. I love that you could feel how uncomfortable SecUnit was with people, how it was completely badass but also fragile. The book was fairly spare on the world building, but there was just enough to position the story. And I 100% approve of SecUnit’s decision at the end. I can’t wait to read more of this series. Tor continues to wow me with each new book I read and Martha Wells is on my radar.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *