Buy it here:

Amazon, Bookshop

Synopsis:

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.

“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.

Review:

I have always heard good things about the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells, but I am also someone who struggles with the idea of reading books that are part of a series. I know some people almost exclusively read series, but the whole idea of this is daunting to me. I have wanted to read a few, but the ones I have started, I have not finished. I think much of this is because I read so many different types of books, so many different authors and genres, that I do not know if I am going to be able to return to any series in a meaningful timeframe, so they are easier just to avoid. This is a me problem more than a book problem, and I know I am missing out on some great stories and some great authors because of my limitations.

Having said this, I also watched season one of Murderbot on Apple TV, and I really enjoyed the story and the characters. I also know that there is a second season in the works, but I also felt like it was time to at least start the series because I am ready for a new season right now. Having already watched the tv series before starting the series of novellas might have been the right choice for me because like I said before, I steer away from most book series. This tv show makes me want to give the series a chance. The first book in the series, All Systems Red, parallels most of the first season on the TV show, and it serves as a refresher for the story.

Murderbot is a security android who has hacked his governor module so that he has freewill outside of what his orders are from the Company. This also means that if anyone finds out, he will be broken down and reprogrammed, so he does his best to keep this freedom to himself. He simply uses his time as a security bot watching TV serials he has downloaded, thinking it is funny to call himself “Murderbot,” and being generally bored. HIs current assignment is working with a research team, and he is only hired for the expedition to be insured. When one of the other research teams goes silent on the planet, he learns something nefarious is happening, and it is up to Murderbot to help them figure it out while protecting his team, even when they fear him after learning he is no longer being governed. 

The story is much more than this. There is the underlying layers of distrust of AI and programming being limited by the programmers, the fears of the Turing Test being closer and closer to being passed, and there are also the question of religious ideology and if we are not governed by a Higher Power, what keeps us doing the right thing? None of these are brought up by Martha Wells in the book but in the ideas of the story itself, what it means to be a bot that is no longer being controlled. Wells instead writes a novella has a security bot who decides to continue to do his job, be bored, watch episodes of a drama he has downloaded, and make stay out of trouble. With the humor used to narrate this story, the true success of All Systems Red is that we relate to the bot. We have all been bored at work and would much rather watch TV than do any of it. We like the idea of making all of the choices for ourselves, but the truth is that we still follow the rules, and (most of us) want to do our best to help those around us. Being able to relate to Murderbot is also the biggest reason why I am going to pick up the second in this series and maybe break my streak of not ever finishing a book series.