All
Systems Red
by Martha Wells is the first novella in a series of novellas and at least one
book that is part of The Murderbot Diaries. It stars as a
security unit that is part robot and part human that calls itself Murderbot. It
is an antisocial mix of robot and human that is not fully either. In the far
future where everything is run by corporations, Murderbot has a simply defined
job. That task is to protect the human exploratory teams that are doing
research on unsettled planets. Like most things, contracts are awarded to
companies based to the lowest bid so they don’t have the resources Murderbot
needs to do her job. When a team of scientists on a planet stop responding to
any calls and goes missing, it is up to Murderbot and her team to figure out
what happened. The planet is not supposed to have any threat, so where is the
team and why are they silent?
This novella
is an interesting first work in a long running series. Murderbot is an
introvert trying to deal with doing her job and the fact she is not like anyone
else. She was built to do a job of a security guard to be embedded with
exploration teams. That mix of organic and robot parts has created an introvert
that would much prefer to be away from everyone and just watch their version of
television. But, she has a job to do and does so in this read that has a nice
mix of action, drama, and humor.
I recommend All Systems Red by Martha Wells if someone is looking for something different with a unique protagonist and likes space exploration stories. I am currently on hold at the library for the sequel, Artificial Condition. This read is also a novella.
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries
Martha Wells
Tor
January 2019
ISBN# 978-1250-21471-3
Hardback (also available in audio, eBook, and paperback
formats)
176 Pages
My reading copy came from the Skyline Branch of the Dallas
Public Library System.
Scott A. Tipple ©2021
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2 comments:
Thanks to Scott for a review of this novella. I have had a copy of this for a while, I am glad to be reminded of it. It sounds like a great series to me.
He very much liked it. I thought about reading it, but it was due back to the library so I let it go.
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