All Systems Red by Martha Wells


All Systems Red by Martha wells is a short, snappy read with great characters, plenty of action, and an entirely compelling main character. Now let me get to the important part: I love Murderbot. Murderbot is a security robot/biological hybrid rented out by a crappy company to a scientific research expedition as part of the terms of insuring the expedition. It calls itself Murderbot. Murderbot is sentient, and has hacked the governor program that is supposed to make it do whatever the company tells it to. Murderbot could kill the whole expedition easily. If it wanted to. Mostly, Murderbot just wants to watch human soap operas and be left alone. Murderbot is our main character and narrator. And I say this again: I love Murderbot.

I really enjoyed Murderbot's disaffection with the company that owns it, the job that it's been rented out to do, and life in general. It's a fun twist on a sentient AI/Robot while also being true to the very human experience of working a job that you hate for a company you can't respect because you have to pay the bills, or, in Murderbot's case, because no other option was ever available to you. Murderbot's relationship with human members of it's crew also got me right in the feels; from such a disaffected being, the admission that its current crew is "ok" and "at least better than the last crew" speak volumes, and are also kind of gruffly adorable.

The plot moves along pretty quickly (this is a novella) and wraps up with a choice for Murderbot that I won't spoil, but which I will say left me both satisfied and running to preorder all the rest of the books in the series immediately. Highly recommend to just about anyone.

5 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.