All Systems Red

3.5 stars, but rounding up since all my friends like this, ha.

A short, trashy, fun sci-fi novella, this follows Murderbot, a cyborg security person, as he/she/it/they helps a group of humans on some mining expedition on some random planet in some indeterminate far future. Murderbot is a lovable protagonist, as they're intensely socially awkward around humans and intensely dedicated to their fandoms (they sneak-watch “serials” - soap operas? endless anime series? - on their private eyeball internet). In other words, they're super relatable to the average sci-fi reader!

There's some violence (it is called a “Murderbot”, after all), but the tone is overall very light and fun. It's like a more relaxed, less self-serious version of Altered Carbon. I was actually strongly reminded of the wonderful Ancillary [something] series - maybe because of the focus on socializing ARGH SOCIALIZING and the lovable non-human-person protagonist.