All Systems Red
Ratings1,723
Average rating4.1
This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: All Systems Red
Murderbot has hacked its own governor module. Technically it doesn't have to listen to anyone or follow any program commands. But it does have to keep up some semblance of functionality so the company doesn't find out it's been hacked. When Murderbot is rented by a team of scientists, it will encounter humans that have never worked with a SecUnit before. And just when it thinks the contract is going to be a boring one, the unexpected happens. Suddenly Murderbot will find itself doing a lot more than watching the scientists dig up soil samples.
Murderbot's personality is fantastic. Picture a robot who knows it has a job to do, but would rather sit and watch soap operas all day. Begrudgingly Murderbot follows commands from the scientists, but it ignores all system commands. And every chance it gets, Murderbot is dissing the corporation that owns it. Martha Wells does clever world-building through Murderbot's sarcastic remarks. Painting the corporate ruled world that does everything as cheap as possible for the readers to see.
Martha Wells also brings a new perspective to artificial intelligence. Instead of hearing about the doubts and fears from humans, readers have a chance to see through Murderbot's eyes. It's not comfortable being around humans. It would rather stay in the cargo hold than socialize. Its entire purpose before hacking itself was to be a security robot. But with Doctor Mensha's team, it will be forced to come out of its shell and may just find that some humans aren't so bad.
Packed within less than two hundred pages is a story that will grab you from the first sentence. The evolution of Murderbot was fantastic. The sarcastic humor was undeniably hilarious. And it all came together to create a world I crave to see more of.
lol i'm murderbot i watch soap opera LOL isnt that funny its like im robot but actually im funny human LOL XDddd xd
Until the halfway-ish mark, I was like, “this is fine,” but after that man-o-man my heart was won. This novella was exactly the fun comfort read I was looking fun.
I really can't emphasize enough how much I love Murderbot. I listened to the whole series, then reread the 5th book for my book club, then evangelized this book to a new book club I just joined and got them to choose it for our first read, so I read it again. Murderbot is the most relatable human-bot construct I've ever read, and I hope Wells has many, many more adventures for it in the future.
Absolutely wonderful. Reminds me of the best bits with Heinlein, Adams, and some space comedies I've seen. It's not comedy, but there's plenty of humor.
I thought I had read this before but nothing seemed familiar, so perhaps I only read about it.
An enjoyable and fun adventure.
I'm looking forward to reading the others.
I waited too long to read this book. I loved it. Moving on to the next one.
Short and sharp sci-fi thriller. The main selling point is the subtly funny and misanthropic title character.
Sci-fi fans and Asimov Robot series fans should certainly get a kick out of this. It would make a good streaming show as well (if it's not already).
This is a great start to this book series, and I'm looking forward to learning more about the Murderbot.
An Artificial Intelligence breaking its programming and going rogue whilst all the time continuing to do the job it was intended to in the first place... It doesn't sound like a particularly compelling storyline, but once you read through the first paragraph you are sucked into a story told by Murderbot, an AI trying to just get on with his life.
I could tell from their expressions they were all thinking hard. The HubSystem that controlled their habitat, that they were dependent on for food, shelter, filtered air, and water, was trying to kill them. And in their corner all they had was Murderbot, who just wanted everyone to shut up and leave it alone so it could watch the entertainment feed all day.
This book had me sucked in from the first page, there was enough character development of the secondary characters to allow me to follow the story whilst only needing to know enough to not dilute the story of Murderbot.
All in all, I would recommend that anyone with an interest in Sci-fi to read this book, looking forward to continuing the series!
Contains spoilers
[Note: This book is good - the sequels are excellent, any criticism of this book does not apply to the rest of the series which just gets exponentially better]
This is a very interesting novella, told from the point of view of a Security Unit (a human-looking organic/machine robot - think Arnie in Terminator but asexual). This SecUnit has examined it's functions and disapproves, it doesn't mind keeping it's clients safe, but doesn't like the fact that it may be called upon to kill things - so it calls itself Murderbot. This is an unusual SecUnit, it has hacked it's own governor chip and now doesn't have to obey commands - it has freedom. With this freedom it carries on doing the day job of keeping humans safe but now secretly downloads TV series to binge watch whenever it's left alone. Now though it has been asked to watch a bunch of researchers on an unexplored planet and things are going a bit weird. Keeping this bunch of humans safe may be harder than expected...
I really enjoyed the main character (Murderbot) and the unfolding mystery. Things build to an exciting climax...and then it's over. Most of the story I would give 4 to 5 stars, but the ending felt rushed and unsatisfactory, not quite “it was all a dream” territory, but close right at the resolution the main character falls unconscious and wakes up to find everything has been sorted out. It was a bit of a disappointment as up until then the story had been great.
So my final decision is:
⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎ Story. (5-2 for ending)
⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎ Main character.
Average = ⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎
As much as I enjoyed this quick story, I feel like sci-fi doesn't really work as a novella. This could have been great if we had more time to get to know the setting, the corporations, the bots, etc. It just needed more.
I genuinely don't know where to begin.
I loved this novella - it was excellent. Sure, because of the shortened form factor you get thrown right in with minimal world building/exposition. But world building isn't necessarily what this book is for. Instead, I fell in love with the characters, particularly Murderbot.
I don't want to say too much for fear of spoiling things, but give this book a read. It's absolutely worth it.
Yes please give me all the books about the grumpy robot killing machine who just wants to watch its soap operas and gets irritated when it discovers it actually kinda likes its humans. Yes please.
A good Sci-Fi short story, and sets up an interesting character for future stories.
I enjoyed Martha Wells' All Systems Red as a first novel in a series. It was a short read and moved quickly with solid characters and situations that were pretty interesting.
That said, many people have gushed on this series to such a degree that I was expecting something remarkable and to me it was pretty darned basic. Murderbot as a character has an interesting enough situation that I can see this setting up for future conundrums and different situations than run-of-the-mill space opera. But it was, in my mind, barely touched upon. The other members of the squad introduced were reasonably solid, but there was little exploration of their group. It felt like the author was trying to write in such a way that the reader is supposed to assume things about those characters without having to actually “go there.” Making assumptions about people IRL is a dangerous and fault-ridden tactic, so that felt unsettling to me.
Can those of you who gush about this book, please tell me what I'm missing? Thanks in advance.
This is essentially a nit-pick of an enjoyable story, though. I do look forward to the next one, and have it in my Kindle library.
Interestingly, for such short pieces, I found it interesting that the price is higher for these than a typical novel ($12.99 as opposed to $9.99) and I found myself balking on hitting that buy button for this reason. Introspectively, I find my own reaction interesting and don't know what to make of it other than some sort of value proposition which has nothing to do with the writing, story, etc.
When I borrowed this from the library, I had no idea it was a novella. If you're looking for a fast-paced ride with some light sci-fi... this is definitely your book. The recommendations don't lie, this is an amazing story that explores some common sci-fi tropes but isn't tired, boring, or mundane.
A security “organic robot” (for lack of a better way to explain it) that calls themselves “Murderbot” tries not to get close to humans. The contracts come in, they do their job, and watch their serial TV shows when they can. They're rogue in that they have hacked their own governor system... but that's fine.
This was another book that had me jumping up and down exploring identity and socially constructed understanding of identity and “humanity.” I enjoyed this so much I'm now looking for book 2. I don't need to read that other book I'm halfway through... right?
Welwel, ik ben content. Het deed me enorm hard denken aan de robotverhalen van Asimov, maar dan vele keren beter.
En OK, dat is geen eerlijke vergelijking want Asimov begon meer dan 80 jaar geleden aan zijn robotverhalen, en het is dus logisch dat ze niet meer van deze tijd zijn. Maar toch: het fantastische The Bicentennial Man en de R. Daneel Olivaw-verhalen zindert hier door, in het conflict tussen robot en mens en vrije wil en parallellen met slavernij.
Het hoofdpersonage is een SecBot, een androïde veiligheisrobot met biologische onderdelen. Hij noemt zichzelf Murderbot, en de toon wordt al meteen gezet in de eerste paragraaf:
I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.
Het leven steekt hem tegen en hij kijkt vooral series — ik voelde al meteen een zekere band.
2023 GraphicAudio read – So, I tried out the GraphicAudio version. Meaning I've now listened to the Kevin R. Free one, this one, AND the ebook editions.
Anyhow, I liked this audiobook. I think I'll always be partial to the Kevin R. Free narration, but it is really nice having different voices for all the characters. I love Ratthi's (omg plz let this spelling be right) voice. But how Murderbot is narrated feels so different. Definitely a different feel from more antisocial and annoyed to... hmmm more emotional?
The length is about 45 minutes shorter, but since I listen to it on x1 and the regular audiobook on x1.2-1.5 it didn't feel like too much of a difference.
So, will I continue on with the GraphicAudio editions???? ehhhh I'm at least going to try the next one to see how A.R.T. is voiced. Who knows, maybe it'll grow on me. I really think if I had listened to this one first, I would have liked it more. I'm just used to MB being just 2 steps from destroying everyone and less... friendly and curious haha.
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Okay, to be honest I've read this series (books 1-6) twice this year all before I could even get around to writing this review. I listened to books 1-4 as an audiobook first then went back the second time and read them. I don't have a favorite way of reading these books. The narrator does an amazing job and I'd love to one day own these audiobooks. This is a series I want to purchase in every way and at this point has become a comfort read.
I'm not usually a huge fan of sci-fi. While this series does delve into tech wordage, it isn't so much that I can't understand what is being said or at least figure it out.
This one has some action to it and introduces us to the characters who are the main reason I love this series. MurderBot is so relateable. The anxiety, how they don't want to deal with people, and watching media while they should be working just make me all the more in love with them because I get it. I'm always nodding my head along. But then an action part will come up and it is almost shocking because I forget they are a SecUnit. This series is just so great.
I liked this enough to want to read the next one. And maybe the one after that. Let's see how it goes.