Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
(Murderbot Diaries Series #1)
Genre: Introverted Robots
“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.”
― Martha Wells, All Systems Red
The Muderbot Diaries is my 2024 sci-fi discovery. The Hugo-Nebula-Locus winning novella, All Systems Red introduces to our reluctant hero, an artificial construct that calls itself the Murderbot. As a security officer for an exploratory planet research team, its job is to save them from natural and manmade dangers. What the human research team doesn’t know is the droid has gone rogue and can overwrite company commands, which it does with the express purpose of watching limitless entertainment feed and avoiding all human interaction. Because that’s what we all ultimately want technology for — more TV.
The social barriers between the Murderbot & the team are broken after a near-fatal incident. A reluctant friendship starts and the team is astounded by the humanity of the Murderbot, who in turn tries to comprehend their human interactions and responses.
In around 100 pages, Wells relays several complex concepts — a sense of this futuristic world and its economy, the role of machines and their relationship to humans, and the dangers of space exploration. However, if you don’t want to philosophize about the future, All Systems Red is simple, unadulterated fun with its page-turning pace, laugh-out-loud humor, and space laser action. Given that AI is having a moment, it seems like the right time to pick this series.
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash
