eBook, 144 pages

English language

Published May 2, 2017 by Tor.

ISBN:
9780765397539

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4 stars (6 reviews)

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied 'droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as "Murderbot." Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

3 editions

Go Murderbot

4 stars

From the plot alone, this novella would be a bit of perhaps cliche science fiction. What makes it both unique and compelling is that the story being told from the perspective of the "Murderbot" (hence The Murderbot Diaries), a cyborg generally treated by society as a piece of equipment.

Martha Wells's writing does a good job of showing Murderbot's personality, its particular anxieties, its relationships towards humans, and general attitudes towards life. Even if the plot is cliche, Murderbot as a character is the opposite.

Review of 'All Systems Red' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I LOVED All Systems Red. Murderbot might be my new favorite character in all of Sci-Fi. I had to read this for my first grad school class at Emerson, and it was an overall winner. Highly recommended if you like Sci-Fi, or if you like character-driven stories that are quick-paced, with decent action and good suspense. I will most definitely be adding the other Murderbot books to my TBR pile.

I do not remember how I feel about this

3 stars

I read this a couple weeks ago and could tell you approximately nothing about the plot! I remember having a nice time reading it? It's short, which is to its credit. There is some stuff about untrustworthy corporations, and the main character is a robot whose robot-ness seems to be a metaphor for neurodivergence of some kind? I don't know. It never really came together but also, hey, it was short.

avatar for cincodenada
Ell

rated it

4 stars