This is a review of “All Systems Red” which is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
In a space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by company-supplied security robots, 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 bot – a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself as “Murderbot”. Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to watch daytime dramas. But when a neighbouring team of scientists are killed, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
It is a fast paced book with a rather narrow view of the universe and the planet that the characters find themselves on. The author gives off small hints of the grander scale of things without revealing too much, and that keeps interest high. The shortness of the book actually works with the story and the writing style.
It is hilarious that a murdering robot is hooked on drama series and stands facing a wall when it feels uncomfortable with human attention. The mystery of its hacking its own governor module and its past, is enough to keep one interested and reading future books.
The other characters might seem a bit bland, but the book is short and everything is seen through the eyes of a robot. It might be that to a robot all humans seem bland until one of us does something spectacularly different. Dr. Mensah is the only one to really stick out from the crowd as the leader, and Gurathin the augmented human is reminiscent of the android Ash from the original Alien movie.
There isn’t much bad to say about this book, and it is more nitpicking than anything else.
The Murderbot seems a bit too human. Even with a cheap education module and hacking their own governor module and gaining access to entertainment of all sorts, it feels like it ought to think more like “avian creatures with such and such wings and colouring” rather than “birdlike things”. The same goes for emotions. Exactly how does a made robot understand emotions, or even feel them? As it is, the Murderbot seems more like an augmented human than a bot.
There is a distinct lack of descriptions of the surroundings. We only get the very bare minimum, and sometimes that means that things that the Murderbot apparently noticed earlier seem to spring out of nowhere. Granted, this is all seen through a robot’s eyes, so describing the surroundings in more detail than “thick jungle” or “rocky plain” might not be needed for the robot’s perceptions.
This is definitely a good book and worth the read, and I will continue reading the series.
I recommend this!
Librarian's Ledger 