Book Review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries #1)

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.

My Review: 
I'll be totally honest here-I'm not into this kind of SF book with robots and corporations and exploratory missions unless there are dinosaurs or other monsters killing everyone in sight. It's not the kind of book I would normally even consider picking up but I saw it on a few blogs and thought it sounded intriguing. It was when I read Mogsy's review (you can find Mogsy here https://bibliosanctum.com/ ) and heard more about Murderbot itself that I decided I just had to read it. I'm glad I did because I have just loved this series of four novellas!

"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.”

Murderbot, as it calls itself in private, is sent with a group of scientists for PreservationAux who are doing a survey on an option they bought, and need to decide whether or not it is worth bidding to get full rights to explore the planet and gain its resources. It starts with Murderbot reluctantly being called into action to save the scientists from a dangerous unknown lifeform that attacks them, but that is only the start of Murderbot's problems. With these unexpected issues like monsters, an incomplete map of the planet and altered subreports, it is clear that somebody is hiding something from the team. It is when they lose contact with a neighbouring survey group DeltFall that they realise that they are also in danger from attack with only the reluctant Murderbot to protect them. 

"I was also planning to use the time to to watch some Sanctuary Moon and recharge my ability to cope with humans at close quarters without losing my mind"

SecUnits are sent on missions to assist and protect their clients and are expected to obey certain rules and protocols, and record all information and conversations when then can be used and sold on to others. This particular SecUnit however, has been able to disable the control enforced by its governor module, allowing it to speak, think and act freely if it wishes, which it tries not to show in case a new module gets fitted. Murderbot has discovered the joys of unlimited media available for download and fills up its memory banks with drama series like Sanctuary Moon, rather than boring crew related things that it has no interest in. All it wants to do is stay away from annoying people that make it feel anxious and awkward and enjoy the media in peace but instead keeps getting dragged into human problems that it could happily do without. 

"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"

I love Murderbot! It gets anxious every time it has to come into contact with the crew, especially the ones who want to interact with it, causing the SecUnit to react with horror! The worst moment for poor Murderbot is when it is asked to talk about its feelings which has it wanting to run screaming back to episodes of Sanctuary Moon! I love how awkward it felt and was amused by the inner monologue that it shares with the readers about how it was feeling and what it wanted to do! Murderbot is such a great character that I could relate to about anxiety and dealing with people! There is so much personality to it and I enjoyed those personal encounters with the crew.

There is also a lot of good action in the novella, with the deadly monster attacking at the start, the tense exploration of the DeltFall complex, dealing with the enemies Murderbot style and Murderbot trying to keep the human clients safe. I've also become somewhat obsessed with Sanctuary Moon and I really want to watch a few episodes to see what Murderbot loves so much about it! I liked the human characters in the book too especially Dr Mensah who really seems to understand Murderbot the best. The ending did take me a little by surprise but I was really keen to see what Murderbot was going to do next so I went right on to the second novella which was every bit as good.

Read August 2018.
4 stars.