Will I love All Systems Red?

The voice of the security robot who has slipped his controls is just a constant delight. What a personality packed into a short adventure. This book and it's successors are like perfect bites of the most flavorful dessert. More would not make each one better.

I had already read some of the later books, but I bought the six-book set on Kindle and read my way through it, loving each one. A self-aware AI security construct hacks its way to freedom, but is in danger of being melted down if anyone finds out what it’s done. With today’s AI taking off, this gives me an insight into the potential machine mind. While simultaneously despising some humans and making friends with others, the paranoid SecUnit secretly calling itself Murderbot travels around the galaxy, finding groups of humans to protect. This immediate paradox is just one of… show more.

Everyone loves Murderbot, the part-organic security unit that famously hacked its own governor module to grant its mind freedom. But the sec-unit is still enslaved; if discovered, it gets melted down and recycled for parts. So it goes on serving its human clients while spending its spare time watching endless media serials. On a planetary survey, it faithfully jumps into the monster’s jaws after pulling the hapless scientist out. Wish I had Murderbot on my Antarctic expedition! We laugh and cry with Murderbot’s selfless dedication, and we applaud its determination to strike out on its own (after all its clients… show more.

I am more familiar with the mystery world than the science fiction one so I only recently heard about the Murderbot series. Once I did, well, how could I resist a series with that name?

It's a great adventure, made more interesting told through the eyes of Murderbot, a self-aware cyborg tasked with keeping some too trusting humans alive on an uninhabited planet. A bit snarky, a bit anxious and sometimes a bit lazy, MB seemed very human to me.

As soon as I finished this book, I picked up the second one.

The latest sci-fi to gain momentum, one of these books was tossed in my lap by a close friend, and I found it delightful—The Murderbot Diaries, by Martha Wells.

It recounts the tale of a group of people on a planetary survey suddenly coming under threat of death, not from dangerous fauna, though the novella begins with such an attack, but from their own security “bots” known as “SecUnits” in the lingo of this world.

The interesting thing about this story is that it is told entirely from the Point of View of a SecUnit among the other… show more.

What's not to love? An android security bot that becomes independent of it's governing software and starts to figure out who it is and SLOWLY learns to interact with humans, presenting as if it is on the spectrum ... avoiding eye contact with humans and VERY UNCOMFORTABLE conversations about feelings ... And oh ... all while engaging in fire fights following programmed directives to protect the humans that have hired it as a security bot, running, gunning, and making snarky comments about humans making wildly stupid decisions. Murderbot (its name for itself) is authentic, grows over the series, and is… show more.

Every now and then, I discover a book that has imagined a world and/or a character that takes me by surprise, and I can’t stop reading about them. Again, it’s all about character! In this book, I met a human cyborg enslaved by a computer program and built as a security unit rented out to corporate groups exploring planets for profit.

This sentient cyborg frees itself from enslavement, hilariously staves off the boredom of security work by watching its favorite media series, and as it watches characters in these shows, begins to learn about human behavior. I enjoyed the awkward,… show more.

Where to begin...I loved everything about the Murderbot diaries, from the snarky, neurodivergent-coded main character, to the brilliant writing, to the fast-paced plot and thrilling action sequences, to the beautiful exploration of what it means to be human and what it means to care about people and find people who care about you. I loved the moral complexity of the world, where there were very few "good guys" and "bad guys" and a whole lot of people who are mostly just trying to do their best and get by in a world that isn't always kind. And maybe most of… show more.

This is the story of a rogue SecUnit, a mostly non-organic cyborg, that calls itself Murderbot. The mega-introverted Murderbot just wants to be left alone so it can watch its favorite video serials, but it's repeatedly forced to interact with its clients as it fights to protect them in hostile situations.

The thing I find most engaging about this Hugo and Nebula award winner is the way author Martha Wells crafts a believable inhuman character that still contains a nugget of humanity buried inside.

This is the start of a series so there are more Murderbot books to read after… show more.

I haven't connected with a character like I did with Murderbot since the first time I read Green Rider! Just wanting to be left alone to watch shows while the world happens around you is so relatable, and I couldn't get enough. I read every book in the series in less than a week, even the short stories.

I very much enjoyed the atmosphere of this book as well. It was very reminiscent of the first Alien movie. Creepy, dark. Not really gory. I love a good creature flick and I've rarely read a book which captured that so well.