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Loading... All systems red (edition 2017)by Martha Wells
Work InformationAll Systems Red by Martha Wells
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» 48 more Books Read in 2020 (53) Books Read in 2018 (51) Books Read in 2022 (43) Short and Sweet (52) Female Author (214) Books Read in 2021 (265) Books Read in 2019 (401) Five star books (286) BbBooBooks (7) Nebula Award (28) Books Read in 2023 (1,589) Books Read in 2017 (2,353) Best First Lines (72) Finished in 2021 (7) quigui wishlish (11) SFFKit 2020 (2) 2010s (32) To Read (633) um actually (57) mom (499) No current Talk conversations about this book. sci-fi fantasy I have been on a dystopia reading kick and thought I would try a full-on science fiction book that wouldn’t be too long. I should have known it was going to be about robots and that is something I don’t enjoy reading. Read this if you enjoy short books heavy on robotics and a fictional warlike universe. Murderbot is a Security Unit (cyborg) for a survey team on an unsettled planet, when things start to go wrong. All it wants to do is watch its TV serials, but instead it has to protect its human charges and figure out who is trying to kill them. ARGH THIS IS SO GOOD. Elentarri caught me in a weak-ish moment and convinced me to put aside my natural, deeply in-bred bias against all things space and most things science fiction to give The Murderbot Diaries a try. She can chalk one up in the win column, because I enjoyed this soooo much more than I thought I would, and that’s entirely due to the Murderbot character. I have a suspicion that I’ll be hard pressed to describe the plot of All Systems Red after next week (and in truth, there’s not really a lot of plot), but I will remember Murderbot vividly. I thoroughly enjoyed his irreverence, his humor, and his introverted reactions to the people around him. This was a fast audio listen and I thought Kevin Free did a very credible job. He does speak unnaturally slow overall, but he brings Murderbot to life and gives it personality. I’ve already started the second one, Artificial Condition.
But this book is sneaky. As much as you want to think this is just some lightweight little confection made of robot fights and space murder — and as much as All Systems Red wants to present itself as nothing but robot fights and space murder — Martha Wells did something really clever. She hid a delicate, nuanced and deeply, grumpily human story inside these pulp trappings, by making her murderous robot story primarily character-driven. And the character doing the driving? Murderbot.
A murderous android discovers itself in "All Systems Red", a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial intelligence. 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. No library descriptions found. |
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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Obviously there aren’t a lot of different plots going on, it’s a very character driven novella. Specifically our main character Murderbot.
This book was such a fun take on Robots gaining sentience, especially one designed for murder, that this normally played out trope felt fresh and exciting. I never knew I wanted a social awkward murderbot until today.
I’m not sure if I’m married to the episodic feel of this series yet, typically I don’t like them, but the ending of this book made me okay with it so far. Can’t wait to read the next one! (