All Systems Red
By Martha Wells
~Book Review~
*Warning! Minor Spoilers!*
It's a quick read that serves as an introduction to a greater series that stays largely in the shadows for this installment. We are teased with greater mysteries lurking, such as why Murderbot dubbed itself such an ominous title, and the crew of humans it protects also stay largely faceless. Our narrator is an android so just the brisk, data-driven facts about the crew at large. There is the head of the exploratory mission, Mensah, who sees the humanity in Murderbot, comical relief like Ratthi, and an interesting augmented human called Gurathin who is less trusting. The team discovers someone is out to sabotage the exploratory missions on this terrain and teams up with Murderbot to save themselves, especially when it appears the Company may be in on it.
Part of the expository style and underwhelming names like “the Company” make All Systems Red feel generic; if this had been published even ten years back its AI storyline grappling with the meaning of humanity and second-class citizenry may have made more of a splash, but compounding with this being a novella, the result is an unremarkable, easy story. Not much is delved into about why Murderbot feels so drawn to the human-written series Sanctuary Moon, for example (387 episodes mentioned!), and its realization at the end is more of an abrupt action to usher in what will likely be deeper questions explored in further works.
Nevertheless, you can’t argue it doesn’t have a unique narrator who pokes fun at our humanity. A nice dive off point for The Murderbot Diaries.
Recommended for fans of: Arkady Martine; Tamsyn Muir; Dennis E. Taylor
