All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation)

The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, Holly Adams, Michael John Casey, Zeke Alton, Rayner Gabriel, Natalie Van Sistine, David Cui Cui, Khaya Fraites, Aure Nash, Megan Dorminy

Length: 2 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

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.

Performed by David Cui Cui, Khaya Fraites, Zeke Alton, Alejandro Ruiz, Aure Nash, Bradley Foster Smith, Holly Adams, Megan Dorminy, Natalie Van Sistine, Michael John Casey, Rayner Gabriel, Shanta Parasuraman, Tanja Milojevic and Wyn Delano.

©2017 Martha Wells (P)2023 Graphic Audio LLC

Competent performances, hard to tell voices apart

I adore The Murderbot Diaries and have listened to the audiobooks more than a dozen times. I've also enjoyed Graphic Audio's adaptations of Ilona Andrews' books, so I was excited to see how they would interpret this series. The sound effects and music were great and the performances were perfectly fine, but unfortunately the voices for the women of PresAux were too similar for me and I absolutely could not tell them apart during group scenes when there weren't tags to indicate who was speaking. I know the GA team often remove dialogue tags in their adaptations, which has been fine in the other dramatizations I've listened to because the voices were distinct enough, but if they're going to keep the VAs for the rest of this series, I am begging y'all to keep or even add more dialogue tags, because it was too confusing. Just from discussion with other Murderbot fans who've listened to the GA adaptation, we all had the same issue with differentiating the voices.

Very fun story!

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I downloaded this, but I was very pleasantly surprised.
The presentation format works well and the story is very engaging.
I’m looking forward to listening to the additional stories in the series. 

Mismatch of story & casts

The story is excellent, I love the dramatized effects (the clings and clangs). and the narrators are established performers, but this production is a mismatch.

First, this version is too fast. The original audiobook is 3 hours 17 minutes, and the dramatized version is 2 hours 30 minutes (the last few minutes in this version is a sample of another book). Just because the story is fast-paced, it doesn't mean the reading needs to be rapid. The book sounds to me like the narrators want to finish reading the book quickly and finish it. A more leisurely narration helps the readers to enjoy the story and the special effects. The people can talk fast, but the narration needs to be stable and clear.

Second, the narrator for Murderbot reads everything in a monotone - the story narration, the actions, the inter-thoughts, and the dialogues - everything sounds more or less the same. This technique could be good for non-fiction, but what's the point of dramatizing a book if the narration is flat?

Third, the voices of some characters sound out of character. For example, the voice of Dr. Mensha, who is an established middle-aged woman and a fearless leader, sounds too young. Yes, in real life, someone in her shoes could technically sound like that, but in an audiobook, we, the readers, want the character to sound like what we expect him/her/them to be unless there is a good reason for otherwise. Also, I (and my friend, who has only read the books and not listened to the audio versions) think Murderbot's voice should be lower. I do like the casts for Ratthi and Gurathin - they fit the personalities.

If you are new to the story and intrigued by the story, please listen to the original version narrated by Kevin R. Free. If you are a fan and curious, try this at your own risk. (I know about the risk, but I still can't resist.)

If you are looking for outstanding dramatized audiobooks, check out: "Good Omens - A Full Cast Production" by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett, and narrated by the main actors in the TV show; "The Graveyard Book: Full-Cast Production" by Neil Gaiman; or "The Sandman" by Neil Gaiman, all three books, which are straight-out full cast books, not dramatized version of audiobooks, but the best dramatized audiobook ever.

Love the story, not the performance

I love The Murderbot Diaries, and have read them several times so I decided to try the audio versions for my work commute. The audio version of Network Effect was pretty good so I decided to get the whole series. Unfortunately All Systems Red is poorly cast and poorly performed. The reader for SecUnit is light, chipper, and going way too fast. SecUnit is anxious and depressed and it expresses that in sarcasm and dry humor. To convey that you need a slower pacing and emphasis for emotional weight. Also, the reader for SecUnit mispronounced a few words - was there no director? Was the director not paying attention? And Dr. Mensah is described as having very dark skin and being calm and mature but the reader for her sounds like a 20-something white woman. I returned the audio and Audible returned my credit so I have no complaints there. I'll listen to samples before I buy next time. Maybe the series will be re-done after the Apple+ show.

Not sure about this interpretation

I was really looking forward to this when I first saw it. I'm a big fan of Murderbot, and I love to see how different creative groups interpret the source material. in other words, I am that person who will watch and probably enjoy every variation of a book/movie/play that i like.
For this production, I'm not sure how successful this interpretation was. the added sound effects provided a surprisingly interesting environment. I didn't notice the music at all, but then I never notice the music in movies. the voice actors did a fine job, though I had difficulty telling characters apart in group scenes. unfortunately, some of the characters sounded very wrong. one who is a very serious and down to earth political leader sounded flippant and immature. the inflections were off (way off) for most of the production. towards the end, it was sounding better and finally hitting the emotional marks. these are production and directoral issues and not the fault of the actors.
this was my first Graphics Audio purchase, and it could very well be my last.

I'm a fan

I'm a fan of the series and got this version with a coupon. I already have the other version.

The audio is technically fine, no glitches, chirps, or repeats. A well edited audiobook. The only problem is the chapter transitions. They are abrupt. Reading the chapter numbers makes the transitions smoother.

There are some voice acting problems. First, the narrator is too chipper. MB is not a chipper character, it's a sarcastic character. Conversely some of the other characters are a bit flat.

That said, these are only really noticeable if you've listened to both.

Should have considered the story’s legacy

The work (book—narrative) is so good that it deserves better than this. Another reviewer’s critique addressed speed of delivery and gender and age of key characters, and nailed the disparagement of what comes off as an amateur review performance. Dramatic presentation of the Murderbot Diaries is desirable! But this isn’t it.

funny and action packed

murderbot is a delightful and funny narrator! it's nice to see such a great representation of a nonbinary, introverted character, I cannot wait to read more in the series. full cast recording is excellent!

Don't Bother!

Hated it. Kevin R. Free brings Murderbot and his humans to life. This was a poor reading with sound effects. If this had been my first experience with Murderbot, I would not buy any other. As it is, thank you Mr. Free, I can't wait for the next installment.

Somewhat flawed, but overall good.

This is my first “dramatized adaptation” I have purchased. Being a fan of the source material, I figured I would give it a shot.

First, the positives. The sound design and music were really well done. There were a lot of little moments captured that made the experience unique. Music was also a great fit and performed just as well.

Also, I would like to applaud the actor who did murderbot. I felt he did a really good job capturing that Kevin R Free feeling of the voice. Also honerable mention to Ratthi’s voice actor as well for playing him in a memorable way.

Some minor issues: someone else mentioned the voice actresses sounded too similar. Although I do understand it, I think it’s very mitigated by Wells’ fantastic dialogue, giving you an idea of who is talking just by the way they speak. So that wasn’t a big issue for me. There still could be improvement though. Just even different accents could help.

The big issue: this is ultimately what gives the performance a 3 star rating and the overall a 4 star rating. Dr. Mensah was misscasted. From the book to Free’s audio book version has her with a much older voice that makes it clear that she’s the boss of whatever group she finds herself in (also, if I remember correctly, she’s around 50) . This is especially important in Exit Strategy, where she’s butting heads with Murderbot and is the only one who could make him back down. What makes the casting decision even weirder is that the actress who voices Pin-Lee seems to have a slightly older voice that matches better, and Dr. Mensah’s voice matched Pin-Lee’s better. If they were swapped, it would have been a lot better. So I don’t know what really happened there.

Overall, I would buy this version if your a fan of murderbot like I am. But I do hope that find a good match for Mensah for Exit Strategy, if it is also made in this form.