All Systems Red

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

All Systems Red is the tense first science fiction adventure novella in Martha Wells' series The Murderbot Diaries. For fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels.

All Systems Red tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans.

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.

©2017 Martha Wells (P)2017 Recorded Books

I LOVE MURDERBOT

This book was just what I needed to get my out of a recent listening rut. I had been pouring through longer literary fiction type stuff that was really heady and then I started this on a whim and it was a sheer delight.

The world-building is immaculate, the plot is solid and well-paced, but most importantly MURDERBOT. S/HE is the man. I'm assuming he's a man because of the narrator's voice, but I think he's just an asexual SEC Unit that is supposed to be a killing machine but just wants to watch movies.

So relateable. And I just really love how Martha Wells crafts the environment kind of secondarily, you don't even notice that she is describing and explaining details about the world because it all takes a back seat to Murderbot's sardonic, sarcastic observations.

I had only two issues with this story.

1. It is too short
2. The ending is abrupt! It could have been flushed out a lot more, but just kind of cut off.

Now I'm left hoping for a sequel, hopefully one that has a little more meat, because this stuff is delicious.

Cute idea and story, if slightly awkward writing.

A cute little novella, with an interesting central idea and fun, if slightly unpolished- and awkward-feeling writing. Not the best book ever, but definitely worth the read. I look forward to more, especially if the author's writing becomes a little more practiced, as often occurs.

The narrator was okay. Character voices were a little inconsistent, and the wasn't always clear what dialogue was spoken and what was part of the main character's extensive internal monologue - though to be fair, that seems like a tough task for any narrator.

Short But Very Sweet!

I am usually not fond of short stories, but this one grabbed me and would not let go. It is the first of Wells' Murderbot Diaries series, and I already know I am going to get them all, also uncharacteristic of me. MB is a SecUnit, a security robot, that is, used to provide security for teams doing planetary explorations. Who knows what they may encounter and these bots provide an element of safety and protection.

However, self-titled Murderbot comes with a very bad history, being responsible for an earlier team's deaths. He's been washed clean, of course, but he is still something to be reckoned with according to his shipmates--and the element of trust is always in question. Part bot, a bit human, he has a great deal of contempt for humans, which makes things interesting and also provides enough humor to make this story fun and a very easy listen.

Yes, it is a single short story.
Yes, I wish the short ones in this series were combined into one book.
Martha must have heard, as the last book is much longer, and I am looking forward to getting my money's worth there.

So good, get them all anyway!!

I'm not a sci-fi fan, but I loved this book

Yes, believe the stars, this little book is awesome! I'm and old lady who doesn't like science fiction, now I'm in love with the murderbot and the crew, I can't wait to read about their next adventure.

an enjoyable little read

short but interesting and enjoyable. I liked it and felt like it was the right length for what it was.

A Lot of Fun

Really enjoyed this. Murderbot is a great character with great voice (and narrated perfectly) and it was nice to have a quick simple story.

Fun novella; Murderbot is cool.

Sci-fi isn't my go-to but this one sounded fun and my daughter has the book out from the library, so I grabbed the audio to listen while she reads.

I didn't really expect to like it as much as I did. Murderbot is much more relatable as a character than I imagined it to be. I couldn't really tell if it was intended to be a female or male AI, although my mind wanted it to be a male because of the narrator. (This has happened to me before with other genderless characters.) I love the way Murderbot is so self-aware and sort of shy and introverted. I also love the way it came into itself and developed a bit of an identity as the story progressed; it seemed to learn a lot about humanity by downloading and binge-watching Netflix-like shows or "serials" which is really quite funny.

I was a little confused by all of the science and tech talk, but it didn't really keep me from enjoying the story. I loved the little bits of humor here and there. This was a quick one that I was able to enjoy in a short amount of time. I thought I'd just listen to this one so I can discuss it with my daughter, but after that ending, I'm kind of curious to see where this series of novellas takes us.

Narration: The narration is a little staccato-like and robotic throughout. I understand that we have an AI as narrator in the story, but I felt like the point of the story is that Murderbot is a sort of a human-like character, so I expected less robotic speaking. On the other hand, that's what reminded me that I wasn't dealing with an entirely human character I guess?

Fun little story with great characters. I'd recommend this one for fans of sci-fi and AI stories.

Netflix and Kill

This was a fun, straight forward sci-fi adventure/thriller novella about a sentient misanthropic security droid named Murderbot who has succeeded in circumventing its safety programming and attained self-determination, a fact it strives to keep from the humans around it.

While I've seen some blubs and reviews that indicate All Systems Red deals with the ethics of sentient robots, this really isn't the case. While these ethical issues are apparent given the subject matter and first-person perspective, they are merely brushed against, and are in no way a focus of the plot. If that's what you're looking for, I suggest checking out some Isaac Asimov.

Having said that, All Systems Red is excellent. The plot moves along nicely with a good balance of mystery, action, and social anxiety. The humor is more subtle than laugh out loud, but serves to really make Murderbot (who just wants to be left alone to binge watch TV shows) a very relatable character.

Kevin R. Free does a good job narrating. No complaints.

As long as you're not looking for a deep philosophical treatise, All Systems Red is a great sci-fi read, and one I'd easily recommend.

Such An Awesome Mini Series!

I loved this little set of four books so much. At first it took a moment to get used to but once you are in a chapter you're *hooked*.

A different take on scifi. It was a cool mix of hima empathy and emotions mixed with dry robot sarcasm. He just wants to watch TV and be left alone, man.

The narrator did s lovely job. He felt super authentic. Just the right tone with the sarcasm.

Murderously awesome!

I just finished re-listening to this story after finishing the series of novellas, and it just got better with the re-listen. The world-building is detailed and intricate, the voice of the main character is wryly humorous and increasingly revealing. Watching Murderbot discover the limits of sentience and autonomy while also figuring out the why of his self-inception makes this one of my new favorite fictional universes.