All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation)

The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1

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

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.

Amazing Story, Subpar Reading

Multiple words mispronounced and somewhat lower quality reading than the original audiobook. Not sure I’d buy GraphicAudio audiobooks again.

Whaaa? Love these books, but the dramatization failed.

I love these books, but the dramatized version was pretty awful. I hope the tv version gets the message.

Entertaining

I decided to listen to this after having watched the Apple TV show and this version had a certain charm to it! I enjoyed the action packed, silly thoughts of our protagonist and his gang of humans and found this read to be very entertaining