All Systems Red: (The Murderbot Diaries #1) by Martha Wells

"Murderbot, a Security Unit assigned to a survey team on an unnamed planet just wants to watch his programs and be left alone. But when things start to go weird and people start dying around him, well, he has to do the job he's been contracted to do. It's never that simple though and he's begrudgingly dragged into a life or death struggle. It had potential but unfortunately in the end it fell a little flat."

⭐⭐

Pros: I liked and related to how Murderbot just wanted to sit and watch his "programs" all day but work kept getting in the way.

Cons: Everything was very surface level, even Murderbots own feelings, it all felt rather shallow/The motive didn't feel strong enough. I feel like since it was a novella there wasn't enough time for real character growth.

Full Review:

Murderbot is an organic/mechanical Security Unit (SecUnit) assigned to a team of surveyors on an unnamed planet in the middle of God knows where. SecUnit doesn't know and he really doesn't care. He's just doing his job and not doing much of it, honestly. Since he hacked his Governor module and overrode his own system, he basically has free will and all he really wants to do is watch his programs and be left alone.

His interactions with the humans he's protecting are as stilted and awkward as he is. There's a reason for that though. He has bad memories of being tormented by humans for their own sadistic pleasure, punished for misbehavior and worst all of, his free-will being taken away and his hand being forced to slaughter humans.

When things on the planet start to get weird, deadly weird, he finds that he wants to protect these particular humans he's working with. He doesn't even really understand why but, it's just what he wants. And so he does so.

Though Murderbots own sardonic voice and painfully awkward interactions with the humans were funny, at times, it eventually felt overdone. There's only so much hmming and hawing a character can do before you start to get tired of it. Then when the climactic battle happened and the novella ended, I just felt rather underwhelmed.

I'm glad I read it because I've been told by a few people that I'd most likely enjoy it. And though it was a quick, easy read, I just wasn't all that impressed and that's okay.

Comments

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