All Systems Red by Martha Wells

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Poor Murderbot. The android is clinically depressed, and for good reason. It’s essentially a slave, it works for a corporation it despises, and its work assignments are usually boring or awful. Worse than that, if humans develop any respect for it, which they rarely do, they start to ask it about its feelings, and it feels horrible and doesn’t want to talk about them.

It just wants to be left alone to watch video series in peace.

That doesn’t happen. Murderbot is accompanying a team of humans on a mission of planetary exploration. Things go wrong, then the situation gets even worse. Murderbot’s job is to keep its humans alive and safe. Somehow.

While this may sound glum, it’s actually funny and exciting. I’m looking forward to reading Murderbot Diary #2, “Artificial Condition,” coming in May.

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