“All Systems Red” by Martha Wells

Main Index / Reviews Index / Fiction Reviews Index / 2020 Reviews Index

Rating: 4/5 Stars

A fun story about a AI construct who calls itself ‘Murderbot’ that has secretly hacked its governor module so it doesn’t follow any orders (it’s other words, it’s a free agent). It’s also a ‘SecUnit’ (security unit) leased out by the Company to provide security to a small group of scientists doing a field survey on an unfamiliar planet. While not performing its duties, Murderbot likes nothing better than to immerse itself in entertainment streams, mainly the future equivalent of current day ‘soap operas’ and to avoid interacting with its human clients as much as possible.

But things change dramatically when some members of the group get attacked by native wildlife. That wasn’t in the planetary briefing. A closer look reveals missing information due to probable hacking. Then, a rival planetary survey on another part of the planet goes dark and things start to escalate rather violently.

In all this, Murderbot keeps its clients alive (although it technically doesn’t have to) and learns to interact with its human clients (although its still not comfortable with it). The clients in the end, repays it for keeping them alive.

Now on to more adventures with Murderbot in future stories.

Book read from 2020/04/30 to 2020/05/01