eBook, 156 pages

English language

Published Dec. 13, 2017 by Tor.com.

View on OpenLibrary

5 stars (16 reviews)

"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.

3 editions

Review of 'All systems red' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

It's good fun. Was a bit shorter than I expected so the ending felt a bit abrupt (reading it as part of a Tor ebook collection so couldn't see how long was left). Murderbot's an interesting character, and the story from their point of view is interesting, especially when there are so many hours of Sanctuary Moon left to be watched. The problem of that perspective is it makes it hard to distinguish the other characters from each other, but overall it's an enjoyable read.

Review of 'All systems red' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This was excellent. The first person from the central character is what sells it. Murderbot is a great creation, injecting the humour and narrative drive into the story. This is a novella so the wider setting is only hinted at but it is nicely self contained as well. A few trenchant points are made about free will and slavery but mostly this was just fun. A small note about pricing though. These are novellas not novels and I got the first one for 2.99 which is a fair price. The next 3 range from 6 to 8 quid and that's a bit off if you ask me. It doesn't affect my review score as that is not the author's problem but I bang it up here as a PSA.

2022 Re-read.
I am just going through a few re-reads while I wait for a few pre-orders to land. A re-read …

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