All Systems Red
2017
- franchise:the murderbot diaries
- series:the murderbot diaries
- form:novella
- genre:science fiction
- human-computer interaction
- life on other planets
- artificial intelligence
- androids
- robots
- interplanetary voyages
The story
The series is about an artificial construct designed as a Security Unit, which manages to override its governor unit, thus enabling it to develop independence. It calls itself Murderbot, and likes to watch unrealistic soap operas. As it spends more time with some caring humans, it starts developing feelings that it does not care for.
What it’s like
Dry, clipped, and wickedly funny first-person narration gives this novella its texture: a sardonic inner voice that undercuts every grand gesture with a shrug, sentences short and sharp on the page, with long stretches of quiet observation between bursts of action. The sensory world is a sealed, sterile survey station on an alien planet, all recycled air, humming corridors, flickering status screens and the pale blue glow of consoles, with the rough, muddy outdoors arriving in brief, vivid sketches. Its vibe is wry, cozy-tense and self-deprecating, a comfort read with a prickle of danger underneath, well suited to a rainy Sunday, a late evening alone, or a long-haul flight where you want to keep turning pages. Pacing is brisk and episodic, with the plot kept lean and the emotional thread running steadily beneath it. The central arc follows a reluctant, withdrawn being slowly and grudgingly opening up to the people around it. Violence is present and sometimes sharp, with brief bursts of combat and some graphic injury, but it is short and not lingered on; the dread is more frequent than the gore. It is for readers who want warmth, humour and a lonely protagonist who is secretly tender, without a heavy or bleak tone.
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