Format: ebook
Source: borrowed through Kindle Unlimited
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Date read: May 29, 2025
The Murderbot Diaries
1. All Systems Red - Paperback | Kindle
2. Artificial Condition
2.5. Rapport: Friendship, Solidarity, Communion, Empathy
3. Rogue Protocol
4. Exit Strategy
4.5. Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory
5. Network Effect
6. Fugitive Telemetry
7. System Collapse
Martha Wells
| Website | Amazon |
Synopsis (Goodreads):
“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”Thoughts on All Systems Red: Things I will freely admit to: I had heard about this series for a while, but didn't actually pick it up until I watched a few episodes of the show. Things I will even more freely admit to: I binge-read the first 4 books over a 2 day period. And: Murderbot is glorious.
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.
Not just the series as a whole (which really is glorious), but also the character of Murderbot. He's a mess. But he's a glorious mess. He's the self-isolating, anti-social person in the back of the room trying desperately not to make eye contact because that might involve interacting with people and NO, please NO.
Yeah, I like Murderbot. He mostly doesn't care, but he also kind of does? Since he hacked his governor module, he technically doesn't need to follow all the rules and save the humans when they get into terrible situations, but he keeps barreling into danger and pulling his humans out of the fire and, well, he's pretty good at it. He might not think he's good at it, but he keeps everyone alive when others probably couldn't and that says a lot.
The thing I keep thinking about is that he's kind of a blank slate. He keeps doing the things a SecUnit would do because it keeps him safe (for now). He hides in plain sight to keep his governor module hacking hidden and he's a mix of wants (he has a lot of hours of media he wants to binge watch to keep his mind occupied) and programming (making sure the humans don't get ended on his watch).
As for this contract? He has a group of scientists he needs to watch over while hiding his autonomy (and watching all his shows). The planet they're on isn't as friendly as they were led to believe and THINGS HAPPEN. Things that Murderbot has to deal with and things that the humans have to deal with and BOY there's a lot going on here.
No lie, I immediately jumped into book 2, so THUMBS UP all around.
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