Welcome to My Monday Minis where I share short reviews about books I’ve read.
I finally started The Murderbot Diaries and here is what I thought.
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All Systems Red
The Murderbot Diaries #1
by Martha Wells
Genre: Science Fiction
My Review
I’ve been excited to read this series as many people I know enjoyed it and recommended it to me. And now I know why.
A team of scientists, along with their required android, or SecUnit as it’s called, are conducting survey tests on a remote planet. Should be easy. But when another team is massacred, they realize they’re next and they aren’t prepared.
Murderbot is what it calls itself. And when you learn it’s history, the name is apt. It was easy to like Muderbot. It’s got a lot of human qualities, like sarcasm, introspection and wanting to know who it is. I was curious too. It’s not a sexbot, so no sexual organs, I was curious about what face it wore under the armor. Did it look like a man or a woman? I was left wondering and hope future stories reveal that to me. And it’s very human in another way, spending hours watching the future’s version of a Netflix show. I’d binge this series if Netflix offered it. Don’t let this fool you about the SecUnit. It’s not a combat model, but when required, it goes at it’s enemy no hold’s barred, risking injury to inflict the most damage.
What made this read real for me was that it’s always assumed that with the advanced technology that enables us to travel in space, we come to expect it to “look” advanced. For the ships and all the other things that come with it to be like shiny new toys and everything works right. Not so here. It’s the same as always, cheaper is better and cutting corners is always the first choice. Which causes quite a few problems for the crew and for Murderbot.
I had so much fun with All Systems Red and am already reading the next book. The ending here left me so curious. What does the future hold for Muderbot?
4 STARS
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Synopsis
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.
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