All Systems Red

by Martha Wells

Other authorsLee Harris (Editor), Jaime Jones (Cover artist), Christine Foltzer (Cover designer)
Ebook, 2017

Library's rating

Library's review

This science-fiction novella, the first in the Murderbot Diaries series, lived up to all the rave reviews I've read all over LT. The world-building of a future where there are human/android "constructs" who provide security to human on exploratory missions, was intriguing, and the narrative voice
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of one of these constructs, known as Murderbot for unfortunate reasons, is wry and cynical and lively. I look forward to spending more time with it soon.
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Description

A murderous android discovers itself in "All Systems Red", a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial intelligence. 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.… (more)

Media reviews

But this book is sneaky. As much as you want to think this is just some lightweight little confection made of robot fights and space murder — and as much as All Systems Red wants to present itself as nothing but robot fights and space murder — Martha Wells did something really clever. She hid a
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delicate, nuanced and deeply, grumpily human story inside these pulp trappings, by making her murderous robot story primarily character-driven. And the character doing the driving? Murderbot.
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Awards

Hugo Award (Nominee — Novella — 2018)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novella — 2017)
Locus Award (Finalist — Novella — 2018)
Alex Award (2018)
Philip K. Dick Award (Nominee — 2017)

Language

Original publication date

2017-05-02
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