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.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An entertaining, simple, linear plot, perfect for what I was wanting to read right now. I read this one for Life’s Library Book Club.
This was a quick read which I quite reveled in. It was an instant plunge into the story which I quite liked and I enjoyed the trajectory. The bulk of it centered around technical aspects of the journey mission and a bit of internal conflict that was humanly relatable from a robot telling sort of point of view. I loved the little mentionable bits of pop culture.
From that standpoint I would have liked to have seen more character development integrated into the telling of the technical bits, maybe a side line story over a period of time, or in response to a certain incident, or perhaps in thought. Just an extra kick of something specific I could bond to other than the more generic human-like qualities. I also wasn’t really sure what the whole sex and gender bit was about and how it was set out to enrich the story. I had hoped to come to understand a bit of the backstory or resolution in that to explain the importance or whether it was for entertainment purposes or for what, but maybe there is more to come in the love interest sector with the subsequent book.
Overall a good book!
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