Blurb

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. 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 is 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 Murderbot 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 Murderbot to get to the truth.

Review

I had never heard of this series before it was a book club pick for a group I am in online. I’m glad they picked it as this wound up being fairly fun. All Systems Red is a short book, kicking off a series that I fully intend circling back around to at some point. Released in 2017, this won a few of the more prestigious sci-fi literature awards. Murderbot, the lead character, not the book, but also the book, is quirky in an eye-rolling way. But hey, that is my kind of sense of humor. Ask my wife. I’m not sure if there is enough depth here to sustain a long run of books, but I’m going to find out in the future. The second book is already in my library, but it might be some time before I get to it. I try not to jump ahead in my list too often.

I read this one and Artemis fairly close to each other. I would pick Murderbot.