Murderbot is Cute

 

All Systems Red is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series written by Martha Wells in 2017. It won the 2018 Nebula Award and Hugo Award for Best Novella and is still very popular in the Science Fiction World to this day. There are currently 7 Murderbot Diaries Books. After reading two books in a row about the end of the world, I decided to read something more light and fun. 

We follow the character, Murderbot, a self-aware cyborg called a SecUnit. It calls itself, Murderbot. It has a mixture of robotic and cloned human parts, apparently with a human head that it likes to keep under a helmet. It has no genitals so it calls itself an it. Murderbot overrides its governor module making it independent. Instead of being a mass murdering murder robot, it watches hours of soap operas and true crime dramas. 

We follow Murderbot on its journey to learn to become more human as it develops a relationship with the humans it is tasked to protect. As the team of humans do research on a planet, they discover that the people in charge, Corporation Rim, is hiding information and they try to discover what is going on.  Murderbot protects them and learns about friendship and self sacrifice along the way. But really, it just wants to watch its shows and be left alone. 

This is a universe of Space Corporations, mining, and space exploration. Humans can be enhanced with either partial cyborg additions or are fully artificially created beings, like Murderbot. Murderbot reminds me a lot of the Star Trek The Next Generation character Data, an android trying to learn how to be a human. 

Trying to be human

The story is fast paced and is a quick read filled with action. Murderbot, even though it's not quite human, is relatable as someone who wants to be left alone to watch its shows and wants to hide its face under its helmet so that people won't see its facial expressions. We really don't get to know the other characters well, but we are getting the story from a cyborg who has trouble understanding humans. It can only understand them using references from TV shows. 

As it is the first book in the series, I really didn't feel like I connected enough with the story and thought it was boring. It was a short book, and I finished it in a few hours, so it didn't take up too much time. I will try other books to see how Murderbot grows as a person and develops better relationships. I hope that the world of the Murderbot Diaries will become clearer and more interesting. 

I give it a B, mostly because I thought Murderbot was a cute character.