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A review by simonlorden
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
5.0
This book was exactly as good as everyone said it would be, and the reason for that is 80% the main character, Murderbot. About 15% is the rest of the crew, and maybe 5% the plot.
Which doesn't mean the plot is bad, actually - but Murderbot and its personality stole the spotlight so completely that the plot was secondary (tertiary?) to me.
Murderbot (as it calls itself) is officially a SecUnit, a security construct with both organic and inorganic parts that is supposed to have no free will and protect the company's clients on surveys and missions. In reality, Murderbot has overriden its government module and has complete free will, only it has to hide this fact to avoid being discarded. It does its job more-or-less, but mostly it just likes to be left alone and watch entertainment/serials/the equivalent of TV shows I guess.
And that is only one of Murderbot's super relatable qualities. I'm not sure saying that a construct has anxiety would be correct, but Murderbot certainly shows the signs. It doesn't like to talk to humans, and it doesn't even like humans looking at it.
As for the crew, only a few of them really stand out for me, but I loved their little interactions with each other, their surprise and arguments about Murderbot's personhood, and the way they (especially Dr. Mensah) made an effort to accomodate Murderbot's needs and make sure it's comfortable.
As I said, the plot was secondary to me, but I still enjoyed it and felt the tension at several parts where I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending - I would have to read the sequel to really decide on that - but I really hope that characters from this first book will pop up later on as well.
ALSO: While there is no central romance in this book, several side characters are mentioned to be in polyamorous relationship. In fact, polyamory appears normalised and quite common in this universe, which was amazing to see. This is why I'm tagging this polyamory even though there are no central polyamorous ships.
(Note: Murderbot is not human and has no gender, but still very much a person. However, at least in this first book, it hasn't expressed preference towards any pronoun, and only "it" is used throughout the book. So, I'll be using that pronoun unless Murderbot prefers another one later on.)
Which doesn't mean the plot is bad, actually - but Murderbot and its personality stole the spotlight so completely that the plot was secondary (tertiary?) to me.
Murderbot (as it calls itself) is officially a SecUnit, a security construct with both organic and inorganic parts that is supposed to have no free will and protect the company's clients on surveys and missions. In reality, Murderbot has overriden its government module and has complete free will, only it has to hide this fact to avoid being discarded. It does its job more-or-less, but mostly it just likes to be left alone and watch entertainment/serials/the equivalent of TV shows I guess.
And that is only one of Murderbot's super relatable qualities. I'm not sure saying that a construct has anxiety would be correct, but Murderbot certainly shows the signs. It doesn't like to talk to humans, and it doesn't even like humans looking at it.
As for the crew, only a few of them really stand out for me, but I loved their little interactions with each other, their surprise and arguments about Murderbot's personhood, and the way they (especially Dr. Mensah) made an effort to accomodate Murderbot's needs and make sure it's comfortable.
As I said, the plot was secondary to me, but I still enjoyed it and felt the tension at several parts where I couldn't wait to see what would happen next.
I'm not sure how I feel about the ending - I would have to read the sequel to really decide on that - but I really hope that characters from this first book will pop up later on as well.
ALSO: While there is no central romance in this book, several side characters are mentioned to be in polyamorous relationship. In fact, polyamory appears normalised and quite common in this universe, which was amazing to see. This is why I'm tagging this polyamory even though there are no central polyamorous ships.
(Note: Murderbot is not human and has no gender, but still very much a person. However, at least in this first book, it hasn't expressed preference towards any pronoun, and only "it" is used throughout the book. So, I'll be using that pronoun unless Murderbot prefers another one later on.)