Reviews with content warning for Cursing - All Systems Red

All Systems Red was an absolutely delightful sci-fi novella. Murderbot is an incredibly funny narrator, and the escapades on the planet are quite fun to read about.

My only complaint is that I found the combat to be a little lacking, but the interpersonal interactions were stellar. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series! 4 stars.

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icarusandthesun's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

a short and fun sci-fi novella that offered great concepts, quick writing and a hilarious, socially awkward and sarcastic bot as main character.
also found family!
can't wait to continue the murderbot diaries and get my hands on more martha wells books, because the writing and humour were just *chef's kiss*.

re-read: feb 19, 24
still my favorite sci-fi book, i love it so much. it's funny, entertaining, heart-warming, easy to get through, suspenseful. murderbot and all the others have grown on me. whenever i don't know what to read, i pick up this book and it results in me wanting to tear through the whole rest series again.
a book i will ALWAYS always recommend.

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laguerrelewis's review

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dark funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Martha Wells managed to pack so much character, worldbuilding, development, high stakes, and personality into this quick little novella. Murderbot is a compelling, lovable, and hilarious narrator, with so much to be explored that I am unsurprised at this series’ longevity. I want to binge them all!

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thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

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adventurous funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

My primary take away after finishing All Systems Red is that this story would have worked better as a full-length novel. Novellas are really hard to do well. More often than not, I find they either feel like over written short stories or abridged novels, and this is definitely a case of the latter. The bones are good, but the mystery engine that runs the plot lacks in tension because things move so quickly. Similarly, I feel myself developing affection for the crew Murderbot is with, and provided they show up in the other books I think I'll come to care for them a lot, but as it stands I never felt fully invested simply because there was not enough time. Murderbot themselves is incredibly likable as a main character, though their narration gets repetitive at times (how many times/ways can you say “I’m awkward” in one book?), and the prose, though nothing to write home about, were perfectly serviceable. Overall, though it was far from perfect, I really liked this and think that it's a promising start to the series.

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pastelkerstin's review

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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iono's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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maeverose's review

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

My possible adhd made it really difficult to focus while reading this. It took me a while to get through because I had to re read things over and over for them to stick. I’m pretty sure that was just a me thing and not a problem with the book.

That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed this. Literally halfway into the first chapter I already loved Murderbot, and grew to love it even more as the story went on. I related to it’s social discomfort a lot lol (Lot’s of parallels to autism, I felt like). I liked the humor, I actually laughed out loud several times. I really liked the worldbuilding and the way things were subtly explained to the reader without feeling like they were being explained. I liked the human characters (especially Mensah) but I feel like the only character that was fully fleshed out was Murderbot. It is a novella so of course with that many characters not all of them are gonna get the same amount of focus but I do wish they were a little more developed. Maybe if there had been a smaller cast of characters that would’ve been better. I liked the mystery at first but was a little unsatisfied with it in the end.

I’m still going to go check out the second book from my library right away.

My feelings about the mystery reveal (major spoilers):

I didn’t love the reveal that GrayCris was just killing people because they found something that was super valuable. I kinda hoped it would’ve been something more interesting, that feels so.. boring? I also don’t know that I buy anyone going that far for money, especially because neither DeltFall nor PreservationAux knew about the remnants when they were killed/pursued, so it wasn’t like they were a current threat to GrayCris’s future fortune. I think it would’ve been cool if it took more of a horror approach and had aliens coming after them or something lol. But this isn’t marketed as horror so obviously I can’t really be mad it didn’t go that route.. and to be fair the humor would’ve felt out of place then... apparently I don’t know what I want

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sexualedward's review

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Murderbot is one of my new favorite characters now. I LOVED it, but felt it should have been longer. Felt character’s individual moment to shine, story moments, and build up to moments should have been more to them. Absolutely will be continuing the series.

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