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rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-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
4.5
'All Systems Red' by Martha Wells is an engaging sci-fi novella.
The story centers around 'Murderbot,' a security android that gets rented out to different projects. While working on a planet with a survey team, Murderbot and the entire group get pulled into a dangerous situation that threatens their lives. Murderbot will have to learn how to work together with the humans that surround them to try and get off the planet in one piece.
Wells does a great job of quickly establishing a character that it is easy to care for. Murderbot just wants to watch entertainment shows and read books all day, which makes them relatable. Despite this, they do take their job seriously. Their slowly growing friendship with the humans while dealing with a difficult situation creates an engaging, fun read. The scope of the story fit the length and the ending leaves things open for future installments while also working as a good ending if one only wished to read the one book. I completely understand why people love this series and I will definitely be picking up more installments.
The story centers around 'Murderbot,' a security android that gets rented out to different projects. While working on a planet with a survey team, Murderbot and the entire group get pulled into a dangerous situation that threatens their lives. Murderbot will have to learn how to work together with the humans that surround them to try and get off the planet in one piece.
Wells does a great job of quickly establishing a character that it is easy to care for. Murderbot just wants to watch entertainment shows and read books all day, which makes them relatable. Despite this, they do take their job seriously. Their slowly growing friendship with the humans while dealing with a difficult situation creates an engaging, fun read. The scope of the story fit the length and the ending leaves things open for future installments while also working as a good ending if one only wished to read the one book. I completely understand why people love this series and I will definitely be picking up more installments.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Gun violence
Moderate: Blood, Death, and Violence
odunayo_y's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
3.75
It was alright. I’m not really seeing what’s got people so gaga over this series. Maybe the magic will hit in later books?
All the group marriage crap made me roll my eyes. It felt kinda forced. If it was one character that had multiple partners that would’ve been alright. But my disbelief was stretched beyond reason when basically everyone is in five person group marriages. Poly stuff ticks me off & grosses me out, so seeing too much of it (even as a background detail) tanks my enjoyment
Murderbot was an Ace mood™️ and the little bits of cyberpunk adjacent body horror was delightful(sorry 4 being an edgelord it will happen again 🤭)
An enjoyable quick sci fi read
All the group marriage crap made me roll my eyes. It felt kinda forced. If it was one character that had multiple partners that would’ve been alright. But my disbelief was stretched beyond reason when basically everyone is in five person group marriages. Poly stuff ticks me off & grosses me out, so seeing too much of it (even as a background detail) tanks my enjoyment
Murderbot was an Ace mood™️ and the little bits of cyberpunk adjacent body horror was delightful(sorry 4 being an edgelord it will happen again 🤭)
An enjoyable quick sci fi read
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gore and Blood
parenthesis_enjoyer's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Torture, Cursing, Blood, Murder, Violence, Death, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking
Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Vomit, and Classism
quotablehedgehog's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Murder, Gore, Xenophobia, and Blood
Minor: Medical content, Classism, and Slavery
hapikohw's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I am excited for the rest of this journey, to see our murderbot (yes, our!) become human.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
aksmith92's review
adventurous
funny
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
3.5
I did love the idea of Murderbot!
The setup: Murderbot (but only to itself - to others, it's known as SecUnit) is a Company-supplied security android made to protect certain people who buy (or rent) it. It's made specifically for security detail but also follows Company rules via the governor module. After a past incident that left Murderbot scornful of humans, it also decides to hack its own governor module to play by its own rules. So now, Murderbot, self-aware and annoyed at the world, wants to be left alone by a team of scientists and only wants to watch (essentially) the soap operas it downloaded.
However, things start to go a bit wrong when conducting surface tests on the planet. The team of scientists notice discrepancies in their data and decides to investigate the issue(s) with the neighboring society. One thing leads to the next, and the team decides to figure out the truth of what's going on.
Even though Murderbot wants to sit down and watch its TV, it also begins to have human emotions with the team that it has been assigned to, especially as they begin to piece together a rather intriguing mystery.
What I liked: This was a quick and easy read while still packing a punch as we got to know Murderbot and its companions. The premise of them working through a space mystery was compelling and exciting and made me keep turning the pages (well, clicking on my Kindle). The novella was told from Murderbot's first-person point of view, and I felt it was great to get to know Murderbot, its past, and its rather complicated "feelings" for the situation and people at hand. I enjoyed Murderbot and the plot and thought it was an interesting take on science fiction. Additionally, many pieces of Murderbot's "person"ality were quite funny. It was complicated for a bot, yet at the same time, pretty emotionally distant.
What could have been better: Honestly, this book was a bit of world-building sliced between the novel's action (because it was so short!). While this needed to be done because of the book's shortness, it led to me needing clarification. This is a personal problem; it might not be your problem! All things considered, Martha Wells did an excellent job combining the two (action and world-building), but I was still slightly puzzled.
Additionally, the ending fell flat. I totally get that the purpose of this novel was told from Murderbot's perspective, so we only knew what Murderbot knew. We heard what Murderbot cared about, and if it didn't care about something, then we didn't get to know about it or hear more about it. With that said, the ending could have been fleshed out, and we only got small pieces about the aftermath of the significant action scene!
Overall, I was confused, leading to a 3.5. I was itching for more from this novel but plan to continue the series!
The setup: Murderbot (but only to itself - to others, it's known as SecUnit) is a Company-supplied security android made to protect certain people who buy (or rent) it. It's made specifically for security detail but also follows Company rules via the governor module. After a past incident that left Murderbot scornful of humans, it also decides to hack its own governor module to play by its own rules. So now, Murderbot, self-aware and annoyed at the world, wants to be left alone by a team of scientists and only wants to watch (essentially) the soap operas it downloaded.
However, things start to go a bit wrong when conducting surface tests on the planet. The team of scientists notice discrepancies in their data and decides to investigate the issue(s) with the neighboring society. One thing leads to the next, and the team decides to figure out the truth of what's going on.
Even though Murderbot wants to sit down and watch its TV, it also begins to have human emotions with the team that it has been assigned to, especially as they begin to piece together a rather intriguing mystery.
What I liked: This was a quick and easy read while still packing a punch as we got to know Murderbot and its companions. The premise of them working through a space mystery was compelling and exciting and made me keep turning the pages (well, clicking on my Kindle). The novella was told from Murderbot's first-person point of view, and I felt it was great to get to know Murderbot, its past, and its rather complicated "feelings" for the situation and people at hand. I enjoyed Murderbot and the plot and thought it was an interesting take on science fiction. Additionally, many pieces of Murderbot's "person"ality were quite funny. It was complicated for a bot, yet at the same time, pretty emotionally distant.
What could have been better: Honestly, this book was a bit of world-building sliced between the novel's action (because it was so short!). While this needed to be done because of the book's shortness, it led to me needing clarification. This is a personal problem; it might not be your problem! All things considered, Martha Wells did an excellent job combining the two (action and world-building), but I was still slightly puzzled.
Additionally, the ending fell flat. I totally get that the purpose of this novel was told from Murderbot's perspective, so we only knew what Murderbot knew. We heard what Murderbot cared about, and if it didn't care about something, then we didn't get to know about it or hear more about it. With that said, the ending could have been fleshed out, and we only got small pieces about the aftermath of the significant action scene!
Overall, I was confused, leading to a 3.5. I was itching for more from this novel but plan to continue the series!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
mothiver's review against another edition
dark
funny
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? It's complicated
4.25
the one and only book I’ve found so far to answer the “is the robot human?” question with “well, have you asked it if it wants to be?”. also, a protagonist who uses exclusively it/its pronouns while also having its ENTIRE story centred around how it is in fact a person, just not a human one. I’ll accept nonhuman rep when it’s this damn good
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery
Moderate: Gun violence, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Ableism and Torture
judassilver's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Murder, Body horror, Death, Blood, and Gun violence
sakisreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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? No
3.0
This was an unusual read for me but I thoroughly enjoyed Murderbot’s dry and sarcastic humour 😂
Someone wrote earlier that ‘I too like to shirk responsibility by watching TV’ and I really felt that 🙊
Weird and wonderful, this book was short and took a hold of me! 3 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
Someone wrote earlier that ‘I too like to shirk responsibility by watching TV’ and I really felt that 🙊
Weird and wonderful, this book was short and took a hold of me! 3 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Body horror
avidales's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Grief, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Death, Blood, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Torture