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A review by laurel00
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
I'm really excited to keep reading the rest of these, because when it comes to novella-based series, it usually takes a couple of books for me to be fully invested, and I can already tell I'm going to get deeply attached to Murderbot!
The best part of this for me was definitely the narrative voice. Murderbot is such a fun character to follow along, from its humour and sarcasm to the way it views the world around it and the way it wants to be perceived by others. The fact that it continuously claims that it feels indifferent to the members of its team, but will jump towards any danger to protect and save them is so incredibly endearing, and seeing it slowly open up to them and try to learn to be more comfortable around them was genuinely adorable. I know it's supposed to be this tall, intimidating, dangerous, daunting thing but honestly it's so... cute!
On a purely personal note, I did get kind of confused with some of the world building, and I do think that the way that Wells introduces a lot of the systems feels quite seamless, but I still had a hard time always focusing on those passages, so there's probably a lot of details I didn't quite pick up on. That being said, it's such a short story, I have no doubt that I'll understand things more and more as I continue reading the series, which will make my reading experience that much better.
The best part of this for me was definitely the narrative voice. Murderbot is such a fun character to follow along, from its humour and sarcasm to the way it views the world around it and the way it wants to be perceived by others. The fact that it continuously claims that it feels indifferent to the members of its team, but will jump towards any danger to protect and save them is so incredibly endearing, and seeing it slowly open up to them and try to learn to be more comfortable around them was genuinely adorable. I know it's supposed to be this tall, intimidating, dangerous, daunting thing but honestly it's so... cute!
On a purely personal note, I did get kind of confused with some of the world building, and I do think that the way that Wells introduces a lot of the systems feels quite seamless, but I still had a hard time always focusing on those passages, so there's probably a lot of details I didn't quite pick up on. That being said, it's such a short story, I have no doubt that I'll understand things more and more as I continue reading the series, which will make my reading experience that much better.