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A review by beau_reads_books
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
5.0
“Not good, Murderbot, not good.”
Sometimes picking up a book at random and finding out it’s part of a series is the worst news ever. Not the case with Wells’ first “Murderbot” novella; I sprinted to the Libby app to tag the next few in the series until I can snag a box set for my shelf. A dry, misanthropic yet existentialist cyborg who, instead of performing their contracted security duties, downloaded several thousand hours of soap operas to watch on the mission? Oh yeah baby. This first person (robot) narrative was one of my favorites this year. Super stoked on seeing where this series goes. What’s more fascinating is that I read them as KL-E-O from Fallout 4 yet, apparently, Alexander Skarsgard is set to star in the television adaptation which feels like an odd choice for an objectively agender narrator. Oh well, we shall see.
4.5/5 Are we human? Or are we self-regulated augmented humanoids who shuck off all personal responsibility to instead bask in resting mode while watching “Love Island” adjacent melodramas while our human counterparts are hunted down in a sinister plot and then we only fulfill our programmed duties when the situation becomes unpleasantly inconvenient for us?
Sometimes picking up a book at random and finding out it’s part of a series is the worst news ever. Not the case with Wells’ first “Murderbot” novella; I sprinted to the Libby app to tag the next few in the series until I can snag a box set for my shelf. A dry, misanthropic yet existentialist cyborg who, instead of performing their contracted security duties, downloaded several thousand hours of soap operas to watch on the mission? Oh yeah baby. This first person (robot) narrative was one of my favorites this year. Super stoked on seeing where this series goes. What’s more fascinating is that I read them as KL-E-O from Fallout 4 yet, apparently, Alexander Skarsgard is set to star in the television adaptation which feels like an odd choice for an objectively agender narrator. Oh well, we shall see.
4.5/5 Are we human? Or are we self-regulated augmented humanoids who shuck off all personal responsibility to instead bask in resting mode while watching “Love Island” adjacent melodramas while our human counterparts are hunted down in a sinister plot and then we only fulfill our programmed duties when the situation becomes unpleasantly inconvenient for us?