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markyon 's review for:
All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
Must admit, I didn’t know that Martha Wells wrote SF. I do know her Fantasy books (The Cloud Roads, Books of the Raksura), and I thought that her involvement in a SFFWorld ‘Round Table’ forum discussion a few years ago was thoughtful and entertaining, but that for me was about it.* So I was quite pleased when All Systems Red appeared in my review pile. For All Systems is an out and out SF Space Adventure tale, involving AI ‘killerbots’, corporate shenanigans and nasty alien lifeforms on unexplored planets. It’s a great read.
“In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.”
As you can read from the publisher’s blurb, the situation isn’t that different from current writers such as, say, Jay Posey or Ian McDonald – for those of an older persuasion, I’m going to suggest Ben Bova. Where All Systems Red scores though, is that it’s a great set-up – sort’ve like a Science-Fictional version of Dexter. The voice of the AI known as ‘SecUnit’ is great – a knowing, rather sassy but clearly intelligent personality that reminded me of Heinlein’s Mike from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or, at times, even Marvin the Paranoid Android from A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s clever and quite depreciating, which appealed to me a lot.
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realised I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.”
Being a novella also means that there’s no space for extraneous waffle. The book begins with a bang, and then rarely lets up. Our Murderbot (the reason for that name is told along the way, but I’ll not spoil it now) is the SecUnit that has to be sent with a survey party by The Company (also later amusingly nicknamed “EvilSurvey”) to explore potential planets for development. In Alien-style plot development, whilst on a planet the team lose contact with the neighbouring survey team from DeltFall, something not too unusual with the cheap and basic equipment hired to them by the Company. However further investigation leads to the discovery of bigger mysteries and the consequences of their discovery.
After 144 pages it’s done. And I want more. There are things still unexplained - will the Company find out if the rogue AI is rogue? What is the Company really up to? And what’s the bigger picture?
The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, although I am pleased to type that there will be more in this series. In my opinion, there should be. There’s a pace that meant I read this one near-non-stop, in two sittings. Besides, how often do you read a tale rooting for the bad-guy (who’s clearly not as bad as it makes himself out to be)?
Surprisingly good and thoroughly recommended entertainment.
* (I now know, from reading the end of this one, that she has also written for the Stargate : Atlantis and Star Wars franchises, which makes sense.)
“In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid — a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.”
As you can read from the publisher’s blurb, the situation isn’t that different from current writers such as, say, Jay Posey or Ian McDonald – for those of an older persuasion, I’m going to suggest Ben Bova. Where All Systems Red scores though, is that it’s a great set-up – sort’ve like a Science-Fictional version of Dexter. The voice of the AI known as ‘SecUnit’ is great – a knowing, rather sassy but clearly intelligent personality that reminded me of Heinlein’s Mike from The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress or, at times, even Marvin the Paranoid Android from A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. It’s clever and quite depreciating, which appealed to me a lot.
“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realised I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites.”
Being a novella also means that there’s no space for extraneous waffle. The book begins with a bang, and then rarely lets up. Our Murderbot (the reason for that name is told along the way, but I’ll not spoil it now) is the SecUnit that has to be sent with a survey party by The Company (also later amusingly nicknamed “EvilSurvey”) to explore potential planets for development. In Alien-style plot development, whilst on a planet the team lose contact with the neighbouring survey team from DeltFall, something not too unusual with the cheap and basic equipment hired to them by the Company. However further investigation leads to the discovery of bigger mysteries and the consequences of their discovery.
After 144 pages it’s done. And I want more. There are things still unexplained - will the Company find out if the rogue AI is rogue? What is the Company really up to? And what’s the bigger picture?
The ending is a bit of a cliffhanger, although I am pleased to type that there will be more in this series. In my opinion, there should be. There’s a pace that meant I read this one near-non-stop, in two sittings. Besides, how often do you read a tale rooting for the bad-guy (who’s clearly not as bad as it makes himself out to be)?
Surprisingly good and thoroughly recommended entertainment.
* (I now know, from reading the end of this one, that she has also written for the Stargate : Atlantis and Star Wars franchises, which makes sense.)