Goodreads: All Systems Red

Author: Martha Wells

Published: 2nd May 2017

Source: Bought from Amazon

Rating: 5/5 (Loved it)

Official Summary: “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. ” – Goodreads

Review: I bought the second in the series as soon as I finished the first. It was that good. The sci-fi wasn’t overly heavy but it was a big part of the story. You didn’t feel confused or having to guess what it all meant, it was explained well when it was needed. Overly the story was just so good and simple to a point. A robot that wasn’t all robot. It wanted more, even if that more was just watching butt loads of tv shows and stuff on the entertainment feed.

I liked how Murderbot wasn’t really a hero, it was just a robot doing what it wanted to do. Yes, it had to act a part but it helped because it liked them. It didn’t want to die but knew it could be repaired compared to its counterparts. Fear of pain was irrelevant. Fear of death wasn’t, it feared it. Which is what made Murderbot alive.

The shortness of the book added to the story, it made the Author focus on what needed to be focused on and ignore unnecessary fluff. Normally with shorter books, you feel like you’ve missed out on stuff, or more could have been added. Not in this case, the story just left you wanted to find out what Murderbot was going to do next.