All Systems Red is the first novella in the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.
Finished on: 18.4.2025

Plot:
Dr. Mensah is leading a research team on an underexplored planet, accompanied by a SecUnit. Said SecUnit, a cyborg calling itself Murderbot, would rather spend its time watching soap operas. Thanks to a hacked governor module, it actually can spend a good amount of its time doing just that instead of following orders. But when the research team is attacked by native fauna, they discover that somebody is trying to sabotage them.

All Systems Red, or the Murderbot Diaries in general, come with a lot of hype. It had been on my radar for a while, but somehow I never got around to it, and by now, I was afraid that it would be overhyped. Thankfully, though, that is not the case – it is an absolute page turner.

I am not the greatest fan of space operas, though I have read some excellent ones. Maybe it was this genre reluctance that kept me from going for All Systems Red earlier. But with the release of the TV show adapted from it, it was the final push I needed to finally go for it. And I am glad I did.

Not only is all Systems Red an engaging novella that had me completely hooked and wanting to know what would happen next (it also made me curious about the sequels), but it also gives us interesting world-building with a lot of critical potential, and I am always here for that.

But its biggest selling point, to me, are the characters, in particular Murderbot itself who is a great narrator with a dry wit that gives the book a lighter tone than you’d expect. But it is also the best vehicle to make us think about what is to be human. Not so much in the sense whether Murderbot is human but how it navigates its own humanity in the face of limited choices, great guilt and while facing conflicting reactions to itself. The ending, in any case, was a pitch perfect conclusion and starting point to these thoughts.

I also loved Dr. Mensah and I do hope we get to see more of her in the books that follow this one. In any case, though, I am excited to continue with this series.

Summarizing: fantastic.