All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries (The Murderbot Diaries, 1)

A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller
Winner: 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella
Winner: 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella
Winner: 2018 Alex Award
Winner: 2018 Locus Award
One of the Verge's Best Books of 2017


A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

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.

The Murderbot Diaries
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Network Effect
Fugitive Telemetry
System Collapse

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160 pages

Average rating: 7.95

167 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

Annette Jackson
Jun 28, 2023
10/10 stars
This whole series is great!
Renzmo
Jun 22, 2023
7/10 stars
Cyborg has anxiety but nevertheless must be sociable
spookyreading
May 31, 2023
10/10 stars
So fucking fun. Casual queerness. Sarcastic autismcore narrator. I, too, which I could opaque my helmet and not have anyone look at me.
E Clou
May 10, 2023
8/10 stars
For a book with a series title of Murderbot this was surprisingly cute. Like a cozy sci-fi. Highly relatable murderbot.
Rainbowbrarian
Apr 10, 2023
8/10 stars
A SecUnit (Security Unit) robot, also known as a Murderbot, becomes self aware by hacking it's governor chip. But instead of going on a bloody rampage and, you know, murdering everyone around it, it opts to hack into the entertainment feed provided for the humans it is tasked with protecting.

If anyone finds out that Murderbot isn't being controlled by The Company anymore, it will be destroyed, so Murderbot tries it's best to keep quiet about it. But when things start to go wrong on the survey planet, keeping the secret hidden gets complicated, especially when the leader of the mission, Mensah, seems really perceptive.

This story was excellent. I loved the growth we got to see in Murderbot and the recognition of it being aro/ace. Note: Murderbot's chosen pronouns seem to be "it", hence my using them in this review. The growing awareness of the human crew that Murderbot may not be just a mindless security machine and the contrast of their discomfort around a partly organic partly machine entity was very well done.

The storyline was really compelling too. I loved the way Murderbot was able to talk freely about the company and how they do everything for as cheap as possible which is why stuff breaks and the rescue beacon is super cheap was really relatable.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but I was REALLY pleased to see the direction they went and I hope there are more books because I want to see what might happen next!

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