Charlotte Kersten

Year published:  2017

Category: Sci-fi novella

Summary: 
In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. 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 is 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, Murderbot 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 Murderbot to get to the truth.

My Thoughts:

I’ve heard people sing praise to Murderbot for years now, and I’m kind of embarrassed that it took me so long to get on the bandwagon. But I read All Systems Red! Finally! And now I’m bandwaggoned!

This novella is fast-paced, inventive, and clever all throughout. Murderbot’s head is a fascinating one to be in, both because of how it sees the world and functions through technology and because of its complete awkwardness and mortification around humans. I think this is really well done given the way it has existed with and been treated by humans before. You might expect Murderbot to immediately embrace kind treatment instead of what it usually receives, but it responds with panic instead, which feels like such smart writing and characterization.

Despite its alleged apathy towards humankind, Murderbot is still really fond of its humans and does its very best to take care of them as best it knows how. I also really loved seeing how humans reacted to it. Some trusted it while others didn’t; some saw it as an equal person while others didn’t; some asked disconcerting questions about whether it hates or blames humans.

My only real complaint is that I think Wells missed an incredible opportunity by choosing not to incorporate the media Murderbot loves more. We’re always hearing about how it goes off to watch its shows, but I wish we had heard more about the actual content of those shows and what Murderbot thinks of them. There’s an incredible moment where someone in the team reveals that Murderbot has been watching human media and another person says something about one of the characters on the soap opera it’s watching being guilty of a salacious act that they were accused of. To this (completely distracted from the confrontation it’s in the middle of) Murderbot heatedly responds “No, she fucking didn’t.” I LOVED this moment. It’s hilarious, of course, but it’s also just such a good moment of characterization – a show of rare, relatable emotion that demonstrates how invested Murderbot is in its media. I could see this getting overdone, of course, but I think even a few more moments like that could have added so much. That being said, this was an incredible amount of fun and I can’t wait to read more!