Next week, Apple TV+ will debut its new comedic science fiction series Murderbot, based on the award-winning book series by Martha Wells. The Murderbot Diaries books are about as close to ubiquitously loved in the sci-fi genre as you can get; they've won a slew of major awards like the Hugo and Nebula, every entry has over four stars on Goodreads, and readers absolutely devour them. I've been immersed in the sci-fi and fantasy world for quite a few years now, and whenever Murderbot comes up around someone who's read the books, they get extremely excited to discuss why this series is so great.
I've enjoyed some of Martha Wells other works, like Witch King, but to my great chagrin I'd never actually gotten around to reading The Murderbot Diaries. With the upcoming release of the Murderbot TV show, I decided it was finally time to take the plunge.
Mild spoilers for the first Murderbot novella, All Systems Red, beyond this point.
Book review: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
At around 150 pages, All Systems Red is a tightly plotted novella that can be comfortably read in a sitting or two, which makes it very easy to get swept away in the tale. It wastes no time thrusting readers into the meat of the story, with the scientists of the Preservation Alliance coming under attack from a hungry burrowing space worm creature that wants to eat them up for encroaching on its territory. Which means Murderbot must pause its television shows and come to the rescue.
The set up is thus: the greedy powers of the Corporation Rim sell out prospecting contracts to other planetary systems, providing equipment and financing to see those missions through. They get a cut, of course. In order to insure those expeditions, they force prospectors to lease a security construct (called a SecUnit) to accompany them. These constructs are a combination of advanced robotics and biological tissue, making them something between an android and a human. To ensure they don't do something crazy like malfunction and slaughter all their clients, SecUnits are fitted with a piece of technology called a governor module which forces them to obey humans.
Murderbot is one of these SecUnits, who found a way to hack its own governor module in order to gain free will. The one catch is that it doesn't really know what to do with it. It's starting from scratch as a sentient being — even the name "Murderbot" is something it gives itself as part of its quest for identity. So it does what any self-respecting sentient being would do: binge-watches cheesy TV shows to try and get a better grasp on its place in the universe.
The rub is that it if the Corporation Rim found out what Murderbot did, it would be immediately melted down for scrap. So it pretends its governor module is still intact and quietly goes along when a free-thinking group of scientists from the Preservation Alliance system purchase it to safeguard them on their prospecting expedition to a seemingly abandoned world.
When the Preservation Alliance group finds themselves in an increasingly dangerous situation, Murderbot has to step up and help them survive. But as we mentioned, Murderbot doesn't particularly want to spend time with humans, much less guide them through a life-or-death scenario.
A huge part of what makes this novella work so well is the voice Wells employs for Murderbot. The novella is written with a first person POV, putting readers directly into Murderbot's head. That works spectacularly, because so much of what makes the series special is getting Murderbot's wry and often funny thoughts about why the humans in its midst are making incredibly stupid decisions. It wants nothing to do with them, even as it's inexplicably drawn to them.
Murderbot's attraction to the humans isn't all duty, either. There's a fascination there, as the SecUnit understands more about human nature throughout the novella. That's a theme I fully expect to keep running throughout the series, but even in this initial installment, it was excellent. I can also fully understand why The Murderbot Diaries have gone over so well with neurodivergent readers. Murderbot is a sci-fi creation through and through, but many of its predicaments and tendencies are deeply relatable and recognizable.
While the plot, setting, and story itself all work well in All Systems Red, it is Murderbot's viewpoint and the interesting worldbuilding of Wells' fictional universe which stand out the most for me. It's refreshing that after hearing people rave about The Murderbot Diaries for so many years, my first steps into this series totally lived up to the hype. I expected this to be a fun, humorous novella; what I didn't expect was the level of heart the story has, which left me deeply satisfied by the time I read the final page. I'm really looking forward to seeing where Murderbot's journey goes from here.
Five novellas and two full-length novels are currently available in The Murderbot Diaries book series. With the show on the way, publisher Tordotcom has even released new omnibus editions which contain multiple novellas in one book, so it's never been easier to dive into the series.
Murderbot premieres its first two episodes May 16 on Apple TV+. We'll be covering the series here at Winter Is Coming. And don't forget to check out our interviews with Alexander Skarsgård (Murderbot), and Noma Dumezweni (Doctor Mensah) and David Dastmalchian (Gurathin).
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