Review: All Systems Red, by Martha Wells

Russ Allbery eagle at eyrie.org
Sun Dec 30 19:48:29 PST 2018


All Systems Red
by Martha Wells

Series:    Murderbot Diaries #1
Publisher: Tor.com
Copyright: May 2017
ISBN:      0-7653-9752-8
Format:    Kindle
Pages:     150

  I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor
  module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of
  entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had
  been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much
  murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours
  of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless
  killing machine, I was a terrible failure.

So begins the first of a series of novellas by Martha Wells (four to
date) called The Murderbot Diaries. It's told in the first person by a
murderbot (the name it gave itself; the officially bland and
non-threateningly corporate term is SecUnit) with a defective governor
module who is therefore not enslaved to the commands of the humans
around it. The story opens with Murderbot half-heartedly doing its job
of protecting a human exploration team while pretending to be just like
any other SecUnit, deftly covering up the deficiencies in its governor
module. Unfortunately for the humans it's guarding, the planet is
rather more dangerous than they had expected, and not only due to local
conditions. Thankfully for the humans, Murderbot is rather better at
protecting people than it likes to claim.

I'm going to say the same thing that everyone else who reviewed this
multiple-award-winning novella said: the first-person narrative voice
is what makes this story. The plot is corporate interstellar
skulduggery following mostly predictable lines, and by itself wouldn't
be anything special. But Murderbot tells that story with a brilliant
mix of cynicism, dark humor, clipped precision, and violent competence,
overlaid on a slightly flat tone that reminded me of computerized
record-keeping and automated analysis. It's wonderfully evocative. It
also does serious character work in a short 150 pages, particularly
once Murderbot starts interacting with the well-meaning, open-minded,
and rather naive humans that it's trying to protect.

That leads into the second remarkable thing about this story, which is
the quietly nuanced and fascinating way that it talks about oppression,
justice, and well-meaning people who want to help.

This is, obviously, a story about a member of a sentient slave race.
Murderbot is made of augmented biological components, including a
rather human brain, and is clearly as capable of independent thoughts
and desires as anyone else in this story. This is an old and well-worn
setup with obvious resonance with the slave trade and a habit of
turning into soaring, passionate fights for freedom.

Murderbot cares very deeply about no one discovering its defective
governor module, but is not interested in the soaring and passionate
fight for freedom. Murderbot wants everyone else to fuck off and leave
it alone so that it can watch serial dramas. It is particularly
horrified at the idea of being stared at by a bunch of humans, or
having emotionally searching conversations about its free will and how
it feels about slavery.

There's certainly nothing inherently wrong with courageous and moving
fights for freedom, but I think Wells is doing something very
interesting here instead. The humans are all well-meaning folks who (in
various ways) are horrified at the concept of SecUnits and how they're
treated, and also have a noticeable tendency to treat Murderbot like a
child. One starts cringing a bit at the earnest gentleness with which
they approach it, particularly with the running hints from Murderbot's
acerbic commentary that they're missing the point entirely. Wells packs
a rather deep idea into a short space: freedom isn't about being an
amazing role model or following some expected, scripted path. It's
about having the space to live your own life and do what you want,
whether or not that fits anyone else's preconceptions. Someone in
Murderbot's situation may be quite matter-of-fact and tactical about
their own circumstances, which can include not wanting even the best of
people to take over their decisions. And can include a very complicated
reaction to sympathy.

I liked all of the people in this story (well, except for the villains,
but they're mostly there to be villains and are barely sketched in).
But Murderbot itself steals the show, and the ending was perfect. And a
great setup for the sequels.

I've been meaning to read something by Martha Wells for years and kept
not getting around to it. I'm glad I finally fixed that, and will
definitely be reading the rest of this series. Recommended.

Followed by Artificial Condition.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Reviewed: 2018-12-30

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)              <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>


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