All Systems Red

I read this because I have a condition where I can’t watch a movie or show without reading the book first and I am hoping this novella will get me out of my current reading slump. Anyway, on to the actual book…

All Systems Red is the first novella in The Murderbot Diaries series written by Martha Wells. It is charming story about a sentient security robot who manages to hack his “governor module”, a piece of software that punishes him for disobeying or harming his human employers, and chooses to spend his new found freedom slacking off on the job to watch TV. Over the course of the book our protagonist, who has dubbed himself Murderbot, is consistently and disturbingly humanized by his new human employers even though he just wants to be left alone to watch his soaps. When his humans get put into some serious danger, he starts to feel a sense of duty to them that isn’t connected to his hacked enslaving software but to a creeping sense of care and respect.

Overall, it’s a first person narrative about finding community and a sense of self with a neurodivergent coded and loveable protagonist. I will definitely be reading more of the series.