All Systems Red is the first story in Martha Wells’ Hugo, Nebula, and Locus award-winning Murderbot Diaries series. As this is science fiction rather than sci-fi romance, I might not normally have picked it up, but a surprising number of romance authors have mentioned the series on social media, and for that reason I decided to see what all the fuss was about. I’m so glad I did! I’m now binge reading the series, currently on book four (most, like this first outing, are novellas), and am planning to watch the Apple TV+ series when it comes to our screens in May 2025. I look forward to seeing whether the series’ feel and characters translate well onto visual media.

In a future where planetary exploration is the norm, human survey and research groups are approved and outfitted by The Company. The Company mandates that the human crews are accompanied by security units, or SecUnits. A SecUnit is made of half cloned human material and half robotics. It is controlled by a governor module that gives it orders but protecting humans is generally its number one priority. On the planetary survey with their team, Murderbot, as they call themselves privately, is in the unique position of being a rogue SecUnit. They hacked their governor module, and are no longer under any control but their own. But in order to not give themselves away, they are still answering to what would be appropriate orders for their position.

Murderbot calls themself this because on a previous mission of which they were the assigned SecUnit, they had killed fifty-seven humans. As their memory has been wiped out, they don’t know what exactly happened – if they had been ordered to do it, or if they had hacked their own governor module in order to commit mass murder. Suffice it to say, they thought of Murderbot as an appropriate name for themself and use it in private. In reality, all they really wanted to do was watch thousands of hours of downloaded entertainment channels, including their favourite space opera series Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. But in between watching their preferred entertainment, they also did their job – saving their human crew whenever required.

When a neighboring survey hub on the same planet goes radio silent, Murderbot’s human crew decides to investigate, which Murderbot believes to be a spectacularly stupid idea. In general, they think humans are idiots, which is generally proved true by their actions. But in investigating the mysterious silence, the crew and Murderbot also discover that some of their maps of the planet have been altered and that things that seemed to have been bad luck might have been planned sabotage. Murderbot is trained to throw themself into danger to protect their human crew and this mission will be no exception. But will they be able to get this crew out alive?

It’s the dry humour of Murderbot that makes this series such a fun read. They would be the happiest robot in the universe if they could just be left alone to watch mindless media all day. They are introverted, don’t like humans to see them with their helmet off and thus be able to see their human skin face, and if they do have to face the crew without their helmet, they always avert their eyes. If they could, they’d talk to them by facing a wall (and they often do). Because this is a future where communication can be carried out through mind contact, the human crew and Murderbot are able to talk vocally, but also through non-verbal communication feeds. This is also how Murderbot can communicate with the other computer systems that control their ship, and their survey pods. They have become skilled at hiding their true rogue nature by rewriting computer code for these other computer systems, and use these skills equally to cut and paste security camera footage, wipe out computer memories, and give drones new orders while disguising who is directing them, and various other high tech communication sleights of hand – whatever is needed to protect themself and their crew.

It’s easy to see how this series has won so many science fiction writing awards. It’s got detailed and intriguing worldbuilding, interesting human and non-human characters, and the author’s ability to write a robot that garners empathy (which surely would embarrass them if they knew) makes for a delightful and entertaining story. Murderbot’s journey of self discovery is fascinating to read as it becomes more sentient the longer it is out of governor control. I’m happy to recommend the series and can see it becoming a comfort read for me. It’s definitely going on my keeper shelf.