All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I got this book for free from the Tor.com eBook club. Also, would have gotten it for free from the Hugos 2021

I know I’m late to everyone’s favorite genderless, somewhat on the autism spectrum, Murderbot but I really loved this book a lot. I had no idea what to expect because when I’m going to read something, I tend to avoid all spoilers, even the back of the book text. What I found was a a great mystery story with a murderbot that’d been put on protection duty. The irreverence Murderbot has for their job and for humans in general reminded me a lot of what I really liked about the Knights of the Old Republic character HK-47. The book was funny without being slapstick or parody. It was more or less the perfect length so we’ll see what happens when I get to the novel-length entry eventually.

Once I got into it, I just wanted to keep going and that’s more or less the best praise I can give for any story.

This series seems to have made Martha Wells the reverse George RR Martin. He wrote lots of science fiction before hitting it big with the books in A Song of Ice and Fire. Now that’s all he’s known for. I feel like Ms Wells is getting the same notoriety with Murderbot overshadowing her earlier fantasy books. In fact, I got (but haven’t yet read) her fantasy books on the strength of everyone’s love for the Murderbot series.

Anyway, READ THIS NOVELLA! You may not feel the overwhelming joy because by the time you get it, it might be over-hyped, but I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy it!

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