ALL SYSTEMS RED: Martha Wells: 1 (Murderbot Diaries)

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But this book is sneaky. As much as you want to think this is just some lightweight little confection made of robot fights and space murder — and as much as All Systems Red wants to present itself as nothing but robot fights and space murder — Martha Wells did something really clever. She hid a delicate, nuanced and deeply, grumpily human story inside these pulp trappings, by making her murderous robot story primarily character-driven. And the character doing the driving? No Kill like Overkill: Tries to arrange a shuttle accident which would have killed everyone on board. Murderbot in turn crushes her windpipe while using her body to absorb gunfire from her own bodyguard.

Spry, Jeff (June 22, 2021). "Exclusive Q&A: Sci-fi author Martha Wells talks about her latest Murderbot novella, Fugitive Telemetry". Space.com . Retrieved July 9, 2022. System Collapse is a good extension of The Murderbot Diaries. It also hints, I believe, at the direction we can expect in future books.Knight in Sour Armor: A very cynical warrior that continues to fight for its people against whatever threatens them. The bot and AI characters — Murderbot, ART, and a couple of new ones — are absolutely fantastic. Murderbot’s and ART’s friendship (though Murderbot would be really reluctant to call it a friendship) gets a lot more complicated and real, especially after Murderbot thinks ART has betrayed it. One of the subplots features sentient killware, a lethal kind of spyware/malware, which was one of the best parts of this book, fascinating and unexpectedly poignant. Murderbot takes some substantial steps forward in its self-understanding and in deciding what it wants to do with its life. The right of self-determination for all sentient intelligences is an ongoing theme in Network Effect. Culture Clash: Encountering people from the Corporate Rim drastically shakes her worldview as she processes the sheer power of the corps and the very real threat they pose to her family. She's stunned by the fact that corporations would force them to pay out for a rescue and morally outraged that she'd have to claim to own Murderbot under those scnearios. Non-Human Non-Binary: Partly organic, but designed and built without sexual characteristics and opting out of the whole business whenever it has to bring up gender in relation to itself. All bots, AI, and bot-human constructs are "it", including the emancipated "free" bots on Preservation. Also, is rather disgusted at the idea of getting human sexual organs. In the story, Dr. Mensah examines the trauma inflicted on her by the kidnapping by GrayCris and the effect it has had on the SecUnit.

since the thing that happened I don’t think I’ve had an emotion that wasn’t the visual equivalent of a wet blanket crumpled on a floor.’The Gadfly: While Dr. Mensah is in a meeting trying to convince her colleagues to give sanctuary to this notorious killer SecUnit, Murderbot keeps sending requests on her feed for various lethal hardware. Fortunately she understands its sense of humor. Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: ART hasn't much subtly when it comes to making threats either. "If you even think about harming them, I will disassemble you and peel away your organic parts piece by piece before destroying your consciousness. Do we understand each other?"