These events kick off a journey of discovery for the Murderbot (a nickname it gave itself after a deadly event pre- All Systems Red), as it tries to carve out a space for itself in a universe that treats bots and SecUnits with disdain, as less-than-human, and yet has become almost completely dependent on them. On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid - a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.īut when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.īut in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. “As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.” Nevertheless, it may be helpful to provide at least one synopsis, so here’s the official one for All Systems Red: I don’t want to delve too deeply into the plots, as they are all quite short and it would likely throw out too many spoilers. (They’re just so soft and feckless, after all…) All the while, the SecUnit (who does get a couple of personalized names in the books) struggles with its distaste and dislike of humans, and a stubborn urge to protect them. It’s a wonderful guide to this setting, and in each of these books we are given a little more detail on how the universe is set up and runs.
In the first three books in Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries - All Systems Red, Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol - we follow the adventures of a SecUnit who has hacked its governor module and, therefore, mostly autonomous. An amusing, thoughtful series of novellas
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