All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The murderbot diaries part 1
This is how you world build!
All Systems Red is a Science Fiction novella from the author Martha Wells. It's a first person novel from the point of view of "Murderbot," our unnamed security construct, who is on a contract to protect a group of scientists surveying a distant planet. All Systems Red is a very fun and exciting read that will captivate you quickly. What stands out to me the most about this book is the amount of worldbuilding packed into ~140 pages that leaves me wanting to know more about the world. Including the simplest of questions. like "What year is it?" For the rest of the review I will refer to Murderbot as a "they" because they do not have a gender.
"Confession time: I don't actually know where we are.... I hadn't looked at the maps yet and I'd barely looked at the survey package. In my defense, we'd been here twenty-two planetary days and I hadn't had to do anything but stand around watching humans make scans or take samples of dirt, rocks, water, and leaves. The sense of urgency just wasn't there. Also, you may have noticed, I don't care."
Sadly, Murderbot may not be the best person to answer questions surrounding the political hierarchy of the planets and corporations. As they are at best an unreliable narrator, due to an amusing affliction. Apathy. Murderbot has one simple enjoyment in life, consuming entertainment media. You thought it would be murder, didn't you. Heh. Anyway, that consumption of media, while not directly getting in the way of their job, means that Murderbot is mostly not paying attention to their job. They would much rather think about the daytime soap opera they are currently binge watching while minding scientists out of the corner of their eye. How did they get like this? It's explained in the first sentence as a "hacked governor" which is kind of like a restrictor plate in NASCAR that only allows so much power though to the engine, a governor on a "Murderbot" controls their free will. A Murderbot without a governor module to protect the people around it could be a very dangerous entity.
All Systems Red is a wonderful exercise in worldbuilding by Martha Wells. I am envious of her ability to make this novel feel like there is a Silmarillion worth of backstory behind everything offhandedly mentioned in this novella. There is a bit of tell, not show, but it doesn't feel like a lore-dump due to the speedy nature of the read. It's hard to talk about without getting into spoilers, but all you really need to know is that corporations and their politics are 100% in play and the dynamic going on there seems like a natural progression for our own world, without being preachy and trying to show you the flaws to a political or sociological idea. It's very much character first, Murderbot is the main character. And since Murderbot doesn't care, we don't get as much world info as we normally do from a more "aware" point of view.
But what is there is hammered and honed to perfection. No wasted word count on frivolous bullcrap not relevant to the plot, character development, relevant worldbuilding etc. Yet it paints a vivid enough picture that you feel that you are just seeing the small tip of a gigantic iceberg of the world, its lore and people.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells is well worth your time and money to read. If sci-fi isn't your cup of tea due to too much meandering and boring space stuff, this one might be worth looking into as it doesn't have a lot of the usual Sci-Fi fluff. No gravitational drives, warp engines, high philosophy, etc. Don't let that scare you off if that's what you want though, as there's plenty of that kind of stuff there, hidden under the iceberg for you to contemplate after your read. I wish I read this book in 2020, because it's going to be a hard one to top so early into 2021. 😉
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