this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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What I felt after reading "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells (literature.cafe)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
25 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

What an enjoyable cozy scifi adventure! The story centers around a security bot with a self-hacked governor module, who refers to itself privately as "Murderbot" and likes to watch serials and movies surreptitiously in it's free time. The socially awkward bot repeatedly assures us that it definitely does not care about humans. When the team of scientists which have hired Murderbot are confronted by life threatening situations, it goes out of it's way to save their lives if only just so it is not labelled as an incompetent. Over the course of the story we observe how it's relationship with the humans in the group develops and changes. Murderbot's at times hilarious internal monologues concerning "her humans" were my favourite parts of the book. So those of you who have read the book, how did you like it? How are the rest of the books in the series?

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Ive read the first few so far. The next book on my list looks to be a full length novel.

I find your reference of "her humans" is interesting. I never thought of muderbot as a her. Perhaps I missed an important line somewhere in the story?

I think your review is right on. You captured exactly what it's like. I look forward to reading the next book.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I thought of muderbot as a "her" as well. I think at some point it's described as having a female appearance without its armor on.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s never explicitly stated what Murderbot’s gender presentation is. I do visualize it as feminine presenting personally, but I just finished a reread and it is never stated anywhere. A character calls it “third mom” at one point but it’s unclear if this is because it looks feminine or because it was smothering her as her extant mothers do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Coming to think of it, I am not absolutely sure that "her" is specifically mentioned. I probably thought of Murderbot as "her" in my head. But what I found funny was the slight possessive sense with which they/it referred to their "humans".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I never noticed that I also thought of “her”. I read the book a while ago, so I don’t remember your reference, but I remember finding it refreshing to find a robot that was “obviously female” instead of undefined therefore male.

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