All Systems Red
Martha Wells, 2017
Science fiction FantasyContemporary fictionMystery, thriller & crime
A bored security android hacks its own obedience chip and spends the assignment binge-watching soap operas instead of guarding its humans. A dry, funny first-person voice keeps the pace light while the android quietly worries about identity and freedom.
Feels like humor, curiosity and tenderness. About identity, freedom and adventure.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy wry science fiction narrated by a grumpy machine with a soap-opera habit. The deadpan sarcasm and TV-watching asides may not land if you want a solemn, earnest robot story.
Why read it
It offers a quick, funny sci-fi story about autonomy and social discomfort, told by a machine that would rather watch serials than guard anyone.
A page from the book
What a lethal machine does with its evenings when nobody is watching.
I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don’t know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure. Martha Wells.Wells published her first novel in 1993 and wrote fantasy for more than two decades before Murderbot made her a bestseller.
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Questions readers ask
- Is All Systems Red for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy wry science fiction narrated by a grumpy machine with a soap-opera habit. The deadpan sarcasm and TV-watching asides may not land if you want a solemn, earnest robot story.
- What is All Systems Red like?
- A dry, funny first-person voice keeps the pace light while the android quietly worries about identity and freedom. Feels like humor, curiosity and tenderness. About identity, freedom and adventure.
- What should I read after All Systems Red?
- If you liked All Systems Red, try Confessions of a Shopaholic (Sophie Kinsella), Tress of the Emerald Sea (Brandon Sanderson) and The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams).
A taste of the feed
Three years into a career, still certain someone will notice you're faking it.
Of course, I still know nothing about finance. People at the bus stop know more about finance than me. Schoolchildren know more than me. I’ve been doing this job for three years now, and I’m still expecting someone to catch me out.
Confessions of a Shopaholic · Sophie Kinsella
How much of your character is just a container you were poured into?
We want to imagine that people are consistent, steady, stable. We define who they are, create descriptions to lock them on a page, divide them up by their likes, talents, beliefs. Then we pretend some—perhaps most—are better than we are, because they stick to their definitions, while we never quite fit ours. Truth is, people are as fluid as time is. We adapt to our situation like water in a strangely shaped jug, though it might take us a little while to ooze into all the little nooks. Because we adapt, we sometimes don’t recognize how twisted, uncomfortable, or downright wrong the container is that we’ve been told to inhabit.
Tress of the Emerald Sea · Brandon Sanderson
A creation story for anyone who suspects it was a mistake.
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy · Douglas Adams
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