All Systems Red

All Systems Red by Martha Wells is a science fiction novella, the first volume in The Murderbot Diaries. The book was sort of an impulse pick for me. I had heard the series was adapted into an Apple TV show, and thought I might check out what the books are about. The novella length surprised me, though: the hard covers could have held a full novel inside them but there turned out to be not that much text on the pages. And I suppose not that many pages either: 191 in the Finnish translation.

As the series' name suggests, there's a slight black comedy tone to it. The protagonist is a security robot -- or a cyborg, I guess? I'm a bit confused if it started as a human or was it artificially grown. Though who would do that?

Murderbot, as it calls itself, has hacked its governor unit, and thanks to that, it's not completely on the whims of the Company that owns it. Murderbot uses this freedom to download and watch soap operas when it's not on duty. It's clearly an introvert and suffers from social anxiety, which results in amusing encounters. For about everything going wrong, Murderbot blames the Company's niggardly use of money: saving on things they maybe shouldn't.

The story itself is a simple one. Murderbot is providing security for a group of scientists researching an alien planet when things start going wrong. First there's an encounter with hostile fauna and then other humans on the planet. Murderbot ends up having to reveal its secret as it works to keep the scientists alive.

I don't really have a clue where the series might go next. The series is also still ongoing. I might check out the following books if/when I come by them in the library.