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Book Summary and Reviews of All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red

The Murderbot Diaries #1

by Martha Wells

  • Readers' Rating (5):
  • Published:
  • Jan 2019, 176 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

"As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn't a primary concern.

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.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

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What are you reading this week (1/2/2025)?
I stumbled upon All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Totally unlike me - space and robots - but I love it. LOVE it! I can't wait to read the entire Murderbot Diaries series.
-Regina_Garay

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Book Awards

  • award image Hugo Awards, 2018
  • award image The Nebula Awards, 2018

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Nebula finalist Wells gives depth to a rousing but basically familiar action plot by turning it into the vehicle by which SecUnit engages with its own rigorously denied humanity." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

This information about All Systems Red was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Martha Wells

Martha Wells has written many novels, including the million-selling New York Times and USA Today-bestselling Murderbot Diaries series, which has won multiple Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards. Other titles include Witch King, City of Bones, The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction.

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