BeboSep 23, 2023

What I felt after reading "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

https://literature.cafe/post/1669128

What I felt after reading "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells - literature.cafe

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?

Show threadAlien SurferSep 23, 2023

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.

Show threadklemptorSep 23, 2023
I think Martha Wells really tried to make SecUnit genderless, but because the books are written in the first person by a female author, SecUnit ends up sounding pretty female to me.
Show threadAFK BRB Chocolate
I think this is it. Murderbot seems to talk about itself in actively gender neutral terms (it doesn’t even have genitals!), and “it” is the most used pronoun, but like you said, it’s a female author writing for a non-gendered character - not surprising it sometimes seems female.
Sep 28, 2023 at 1:58amWeb
Show threadWendy MetcalfeSep 28, 2023
@AFKBRBChocolate @klemptor I've never imagined Murderbot as female. To me, it's always seemed closer to male.
Show threadAFK BRB ChocolateSep 28, 2023
I was a couple books in before I started thinking maybe it’s female, or maybe truly genderless. I even found myself going back and looking at the covers to see if there were clues. I’m still thinking actively genderless.