The Murderbot Diaries Book #1
Introduction
The SecUnit (Security Unit) for the PreservationAux survey group has hacked and disabled her governor module during her last contract. The hack lets her follow the Company’s programming or to ignore it. She saves Dr. Bharadwaj from certain death from the hostile fauna of the planet where the PersevationAux group has been surveying to decide if they want to bid to the Company on building a colony there. The SecUnit calls herself Murderbot, but never out loud. Her feelings of companionship for her human employers impede her programming. What will she do when an unknown enemy threatens her charges, hide or fight?
Summary
SecUnits are made by the Company and must be used by every survey team for protection. The Company supplies all the materials to each survey team from the lowest bidder, so the materials are unreliable and suspect. SecUnits are half organic and half mechanical, so she is a cyborg. SecUnits are supposed to be perceived by their contractors as autonomous robots. They can be repaired using the MedSystem. She communicates with the HubSystem of the habitat to keep the security of her charges. The story’s complication occurs when they lose contact with the DeltFall Group survey team, the only other survey team assigned to their planet. Dr. Mensah, the leader of the PreservationAux Group, investigates at DeltFall’s habitat despite the SecUnit’s suggestion they leave the investigation to the Company. What they find at the habitat changes their perspective on the Company and on their SecUnit’s behavior.
Recommendation
I loved this story. The action is tight, and the conclusion completes this story. The protagonist has the perfect blend of sarcasm and drive to understand her reasons for existing. She wants to sit back and watch her space soap operas, but her human charges keep getting in the way, making her have feelings she doesn’t understand. She is not the Murderbot she pretends to be and they catch on to her deception. This novella begins her transformation into something else. This story is the first of four novellas in the Murderbot Dairies series. I want to read the other three novellas available and the Murderbot novel that is scheduled to be released in 2020.
This is the link to the book’s Goodreads page.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32758901-all-systems-red?ac=1&from_search=true