All Systems Red by Martha Wells: Book Review

All Systems Red by Martha Wells Book Cover

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All Systems Red by Martha Wells Book Cover
Title: All Systems Red
Author:
Narrator:
Series Number: 1
Audience:

Synopsis from GoodReads:

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. 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 is 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, Murderbot 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 Murderbot to get to the truth.

My Review:

My husband isn’t much of a reader. He usually has a book on his Kindle (which I bought him) but he takes his time with it and usually only reads a handful of books each year. I thought he would enjoy this series and the way that the author mostly just plunges into the action. So I downloaded the audiobook and made him listen on our July 4th road trip. I do love a captive audience!

I wasn’t glued to every word myself, since I was busy taking pictures out the car window or whatever I do to pass the time while my husband is driving, but I heard enough to refresh my memory. I enjoyed Kevin R. Free’s narration.

But mostly I was impressed that my husband, who has never listened to an audiobook in his life, seemed to actually enjoy the whole experience! I kept offering to pause it and switch to music if he needed a break but he always told me to let it play. And he wasn’t just humoring me! We discussed the book afterwards and he knew exactly what happened and had his own opinions about everything. He even asked me to download the second book for the drive back home. I don’t think I can share higher praise.

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Reading Challenge:

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Purchase:

Buy All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1) from Malaprop’s Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC or


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10 Comments

  1. My husband loves to read, but has no interest in listening to audiobooks, which is a shame with all our long road trips. Glad you’re converting your husband!

  2. I LOVE that you are (maybe) converting your husband to an audiobook appreciator. That’s great that he wanted you to download the second book.

  3. My husband isn’t a reader at all anymore (which makes me feel sad!) but he happily will listen along to an audiobook on a road trip. We listened to my first Agatha Christie a few weekends back. I’m glad your husband enjoyed this one.

    1. I keep writing about how my husband isn’t much of a reader but he’s been slowly increasing the amount he reads over the years. I stumbled on an article recently about how much the average American reads (not much, unsurprisingly yet sadly) and he exceeds the average. He was shocked! I’m glad your husband listens to audiobooks with you. Maybe he’ll get his reading mojo back one day.

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