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2020-01-26 | #books
"I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure."
Those are the opening lines of Martha Well's "All Systems Red," spoken by Murderbot, the non-binary part-human part-robot construct and main character.
Don't let Murderbot's name put you off. This is not some violence-laden Terminator-esque tale. All Systems Red is a funny, witty, sci-fi novela, the first in a series of six-ish stories. In the last 2 years or so, I've found myself returning and re-reading it, multiple times, including this week. Why? A few reasons:
The Murderbot Diaries, as the series is known, consists of novelas, a short story, and a one full length novel. I highly recommend them all, in particular the first 3 (All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol), as well as the full length novel Network Effect.
If you like hard science fiction, but without too-much science fiction, you should give these a read.