Murderbot has been getting a lot of press lately; the author is up to seven books and apparently Apple TV+ is going to be producing a series.  I can hardly wait.  It better be great.

Murderbot is a SecUnit (security unit) which operates as personal security for rent. Murderbot has become self-aware by hacking its governor which it was impelled to do after an apparent mass murder in which it participated.  It still works for its company owner but is not compelled to follow any order.  It still does follow orders, for the most part, because it doesn’t want anyone to know that it’s gone rogue.  It has, self-deprecatingly, named itself Murderbot but it doesn’t exactly share that.

In “All Systems Red”, Murderbot finds itself rented out to a team of scientists who are gathering information on a planet.  From the beginning, the team and Murderbot encounter things that were not on the planet survey; a giant voracious mouth trying to eat one of the humans was the first indicator that things were not as they seemed.  And then they discovered that the planet files they had been given were conspicuously missing certain areas.  So Murderbot has its hands full trying to keep its stupid humans from doing something stupid that would get them injured or killed.  And this was ultimately annoying since it kept Murderbot from the one thing it enjoyed: watching downloaded media shows.

The other thing that annoyed Murderbot was how likable these particular humans were.  Not that that made the slightest difference in how it protected them; but it did make the prospect of losing one a bit more disturbing.  And it is this that trips up Murderbot, causing it to confess to the leader of the team just exactly what kind of SecUnit they had - the kind of murderous, rogue, uncontrollable SecUnit that they should fear down to their toes.  To its surprise, though, the silly humans actually like it and trust it.  And this ended up causing the humans to take silly risks, further annoying Murderbot; even though, in the end, their willingness to take risks actually helped.  And no one was more surprised than Murderbot at the leader’s decision when the contract was completed.

This first story, really a novella, was a great deal of fun while introducing us to the delightful personality known as Murderbot.  A self-aware security robot (with organic parts) that is capable of killing but, with the exception of that disturbing mass murder in its history, is a lot more interested in what’s happening in the latest installment of its favorite show.  While figuring out the mystery of the planet they are on, Murderbot spends much of its processing power puzzling over just what it wants.  What’s a murderous robot to do if the whole galaxy would be pursuing it as a rogue?  And the team leader’s decision of whether to ‘out’ Murderbot or not is actually what gives it a goal. 

The second novella is “Artificial Condition” where Murderbot, on the run, teams up with a sentient research transport ship named ART.  You don’t want to know how Murderbot interprets that acronym.  Murderbot has decided that it needs to learn for itself exactly what happened in that mining company where it apparently lost its mind and committed mass murder.  It just doesn’t have any memory files of the actual event so it decides to go to the planet where the mining camp was.  It needs transport to the planet that won’t alert the authorities so it hires on as a security consultant to a trio of probably stupid humans.  These humans have no reason to suspect the pleasant human-appearing person (without its intimidating and impersonal armor) is anything other than a heavily augmented human.  This is convenient since Murderbot doesn’t have to pretend to be a SecUnit and follow their stupid orders.  But, of course, that doesn’t mean it can prevent the stupid humans from continuing to make stupid choices and take risks.  It finds that even without its governor controlling its behavior, it gets really, really annoyed if any of its humans take risks.

And the trouble is, someone has gone to great lengths to remove all references and evidence of said camp making it a bit difficult to locate it.  Not impossible for a SecUnit with access to the unimaginable amount of information that ART has and is willing to share in exchange for a chance to watch shows; just a little difficult.  Murderbot is hoping that seeing the place might jog its memory; or maybe there might be logs or files still accessible.  What it finds there is completely unexpected; but, unfortunately, doesn’t tell it what was its part in the murderous rampage or why.  It must continue searching for answers but the source might be connected to the trouble on the last planet it was on.

Murderbot has a very engaging personality and its self-talk is amusing.  The story is light but a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed the developing relationship between Murderbot and ART; I hope the author can find a way to bring them together again.  And I will happily delve into the next story to follow Murderbot’s developing mystery and journey of self-discovery.  ~~ Catherine Book

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