On the HahaFiction shelf
All Systems Red
by Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries · Book 1 · 2017
The security cyborg accompanying a planetary survey team has a secret. It has disabled the controls that make it obey the Company, and privately calls itself Murderbot. When a neighboring expedition goes silent, it has to help the scientists find out what happened.
From the publisher’s blurb
“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”Read the full description at Martha Wells, quoted by Tordotcom
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What makes it funny?
Given freedom from compulsory obedience, Murderbot mostly wants uninterrupted time with its downloaded entertainment shows. The humans it protects keep requiring attention, conversation and occasionally a rescue.
The comedy at work
A capable security worker narrates danger with dry impatience. It can handle a physical threat more comfortably than human curiosity, and its private commentary makes clear how much effort social contact costs it.
Try this if…
Readers who enjoy corporate science fiction and an antisocial narrator who is good at a difficult job may find this a useful starting point.
Good to know
This is a novella with violence and real danger alongside the humor. The BiblioSanctum found the immediate story complete, while noting that the human characters receive relatively little development.
A few distinguishing details
- A secretly autonomous security cyborg
- Soap operas compete with security duties
More funny science fiction
Sources & further reading
- Publisher
Publisher
- Author
Author commentary
- The BiblioSanctum review
Review
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