All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries Review

2 min read

12 months ago Steve

With a title like Murderbot, I was expecting this:

It was the exact opposite of that.

What I liked:

This book is pretty funny. The humor is my type of droll humor I enjoy. I laughed out loud more than a few times.
Especially now we can all relate to just wanting to be left alone and those awkward social situations we all find ourselves in.
The technology and world are intriguing.
The story builds anticipation and it’s fun hearing the characters trying to solve their problems.
It’s a short read – perfect for a palate cleanser.

What I didn’t like:

I didn’t really care about the characters, and I would have liked more information about what they do.
As interesting the world and the technology in the story are, I would have liked more information on how it works.
The climax was a bit of a let down for me.
If we’re talking about bang for your buck, it’s 160 pages for a little over $13 bucks on Amazon. The hardcover MSRP is $18.

Conclusion and rating:

Murderbot is a funny, short read. I didn’t think it was a great book, but it wasn’t bad either. The climax being a letdown brought my score down a little. With this being a 6 part series and such a short book, the lack of character development and information may be on purpose. Maybe this isn’t the purpose of this book, and it’s not setting out to be a sprawling epic, instead it intends on being a fun fast read. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I would also like to mention that the cost for a novella of this size is pretty ridiculous at over $20 at the time I bought it. It’s now available on Kindle Unlimited, so that helps.