October 1, 2023

All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries Review

2 min read

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.

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