All Systems Red by Martha Wells
Planetary missions in a world dominated by corporations will need to be authorized and funded by the Company. For their own protection, the Corporation provides security androids to go with exploratory teams. However, safety isn’t a top priority in a society where contracts are given to the lowest bidder.
A group of scientists are performing surface experiments on a faraway planet while being watched by their company-provided ‘droid, a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module and calls itself (though never aloud) “Murderbot.” All it really wants—despite its contempt for people—is to be left alone for a while so that it can identify itself.
However, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to find out what happened when a nearby mission suddenly goes black.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells
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In the privacy of its own brain, a security android refers to itself as Murderbot because, in the past, it killed a number of people as a result of poor programming. Since then, it has cracked open its own control system to prevent a repeat of the incident as well as to allow it to steal and store massive amounts of entertainment programs that appear to be from a genre that lies somewhere between tellynovellas, Corrie, and Mills & Boon. If Murderbot has to converse with people, particularly when it is not wearing its armour, it becomes acutely embarrassed.
The plot is really just a Christmas tree to drape Murderbot’s persona on; it has Murderbot saving a Survey team from a deadly scenario as a result of skulduggery.
