Murderbot

My latest book from the public library is All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells, which won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novella and the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella.

Here's the beginning of a review of the book ...

All Systems Red chronicles the life of a robot that calls itself Murderbot

“But as I said before, these weren’t intrepid galactic explorers. They were people who had been doing a job and suddenly found themselves in a terrible situation.” These lines sum up the general attitude of Martha Wells’ novella, All Systems Red. It’s a snarky adventure set in the depths of space, told through the eyes of a security robot that’s taken to calling itself Murderbot. While it’s short, this book packs a nice punch, and nicely sets up a great playground for countless other adventures.

Our protagonist got its name after killing a bunch of company employees on another planet a couple of years ago, but while it has a bit of a bloodstained history, this isn’t Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s a dour security bot that likes to watch steamy soap operas, and would rather be left alone. After its murderous rampage, it hacked its own governor module, not wanting to fall victim once again to hardware manufactured by a company that cuts corners to save a buck ...

It's pretty good so far.