Here’s the 4th and final book I read during our cruise and I have to say – it wasn’t in the plan. I’d downloaded this one awhile ago – around the time it was released – and it’s just been sitting on my iPad – collecting digital dust. I bought it for two reasons: 1) I’d read Martha Wells’ “The Death Of The Necromancer” (DOTN) way back in 1998 when it first came out and enjoyed it so much that I later bought a special release hardcover edition – it’s an exceptional story that everyone should read, and 2) the reviews for “All Systems Red” were pretty positive – 4.5 stars on Amazon and 4.1 on Goodreads. For both reasons, I felt like I should buy it and give it a try.
Well – we were pretty far into the cruise, I’d just finished “Shadow Of The Scorpion” and I was kind of directionless. I wasn’t ready to head back to Malaz and pick up “Midnight Tides”, I didn’t have anything that I was really compelled to read and there it was – looking kind of neglected. I opened it up, thinking I’d read the first chapter and before I knew it – I was done.
This is one you can just fly through. It’s simple – nothing complex about the science (what little of it there is) – no real world building given that the scientific survey team in question is stuck on an unexplored planet – the plot is very linear – and there’s very little back story. The book is entertaining and I think most would enjoy it but I don’t get all the kudos and the rave reviews. The main character – Murderbot – is not that complex – probably by design as it looks like the author intends to develop him across a series of novels. You get a hint of a tragic past – a massacre he’d committed on a prior contract which leads him to refer to himself as Murderbot. You never really get to know the supporting cast – the other members of the survey team – with the exception of the survey team leader – who does have a chance on several occasions to impact the story and define herself as an admirable character. Like I said – it’s fun but it’s simple – science fiction cotton candy.
Murderbot’s one defining characteristic – other than that he very loyally serves the survey team he’s contracted to protect despite the fact that he’s hacked the security protocols which would mandate his doing so – is that he likes to watch the story era equivalent of daytime drama. What struck me about that peculiarity is the author makes no effort to weave his weird binge-watching obsession into the story – it only gets used on one occasion where Murderbot passionately defends the integrity of one of his favorite fictional characters during an argument with another member of the survey team. If felt to me like a lost opportunity.
For a novel that sometimes gets characterized as hard science fiction, I found it pretty science lite. Murderbot is obviously a pretty complex creation, you get a hint that he’s one of multiple models of synthetic humanoid (military bots, pleasure bots) but you get no real insight into how or why he and the rest of his kind were created the way they were or who did the creating – again, something that the author probably intends to explore in later books.
Like I said – it’s fun and I think you’ll enjoy it but it’s simple. I will buy the sequels – two have already been announced – “Artificial Condition (scheduled for release in May 2018) and “Rogue Protocol (scheduled for release in August 2018) – but I probably won’t buy them in hard cover – just e-copies – since “All Systems Red” just wasn’t good enough to justify the investment. I’m also left scratching my head a bit – given the three month separation in release dates between volume 2 and 3 – it makes me feel like I’m being played by the author and publisher. Having said all that, I’m open to a change of heart and will go into the next two volumes ready to be impressed. I know Martha Wells is capable of doing it – “DOTN” was a truly amazing book.
And on that note – the best thing that came from reading this book was the realization that “DOTN” is actually one of five books set in the world of Ile-Rien – one stand-alone (as is DOTN) called “The Element Of Fire” and a trilogy consisting of “The Wizard Hunters”, “The Ships Of Air” and “The Gate Of Gods”. If I’m going to spend time and money on Martha Wells, I think I’d rather go back and dig into Ile-Rien. Once I’ve acquired and read them, I’ll let you know how they were.
Final thought – if you haven’t read anything by Martha Wells, start with DOTN – you will not be disappointed.
I’ll be off-line tomorrow and won’t be able to post but I should be able to finish Scalzi’s “Ghost Brigades”. That should be worth an update as I’m finding it to be a better read than “Old Man’s War”.
Cheers