All Systems Red is one of my final 2022 Popsugar prompts, and this Hugo Award winner is an intriguing start to a series.
Our main character (for want of a better word) is a security android that has – because it fears for the safety of the humans it is tasked with protecting – amended its system so that it does not have to follow commands. It protects its crew because it chooses to, but this means it does not behave as it’s expected to. Murderbot, as it likes to be called, is something of an anomaly.
When it is sent with its crew to try and find out what happened to a neighbouring team, we soon realise that somebody is interfering with this planetary exploration. We don’t know why, or for what reason, but it certainly indicates that something big is in the offing.
I enjoyed the fact that we see events through the eyes of someone who doesn’t quite understand the world they’re in. The internal monologue of Murderbot offers a unique perspective on events, and although I didn’t feel like many (in fact, most) of my questions were answered it was the kind of book that hinted at something very interesting taking place.