All Systems Red

This book (and series) is about its protagonist, who is a joy to listen to. It's also fun to hear about the stuff it gets up to with technology. There are action scenes at the appropriate places to be exciting. I wouldn't go expecting a thematic interrogation of some idea though — the plot moves quickly and breaks things.

Fast paced plot. The AI is exactly not doing what it was built for (it's a security bot that calls itself a murderbot), it loves watching entertainment series on HBO or the like. The story is told from the point of view of the bot and the bot is really funny. It's not only the interactions with humans, it's often in between different thoughts and all, she puts in a new perspective that is funny.

Of course I want to point out that we all seem to love these bots that turn human, like with Ann Leckie etc. But we don't know if these books sound like real AIs, although we think they do and we love it. I love the difference between the bot and a human, or better, what the bot is thinking about an easy interaction with a human that we as humans never consciously think about. But I have no way of knowing if this makes this AI authentic, or if we just anthropomorphize what we think an AI should be thinking, you know?

I love the MurderBot series. Martha Wells does such a great job exploring what it means to be a sentient being that I'm often tearing up and laughing within the span of a couple pages. Rinse and Repeat. Start reading and I promise you'll love MurderBot and be aching to read the remainder of the novellas to follow its travels and exploits.

I read this a couple weeks ago and could tell you approximately nothing about the plot! I remember having a nice time reading it? It's short, which is to its credit. There is some stuff about untrustworthy corporations, and the main character is a robot whose robot-ness seems to be a metaphor for neurodivergence of some kind? I don't know. It never really came together but also, hey, it was short.