Written By: Charlie M. Case
The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells is a sci-fi series currently consisting of five novellas and two full-length novels. Its setting is intergalactic: humanity has expanded across solar systems, travels through wormholes, and terraforms planets like nothing. But it’s far from a space utopia.
The premise of the first book, All Systems Red, is this: on a planetary survey, the narrator acts as security for a group of field scientists as their uneventful work turns into survival horror, when another survey group tries to kill them. The narrator, also, isn’t human.
That narrator, the titular Murderbot, is on the planet not as hired security but as a piece of equipment: by all appearances, a humanoid robot. Beneath its armor, however, Murderbot is a constructed mix of robot parts and cloned human tissue, with a human face, a thinking mind, and guns in its arms. It’s controlled via a “governor module,” which dispenses both orders and electroshock punishment if disobeyed. Or—it would, if Murderbot hadn’t hacked its governor module almost four years ago.
The Murderbot Diaries explores many themes: slavery, corporate greed, political struggle between minorities and monopolies. What attracts me to it is its more intimate explorations: those of self-identity and personhood.
Murderbot, “freed”—it’s more complicated than that—from its slavery, must reckon with self-determination for the first time in its life. It must decide: who am I? What do I want? It grapples with the mess that is being a person and having wants, and being inhuman and having different wants from humans. Its journey is as endearing as it is heavy.
Beyond its thematic components, Murderbot is overall an excellently crafted series. Its worldbuilding is solidly established, without excessive exposition and with enough context for a new reader. Action is expertly paced. The short novellas are accessible for casual readers, and the characters are all engaging and distinct. And, most of all, Murderbot itself is a fantastic narrator.
One of my favorite pieces of narration comes from book three, Rogue Protocol, when Murderbot is pretending to be human security on a transport ship. The ship’s passengers are indentured service workers, headed for a work contract that is, essentially, repackaged slavery. Murderbot, unable to help them, does what it can: mediates their petty interpersonal disputes as tension rises.
“…I knew where they were going, and they knew where they were going, even if they were pretending all their anger and frustration was caused by [each other]. So I listened to them a lot and pretended to be launching major investigations into incidents like who left a cracker wrapper in the galley restroom sink.” Rogue Protocol, pg. 14
Murderbot is witty, competent, and always exasperated. It’s also awkward with people, endlessly caring, and loves terrible serial TV dramas. The Murderbot Diaries is a joy to read, for its excellent narrator and for all the other reasons I’ve listed. It is fun, and I would recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in sci-fi. You won’t be disappointed.