All Systems Red

After finishing the show (which has been renewed for a second season!) I thought I'd go back and check out the original to recall exactly what changes they made for the screen.

There weren't many — the show is pretty darn close to the novella. I guess having such tight clean source material means there isn't as much you need to cut. A lot of it was pretty streamlined — a couple of characters were merged, human thoughts and feelings get more screen time, making it more of an ensemble piece, and the addition of Leebeebee to make Murderbot more visually scary for us.

There's less detail to the tech/interface/hacking/hub system interactions. I don't think I've ever seen a hacking scene I really liked which both felt genuine and was visually interesting. (If you're wondering, the two best onscreen hacks are: 1. Trinity's use of nmap and the SSH1 CRC32 exploit in Matrix Reloaded, which is realistic but visually mundane and only appears on screen for a few moments, making it more of an easter egg than anything else, and 2. Hugh Jackman assembling a hacking cube from an ancient server in Swordfish, none of which has any relationship to reality, but which is very flashy on screen and includes Hugh Jackman.

The biggest thing which felt different to me was the absence of Murderbot's ubiquitous use of micro drones and remote cameras as extensions of its sensorium. In the novella, I really felt like Murderbot was deeply connected to the feed and that looking through a remote camera or accessing a database was was as natural for it as reaching out a hand or looking in a particular direction is for us. There were definitely nods to this — it wasn't exactly forgotten — but it was considerably less ubiquitous and visceral than in the novella.

And I think this contributed to making it more of an ensemble piece. In the novellas, the reader doesn't have any senses: we're not watching or listening. We are reading an account composed by someone whose sensorium & perception are comprehensible but alien to us — like reading a cuttlefish talk about light polarization and how it's using chromatophores. And in fact I think that this is one of the deep strengths of the series. Murderbot is a killing machine with guns in its arms who experiences the world through drones & feeds and minimal fear of pain or death. But also, it's an autistic nerd treated as less than a person in a corporate dystopia and just wants to be left alone to watch its shows, just like the reader.

Anyway, this novella continues to delight. If you enjoyed the show and like to read, check it out. The books are very short and easy to get into, which makes it very easy to start and equally disappointing when you run out.

I've been watching the recent tv show and thought I'd give the books a reread so I could ground myself in the text again. Also brains have been bad, and Murderbot is such short grippy comfort fiction. I think what makes me come back to this (personally) is my empathy for Murderbot's exhaustion and horror around being asked to be a person.

Murderbot also epitomizes the mortifying ordeal of being known (but simultaneously the even more mortifying ordeal of being loved). There's so much joy for me in the grumpiness of the internal monologue. If I had to come up with a one sentence emotional arc for each book, this one would be Murderbot moving past apathy and learning that it does in fact want to protect (some) humans.

Confession time: I don’t actually know where we are

On a reread, I had also forgotten the level of indifference that Murderbot has, in terms of not even knowing what planet they're on. It's an aspect that comes through so much stronger in the original text.

All Systems Red is a wonderfully funny story, but also a deceptively heavy one.

It's true that the protagonist of this book (a socially awkward security android who calls themself "Murderbot") is introduced as this loveably quirky individual who is perpetually wishing everyone would just leave them alone so they can watch TV. However the humor of this setup is only half of what truly makes this story great. Murderbot is an amusing and innocent first-person narrator, but they're also a character who is gradually indicated by Wells to be struggling with some degree of PTSD as a result of an experience whose nature is left deliberately unclear.

The skill which Wells showcases here isn't just her innocent sense of comedy, but in her ability to take what is really a very heavy subject (how people respond to traumatic memories), and use humor to approach these themes with a respect and honesty that very few authors manage.

All Systems Red is a "cozy sci-fi" story about an android who claims to want only to spend all day watching futuristic soap operas, but who nevertheless ends up having to save the lives of a bunch of human scientists who have gotten stranded on an alien planet. It's also a story about why people avoid dealing with traumatic memories, and the many issues that arise for them as a result.

The reason this story works is because these two facts are not mutually exclusive. This book is funny, and it's also about trauma.

There's a longer review which I wrote on my blog that I'll link to below. Just be aware that I go into plot spoilers.

erichendel.blogspot.com/2023/09/review-all-systems-red-by-martha-wells.html