All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries

Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Award for Best Novella
Winner of the Alex Award
A New York Times and USA Today Bestseller

Now an Apple Original series from Academy Award nominees Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz and starring Emmy Award winner Alexander Skarsgård.


A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.

“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”

In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.

But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.

On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.

But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.

The Murderbot Diaries
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Rogue Protocol
Exit Strategy
Network Effect
Fugitive Telemetry
System Collapse

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Published May 2, 2017

160 pages

Average rating: 7.86

578 RATINGS

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Community Reviews

What Bookclubbers are saying about this book

✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI

Readers say *All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries* offers a fun, quick sci-fi adventure with a unique, snarky AI protagonist who is both relatable a...

Groundhogcat
Oct 24, 2025
6/10 stars
Interesting story about a part robot/part human security bot. Delves into the question of what is human who has free will.
Gias_BookHaven
Dec 30, 2025
8/10 stars
First read of this series and by this author. deathbot makes for an interesting character. Wonder what happens next for them.
mrsalikat
Nov 24, 2025
7/10 stars
My interest is peaked. I can see why this was made into a show, which I would probably find more enjoyable.
Sammispider
Oct 20, 2025
10/10 stars
Great novella for travelling. I'm looking forward to see where the series takes me
raeallic
Oct 09, 2025
8/10 stars
Very enjoyable, intense, and quirky. Has a great sense of humor.

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