I came across All Systems Red, the first novella in Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries series, on my kindle early on this week. I am pretty sure I am one of the last people to read about Murderbot because it seems that all of my bookish friends have read at least one of the novellas in this series. This is how I ended up with a copy – lots of recommendations from friends. And what can I say – my friends have great tastes in books. 😉

I really liked this story of a security android that would rather watch tv series than interact with people. I totally got Murderbot.
Apart from the great main character in the story, I also liked the interaction between the other characters, the humour, the world-building, the actual plot, the suspense … There is a lot to like in this novella.

Where it fell down a little for me is that it was a novella. It felt a bit short. Not rushed, but just short. I liked it but it didn’t blow me away. Still, I will probably read more in this series.

Unusually, All Systems Red was the only “side read” for me this week. It feels like I haven’t read a lot compared with other weeks, but that’s actually not true. My main read – The Interest by Michael Taylor – was a dense history of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire and took up most of my reading time.

The Interest deserves its own review, though, so I won’t go into more detail about it here.

Other reviews posted this week:
none

Currently reading:
Reise einer Wienerin in das Heilige Land – Ida Pfeiffer
Red Ellen: The Life of Ellen Wilkinson – Laura Beers
Wenn Du Geredet Hättest, Desdemona – Christine Brückner
Childhood, Youth, Dependency: The Copenhagen Trilogy – Tove Ditlevsen
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works – William Shakespeare (see The Will’s World Project)