All Systems Red (Dramatized Adaptation)

The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, Holly Adams, Michael John Casey, Zeke Alton, Rayner Gabriel, Natalie Van Sistine, David Cui Cui, Khaya Fraites, Aure Nash, Megan Dorminy

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.

Performed by David Cui Cui, Khaya Fraites, Zeke Alton, Alejandro Ruiz, Aure Nash, Bradley Foster Smith, Holly Adams, Megan Dorminy, Natalie Van Sistine, Michael John Casey, Rayner Gabriel, Shanta Parasuraman, Tanja Milojevic and Wyn Delano.

©2017 Martha Wells (P)2023 Graphic Audio LLC

Disappointing

I am a fan of the written novel and of the original audio production, but not of this version. The production quality of this dramatization is good, except for the pacing. I usually speed up playback of audiobooks a bit. This listen is the first time I've had to slow the playback, and dramatically at that. Otherwise, Murderbot's sarcastic humor is lost and it comes across as just weird. Murderbot's character comes across as cheerful in this production, and that's all kinds of wrong.

The other character voices present a fresh take on these characters, and I enjoyed them. However, Murderbot's dry sarcasm is the entire point of the novela, and I miss it. This is not a response to the voice of David Cui Cui, which is fine, but in this instance he did not nail the essence of Murderbot.

Maybe the printed version was better???

For it’s award pedigree this dramatized version makes the material seem to be the writing of a novice. Should I give the book a read ??

Book is great, this performance not so much

Narrator rushed through the entire book, almost a sing-song. Very disappointed. I would have never bothered with any sequel if this version had been my intro to Martha Wells

My 4th Copy!

This is my 4th copy of this book. I own a hardcover, a digital book, a regular audiobook, and now this full audio drama version. And I do not regret a single one. The story is epic and I relate to Murderbot so much! The performances and sound effects were a great enhancement to the way everything played out too! Now I just need the movie!

Wonderful series! Fantastic story!

If you love Sci-Fi, have a great imagination, and have some time to decompress and go on a mental vacation, do it! This was an amazing ride with even better storylines in sequels. I didn’t regret anything until it was over. I’ll have to start the series over. So good.