40 pages • 1 hour read
Martha WellsAll Systems Red
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Character Analysis
Themes
Symbols & Motifs
Important Quotes
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BetaChapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Before its current mission, the humanoid Security Unit Murderbot (as yet unnamed) hacked its governor module and discovered that it could access its company’s entertainment feed. Since then, it has consumed over 35,000 hours of movies, series, books, music, and other media. Its favorite series is the drama Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon. Murderbot feels like a failure because it chose to spend time on this entertainment over becoming a mass murderer.
Murderbot is on a scientific survey of an alien planet when a giant creature attacks two of the scientists, Drs. Bharadwaj and Volescu, who are taking samples inside a crater. Murderbot rescues them and calms the panicking Volescu. Back at the base, Murderbot regenerates in its cubicle while the rest of the team attends to the wounded scientists. The team’s captain, Dr. Mensah, visits Murderbot to ask if it is all right. Murderbot feels extremely awkward around humans and answers haltingly, wishing Mensah would leave. Mensah tells Murderbot that it talked to Volescu soothingly during the rescue mission, even asking about Volescu’s family. Murderbot is embarrassed and believes this happened because it watches too much media. Before Murderbot goes into emergency stasis due to the severity of its injuries, it realizes that it had overridden an “abort” command from its governor module to save the scientists.
Chapter 2 Summary
The group, PreservationAux, is on the planet to assess whether their company should bid on the planet’s resources. The group is from a freehold and because of this, Murderbot expects that they will be difficult: “Freehold meant [the planet] had been terraformed and colonized but wasn’t affiliated with any corporate confederations. Basically freehold generally meant shitshow so I hadn’t been expecting much from them” (26). To Murderbot’s surprise, they are easy to work with and have a friendly dynamic with one another.
Wearing its uniform instead of its robot-like armor, Murderbot joins the group in the habitat’s crew area. Its arrival startles them because Murderbot usually wears an opaque helmet; they had not realized Murderbot has a human face.
Usually, Murderbot stays in its area and does not interact with humans. Now, the team needs Murderbot’s data to find out why the dangerous creature was not listed on the region’s fauna report. Murderbot confirms that a warning had been deleted from the report’s fauna section. HubSystem is responsible for all Murderbot’s data and functionality, but it subcontracts its manufacturing to the lowest bidder, which means the software is cheap. (This is why Murderbot could hack its software in the first place.) They ask Murderbot if someone could hack the software from the outside, and it says probably not; the survey package was likely damaged due to faulty software.
Murderbot thinks about the group members’ relationships: Overse and Arada are a couple and are best friends with Ratthi. Ratthi likes Pin-Lee, but Pin-Lee flirts with Bharadwaj. Volescu and Pin-Lee might have a crush on Mensah. Gurathin, the only augmented human, is a loner.
They decide to contact DeltFall, the other survey group on the planet, to see if they can get a complete report. DeltFall confirms that six sections are missing from PreservationAux’s map. Murderbot’s duties for the moment are complete, and Mensah asks if it would like to stay in the area with the rest of the crew. Mortified, Murderbot makes the excuse that it must check the perimeter and tries to leave the crew area “in a totally normal way” (31). While Murderbot is watching Sanctuary Moon, Mensah alerts it that she is taking some of the team members to explore an area that is missing from their map. Murderbot volunteers to go with them.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
The first two chapters establish the characters of Murderbot and the PreservationAux crew. The chapters also set up the novel’s world and introduce the internal and external conflicts that drive the plot.
Murderbot’s main trait is its social anxiety, which is not a common characteristic for humanoid robots in science fiction. In Murderbot’s strong desire to consume media and not perform its duties, Wells establishes that All Systems Red is not a typical science fiction narrative. The protagonist is not torn between its “human” and “robot” characteristics. Rather, it is torn between having to work and wanting to relax. Murderbot is avoidant: it has a distorted image of itself as unlikeable, and because of this, Mensah’s friendly treatment of Murderbot makes it self-conscious. Throughout the novel, Murderbot struggles with its fear of being seen because it has already determined that it is not worthy of friendship or respect. In these chapters, its armor emerges as an important symbol of its desire to remain anonymous. Despite its discomfort with social interactions, it sees people in terms of their relationships rather than their duties. In Chapter 2, Murderbot describes the team’s personalities and relationships with one another rather than their jobs, providing insight into Wells’s character-driven narrative. While Murderbot’s obsessive watching of Sanctuary Moon (another important symbol) and other media provides humor, it also reveals that Murderbot is interested in interpersonal relationships though it avoids them in real life. Murderbot also notes its asexual, nongendered identity, introducing the theme of Non-Gendered Identity and Asexuality in Speculative Fiction. These are not the typical concerns of a robot-organic hybrid in science fiction. Murderbot’s originality signals that All Systems Red and the Murderbot Diaries depart from genre expectations in terms of its character development.
The plot, by contrast, is a straightforward science fiction action narrative, which provides the backdrop for the focus of the novel: interactions among the characters. Plot events spur Murderbot’s inner journey as well as move the narrative forward. For example, Murderbot’s behavior toward Volescu after the crater attack reveals that Murderbot is more sensitive—and more human—than the crew realized. The creature attack is the plot’s inciting incident. It advances the plot because the creature’s presence in the crater reveals that the team’s map is incomplete, and their need to fix this problem leads them to contact DeltFall, setting up the first major plot arc.
