Book Review - All Systems Red

All Systems Red by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An enjoyable novella. The story follows the first person narrative of a being constructed of organic and mechanical parts called a SecUnit. It took me a few tries to get into the voice of the character, but once I did, the story unfolded nicely.

The author does a good job of helping the reader relate to a mostly non-human being battling with the highly relatable human desire to not be told what to do. It does read like a short story, the reader spends a lot of the time inferencing and picking up clues about the situation. First person also limits the world building, but it was not lacking. For this format, it does a lovely job of immersing the reader.

For whatever reason, I got hung up on the names a lot. This is an ongoing issue with me for some reason. The names were not necessarily difficult, or too similar, but they just never sounded right when I said them, or they sounded to close to another word and I had to double take.

I felt the ending was appropriate but the resolution of the conflict did leave me a little confused and wanting more explanation. I think it is worth a second read to see what else I can pick up. I definitely recommend this as a quick read that helps you get off the planet for a bit.

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