All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells is a science fiction adventure novella and the first book in The Murderbot Diaries series. It explores the ethics of sentient robotics and follows a self-aware security droid known as "Murderbot." In a corporate-dominated future, Murderbot accompanies a team of scientists on a distant planet. When a neighboring mission goes dark, it's up to Murderbot and the scientists to uncover the truth.

I started this one really only because I was nearly stuck and unable to find an audiobook to begin. I had sampled several and started a chunky historical fiction, but my mood reading got in the way and the only thing that sounded settling was a space-opera-esque story. While this isn't so much opera as prelude, it did the job fine and allowed me to bridge myself over the near slump and continue without unwanted breaks between books.

This felt very middle of the road and predictable...nothing flashy here for which Wells would've aimed, but nothing totally fresh either. It's pretty quaint in this vein of sci-fi futuristic settings with a sentient android helming the narration. I don't know if I have any interest in continuing with this series, though.

Audiobook, as narrated by Kevin R. Free: Free was pretty well set for the performer of this narration. He has a great reading voice, and was able to capture the rest of the disparate crew with no problems. I do wish his voice for Murderbot was a little more monotone or hard, but I really had no complaints.