Martha Wells’ First Entry in The Murderbot Diaries is a Special Mix of Cyberpunk
You don’t need to look at me. I’m not a sexbot.
Often in cyberpunk, choice is but an illusion presented by an omnipresence like AI, an authority figure, or society at large. This is only one reason why All Systems Red makes an important contribution to the subgenre, and also what makes it slightly difficult to classify.
Let’s Talk About Murderbot
In this short and sweet novella, we follow Murderbot, a SecUnit (Security Unit) tasked with safeguarding a team of humans on a mission to another planet. Unbeknownst to them, Murderbot has a hacked “governor” module, the cyberware that makes SecUnits compliant.
In this future, androids have cloned human flesh as well as cybernetic implants and other non-organic parts. These droids are used as disposable labor in a myriad of ways, from sexbots to SecUnits like Murderbot. Interestingly, “Murderbot” is the closest thing to a name it has, and the designation is assigned, not given.
The Company must provide these droids to protect their interests at all times. Part of their ability to do so is through their use of this governor module which forces commands to the droid.
That would have been the illusion of choice typical of cyberpunk. Ostensibly, the droids don’t know they don’t have free will until this module is hacked or removed. Murderbot outright refuses commands–not often, but it is integral to the story as it unfolds.
It’s wrong to think of a construct as half bot, half human. It makes it sound like the halves are discrete, like the bot half should want to obey orders and do its job and the human half should want to protect itself and get the hell out of here. As opposed to the reality, which was that I was one whole confused entity, with no idea what I wanted to do. What I should do. What I needed to do.
Accidentally Human
Also of note is that although it is a droid, Murderbot is also an obsessive consumer of soap operas. We learn it also finds “real” humans boring and often tedious. So then, to be autonomous is to also be a consumer. You can’t have it both ways in this cyberpunk story–a small, elegant thing about All Systems Red. Either Murderbot is compliant with the system or it depends on it. All Murderbot wants to do is consume this entertainment. While old cyberpunk is generally technophobic, new cyberpunk is often verging on solarpunk in its hopefulness. I love that Martha Wells’ take on technology could be seen as a subversion of cyberpunk and a much more nuanced interpretation of how the genre can explore technology today.
I hate having emotions about reality; I’d much rather have them about Sanctuary Moon.
Also, this is the first cyberpunk novel I’ve read with no pronouns given to something autonomous and a protagonist, and it works exceedingly well.
While the crew attempts to anthropomorphize Murderbot, it does not think of itself as human. Murderbot often displays the amount of social skills one might expect from something that just wants to put the world on mute and turn up the volume on entertainment. But while attempting to be almost performative in not being human, it manages to be more human than it realizes. Murderbot embodies some of the social changes we have seen with the meteoric rise of social media and daily technology use.
This was what everything had always told me I was supposed to want. Supposed to want.
Subversion Leans Closer to Post-Cyberpunk
In short order, Martha Wells has managed to supplant a predominate trope with a more nuanced take, using no pronouns for the protagonist in a very natural way. It doesn’t break up the flow of the text at all; that’s a feat itself. This lack of pronouns allows a much better expression of technology in line with the themes at work. All Systems Red still maintains the essence of the illusion of choice trope. We are all bots and we are all humans because of the way we interface with capitalism in this day and age.
We all have a choice, but what good is it? This is what Wells examines. Because of these subversive elements, I am inclined to label the book as post-cyberpunk struggling against the normal conventions of the subgenre.
Also, its name is Murderbot for a reason. There’s a lot going on with this character for such a short novella, and you should read it. One of the best endings I’ve ever read. I give it a 5 out 5.
What was I supposed to do, kill all humans because the ones in charge of constructs in the company were callous? Granted, I liked the imaginary people on the entertainment feed way more than I liked real ones, but you can’t have one without the other.
Favorite Quotes
It’s wrong to think of a construct as half bot, half human. It makes it sound like the halves are discrete, like the bot half should want to obey orders and do its job and the human half should want to protect itself and get the hell out of here. As opposed to the reality, which was that I was one whole confused entity, with no idea what I wanted to do. What I should do. What I needed to do.
Portions of the article above previously appeared on the website, Consuming Cyberpunk. They appear here with permission of their original author.
