The Murderbot Diaries seems tailor-made for adaptation. Now as an Apple TV+ show is coming, I am getting excited and rereading the first novella in the series, All Systems Red. I’ve actually read three books in the series, and it feels very episodic as we follow the adventures of a security robot (maybe you could consider them a cyborg since they have organic parts as well as artificial) that has hacked their governor module so they are independent of original control programming. Serving out a contract with a group of scientists surveying a planet, Murderbot (as they call themselves) plays the role of protector for the group when things on the mission start to go suspiciously awry. Conspiracies abound.

This series is good for adaptation because it’s hard sci-fi (i.e. uses realistic-yet-alternative, technology-forward, futuristic concepts and ideas for its story) but with a manageable scope, limited to an understandable future with robotic security units, planetary survey missions, and corrupt corporations (yes, they’re still around). It’s not as vast and complex as something like Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series (which Apple has also been adapting, with mixed success). Also, there’s a nice blend of character and action scenes that might make for exciting and engaging TV. 

However, one of the elements that I enjoyed (and I think most fan readers do as well) is the cheeky narration by Murderbot. Imagine if a killer security robot had the personality of a brooding, surly 15-year-old. They really don’t like to interact with people or to bother protecting others from hostiles. Instead, they prefer to spend their time watching serial melodramas. They like to use more slang and sarcasm than you’d expect (not sure why programmers would have made them that way, but maybe that’s more of a narrative invention). And yet, in the end, this is the hero of our story. Despite the fact that we’ve probably all met such a teenager in real life, by casting this persona into the futuristic body of Murderbot, it seems both fresh and relatable. I’m not quite sure how they’re going to render this inner-narration on TV, though. Hopefully nothing gets lost in translation.

As the crew start to investigate the suspicious circumstances, we kinda get to piece together the situation along with Murderbot. Unfortunately, I found that they all made connections and leapt to conclusions a lot faster than I did,  so the “You, too, can solve it” flavour was a bit lost on me. Nevertheless, it did not detract too much from the story as the focus really was on getting to know Murderbot, the crew, and the players in this world/universe they are operating in (and, with each book, Murderbot moves on to new crew mates anyway). In the end, this is an enjoyable, tightly-written sci-fi story with a fresh new character that is easy to root for and enjoy. 4 out of 5 (And though the audiobook narrator Kevin R. Free sounds nothing like him, I think Alexander Skarsgård will make a wonderful Murderbot.)