David’s Reviews > All Systems Red > Status Update

Damn, Wells can write.

Too many human characters are indistinguishable, which I find mildly frustrating, but which Murderbot would find natural, I'm sure. The Netflix series wisely eliminated two of the crew.

Rereading because Wells is awesome.

The plot is racing along at a heady clip for first person past tense (it is Murderbot's diary, after all). Style is unencumbered, with easy vocab, light conversations and terse descriptions. The humans are cyphers: they must all look the same to Murderbot---who parses them long enough to decide on a pronoun, or whether it likes them or not. This is an action-first novella, packing Cat-4 punch in its lean 154 pages.

A thrilling ride so far! Murderbot couldn't care less. But Murderbot thinks these humans aren't half bad. Murderbot rocks.