Amazon.com: Customer reviews: All Systems Red (Kindle Single): The Murderbot Diaries

I hate to give such a low rating to a book ...

Good action scenes, good musings of the AI trying to understand the universe he lives in.

Reviewed in the United States on January 27, 2019

The Murderbot series is a pretty good read but definitely not worth the $33.96 price. It is really one book, divided into novella-length stories – an very annoying marketing ploy. I bought the $3.99 first book and that would have been it for me, if my nephew hadn’t given me the other three.
The story is a biography of an Artificial Intelligence during one mission, and the humans, augmented humans, bots and other artificial intelligences he meets along the way. Good action scenes, good musings of the AI trying to understand the universe he lives in. 5 stars for the book, 3 for the marketing ploy.

All System Red, 156 pages $3.99
Artificial Condition, 160 pages $9.99
Rogue Protocol, 160 pages $9.99
Exit Strategy, 176 pages $9.99
652 $33.96

473 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Katie

Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2018

I hate to give such a low rating to a book I think is written well, but 2 stars is a reflection of my enjoyment level for this one.

At first, I thought "All Systems Red" was going to be a win. The voice from page 1 is just spot on. Murderbot is hilarious, and I laughed out loud multiple times. Sadly, though, that's where my enjoyment ended. There's no intriguing plot here, and every character except our faulty robot narrator is totally static and uninteresting.

I can see why a lot of people have enjoyed this novella. It's funny and fast-paced. But it also fell flat for me. I think I'm done with the Murderbt diaries.

121 people found this helpful

dorkjj

Lacking quite a bit

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2020

Kind of an interesting premise, but its executed quite poorly. Murderbot is a cool character, but that's literally all this book has going for it. The rest of the characters are completely uninteresting, and I did not care one bit what happened to them. As a reader, if I can't sympathize and connect with the characters at all it means the author has completed failed.

The pricing structure of this entire series is a complete scam as well. The first book is appropriate priced given its length, but the rest are the same length and they all shoot up in price. I figured if the first book was at least moderately entertaining I would take the plunge into the rest of the series, but not at these prices, and certainly not from such a lackluster book.

6 people found this helpful

Patrick Harkins

Not worth the money

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2018

Way too short. Literally a portion of a book. I can't imagine the author wrote this intentionally but instead they decided after completion to chop it into multiple books. For the price not worth it.
The story is interesting, mostly from the writing perspective but the details are never fleshed out. You don't get any background, just a "he did this. He did that"
It's got the right stuff unfolding but they cut it off before it really gets going. As such, I won't be buying the others.

10 people found this helpful

OK story but too brief and very overpriced

MacDougall

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2020

This was a gift so I had no control over the value decision but wow - $15 for 144 small pages. I literally finished it in less than 2 hours and the story/characters were only just starting to develop. Beyond the gouging issue, there was not enough material here to feel any sense of completion upon finishing the read. Its a shame because the concept is good and there could have been so much more to the story. I will not be buying any more books in this series.

4 people found this helpful

great series! awful price for what is NOT a novel

DR Kuhns

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2020

These are Not books, each one is a chapters/novelettes/long stories, whatever you want to call them. They are great fun, witty and well written, but her publisher, or whoever decided to break them up into these short pieces at full book prices, should get a mental swirly. A real shame.
So the two stars for the scammy pricing, as others have pointed out, until the publisher changes their ways...otherwise it would be 5.

4 people found this helpful

Good. But not for the price.

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2020

I bought the book without readings the comments about its length. I enjoyed the story, and definitely would like to continue it. But I will not at the current prices. Only way I will continue murderbot’s story is to find the rest of the books at a used book store for no more than 7 dollars each. The 2 star rating is for the cash grab it feels like the publisher did. If it was a proper length book I would give it 4 stars.

3 people found this helpful

Great author, terrible ripoff, disappointed.

Chris Mueller

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2020

Like everyone else, this is a good story, interesting ideas, and entertaining. However, again like everyone else, there is no way I am paying $10 each for pieces of what should have been one book. Great author, terrible business practice. I was ready to add a new favorite author and explore the rest of their work, instead I am deeply disappointed and will ignore everything else the author writes until they wake up and respect their customers enough to not rip them off.

4 people found this helpful

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2018

I liked the premise of this, but the writing could be improved a lot. The narrator had a distinctive voice which I liked but a lot of the writing was peppered with “or something” “I guess” “kind of” and other filler words that could have been taken out. Also the main character constantly said “I awkwardly did” xyz or “I felt weird” while describing normal interactions which felt unnecessary and didn’t always make a lot of sense to me in the context of the scene.

Other than that the plot was ok but not that original.

4 people found this helpful

Great premise, but too long for a short story, and too short for a novel, with bland characters.

Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2018

The book is 150 pages, but it should have been 75 pages. It seemed like a very long short story with a very narrow focus.
I was excited for the premise of a robot finding his individuality, but it lacked the humor I was expecting, had no subplots, so it felt very bland. It might get better in future books, but I won't be buying them. The writer has a great premise but needs work on filling her world.

There are 3 other books. Having only read the first I surmise that it should have all been condensed into 2 books, and this book should have been 75 pages, and the prologue to the first of 2.

5 people found this helpful

Great books, terrible marketing

mofolotopo

Reviewed in the United States on May 23, 2021

I really enjoyed the writing in these books, but the pricing is just inexcusable. You've got 6 books of 150-170 pages each, for something like 900-1000 pages. That's the length of one long novel or two middling ones, for the price of (currently) just under $61. That is a blatant rip-off, and I'm baffled as to why anyone thinks it's okay. If I finish this series, it's going to be because I found the rest of them for a couple of bucks at a used book store.