Martha Wells Q&A: Complete The Murderbot Diaries
“The original idea that I started with in All Systems Red was about an enslaved security person.”
The Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells concerns a violent, self-hacking cyborg searching for the meaning of life. The series stars a human-like android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after adventure, though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk. “I love Murderbot!”—New York Times bestselling author Ann Leckie.
Wells has written many fantasy novels, including The Wizard Hunters, Wheel of the Infinite, the Books of the Raksura series (beginning with The Cloud Roads and ending with The Harbors of the Sun), and the Nebula-nominated The Death of the Necromancer, as well as YA fantasy novels, short stories, and nonfiction. Her New York Times and USA Today-bestselling Murderbot Diaries series has won the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, and Alex Awards.
“The original idea that I started with in All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1) was about an enslaved security person,” the author said at Tor.com, “and a sentient AI fit the best with what I wanted to do. I would hope for people to think about how the corporations in the story decide who gets to be human and who doesn’t, and how their society got to that point, and realize how that happens here in our world.”
Note: The entries below are listed in order of publication.
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All Systems Red (Kindle Single): The Murderbot Diaries #1
Winner of the 2018 Hugo Award for Best Novella, 2018 Nebula Award for Best Novella, 2018 Alex Award, and 2018 Locus Award. One of the Verge’s Best Books of 2017. A New York Times and USA Today bestseller.
A murderous android discovers itself in All Systems Red, a tense science fiction adventure by Martha Wells that interrogates the roots of consciousness through Artificial Intelligence.
“As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure.”
In a corporate-dominated spacefaring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. Exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids, for their own safety.
But in a society where contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder, safety isn’t a primary concern.
On a distant planet, a team of scientists are conducting surface tests, shadowed by their Company-supplied ‘droid—a self-aware SecUnit that has hacked its own governor module, and refers to itself (though never out loud) as “Murderbot.” Scornful of humans, all it really wants is to be left alone long enough to figure out who it is.
But when a neighboring mission goes dark, it’s up to the scientists and their Murderbot to get to the truth.
Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries #2
It has a dark past—one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot.” But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.
Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.
What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…
Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries #3
Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?
Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is back on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.
And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.
Exit Strategy: The Murderbot Diaries #4
Murderbot wasn’t programmed to care. So, its decision to help the only human who ever showed it respect must be a system glitch, right?
Having traveled the width of the galaxy to unearth details of its own murderous transgressions, as well as those of the GrayCris Corporation, Murderbot is heading home to help Dr. Mensah—its former owner (protector? friend?)—submit evidence that could prevent GrayCris from destroying more colonists in its never-ending quest for profit.
But who’s going to believe a SecUnit gone rogue?
And what will become of it when it’s caught?
Network Effect (A Murderbot Novel): The Murderbot Diaries #5
The first full-length novel in Martha Wells’ New York Times and USA Today bestselling Murderbot Diaries series. Winner of the 2021 Hugo, Nebula and Locus Awards. An Amazon’s “Best of the Year So Far” Pick. Named a Best of 2020 Pick for NPR | Book Riot | Polygon. “I caught myself rereading my favorite parts... and I can’t recommend it enough.”—New York Times
You know that feeling when you’re at work, and you’ve had enough of people, and then the boss walks in with yet another job that needs to be done right this second or the world will end, but all you want to do is go home and binge your favorite shows? And you’re a sentient murder machine programmed for destruction? Congratulations, you’re Murderbot.
Come for the pew-pew space battles, stay for the most relatable A.I. you’ll read this century…
I’m usually alone in my head, and that’s where 90 plus percent of my problems are.
When Murderbot’s human associates (not friends, never friends) are captured and another not-friend from its past requires urgent assistance, Murderbot must choose between inertia and drastic action.
Drastic action it is, then.
Fugitive Telemetry: The Murderbot Diaries #6
Having captured the hearts of readers across the globe (Annalee Newitz says it’s “one of the most humane portraits of a nonhuman I’ve ever read”) Murderbot has also established Martha Wells as one of the great SF writers of today.
No, I didn’t kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn’t dump the body in the station mall.
When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people—who knew?)
Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans!
Again!
“Fugitive Telemetry is an unadorned whodunit. A cozy mystery garlanded with plasma cannons and spaceships... One of Wells’ superpowers has long been her ability to pack an epic’s worth of material into a very small package.”―NPR
Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory (A Tor.com Original Murderbot Diaries Short Story): The Murderbot Diaries #7
“Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” is a short story set in the world of Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries. This story was originally given free to readers who pre-ordered Network Effect, the fifth entry in the series. The events of “Home: Habitat, Range, Niche, Territory” occur just after the fourth novella, Exit Strategy.
“Martha Wells found a wonderful balance between snark and deep feelings (even though it’s better not to mention the latter to Murderbot!).”—Maddalena @ Space and Sorcery
Interview with Martha Wells
Q: How did The Murderbot series happen for you? What was the initial inspiration, how did it develop, and from All Systems Red to Exit Strategy, did the story go as planned from the beginning, or were important changes made along the way?
“When I started working on All Systems Red, I thought it was going to be a short story with a sad ending. I realized it was going to need to be longer to really tell the story, so I decided on novella length, but I didn’t really know how I was going to end it until I got there. I thought it would be a stand-alone, but when Tor.com bought it, they asked for a second novella and I decided to write Artificial Condition. I didn’t decide to do the other two novellas until after it was finished, though there were some discarded plot elements in Artificial Condition that I later used in Exit Strategy. So when I started All Systems Red, I had no idea it would be a series, or where the story was going, or where I would eventually end up.”—Short Stories And Sad Endings: A Conversation With Martha Wells (Clarkesworld Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine)
Q: What was the original kernel of an idea for what eventually became Murderbot?
“I was working on the last book in the The Books of Raksura series, The Harbors of the Sun, and as I finished that draft, I was getting all kinds of ideas for what I wanted to do next.
“I was probably influenced by a lot of things like Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice trilogy, which had just come out at that point, but I got this idea for what was going to be a sad, short story that was basically the plot of All Systems Red, about a SecUnit that basically had to expose the fact that it had hacked itself and was now free in order to save the people it was guarding.
It was kind of—I’ve heard them called “attack novels” or “attack ideas” or “attack stories”—this overpowering idea that you want to write it right then. So I was just going to jot down some notes on what the story’s plot was, because I still needed to finish that book draft, but ended up writing five pages of All Systems Red.
“The day after I finished the book draft, I started All Systems Red, and wrote it straight through, and even had a back injury in the middle of it, took some time off and as soon as I felt better, came back and started writing again, and finished it in under a month.”—Martha Wells on writing an anxious, relatable killbot (Transfer Orbit)
Q:What keeps you inspired and engaged as a writer with this cyborg series?
“I really enjoy writing the character, and for the past few years, working on the novellas and the novels have been a big comfort to me. They can be very difficult to write; Murderbot’s point of view, through various online systems and drones, makes the logistics of action scenes very complicated. And navigating the emotions of Murderbot’s perspective can be intense.
“I tend to do a lot of rewriting, throwing out 5,000-10,000 words per novella and starting over again. The novel was even more difficult and took about 18 months to write with a lot of false starts. But I’m very engaged with the character and the world.”—Exclusive Q&A: Sci-fi author Martha Wells talks about her latest Murderbot novella, Fugitive Telemetry (Space.com)
Q: You’ve written extensively in both fantasy and science fiction. Do you find that you have a different writing process for each genre?
“Not really. I don’t think there’s any difference between the way I write them. What is important is the character’s voice and how they fit into their world. When I got the idea for Murderbot, it was very much a story for a science fiction setting.”—Q&A: Martha Wells, Author of ‘Fugitive Telemetry’ (The Nerd Daily)
Q: What role did fandom and fan fiction play in your journey to publication?
“A huge, huge role, because the reason I picked Texas A&M University was they had a student science fiction and fantasy group. I’m not sure I knew at that point that they also ran conventions. I’d actually been to ArmadilloCon in Austin when I was in high school. I somehow convinced my parents to take me and a friend down there to go to this convention—ArmadilloCon—on Saturday. This was back when it was teeny tiny—the dealer’s room was basically the size of a hotel room. And that really made me want to continue to see conventions.
“Also, the friendship and the people I met working on the student convention, AggieCon, were hugely important to me. I’d been reading fanfic for a while. I think I discovered it probably around 1983, I think … no, it was 1980 when Empire Strikes Back came out. So, I’d been reading fanfic for a while already and trying to write … I was first starting to write when I was in high school and college. I worked on fanfic and met a lot of people in fandom through that too. It was hugely important for me.”—Galaxy’s Edge Interviews Martha Wells (Signals from the Edge)