Compulsory
Ratings72
Average rating4.1
Did I spent 99 cents on an eight page short story? Yes. Was it silly to spend almost a dollar on an eight page short story? Yes. Would I do it again in a heartbeat? Yes. Would I buy Martha Wells's grocery list if she wrote “The Murderbot Diaries” on it? Yes.
This short story is a little snippet of Murderbot's life as a secretly rogue SecUnit before meeting the Preservation team in [b:All Systems Red 32758901 All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) Martha Wells https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1631585309l/32758901.SY75.jpg 53349516]. It's quite an agreeable addition to the Murderbot Diaries, completists can be pleased to add it to their collection, but no-one needs to have it: it doesn't tell us anything that we didn't already know.
(Oh the irony - I just got a “Prove you are not a Robot” box when I tried to post this).
A very thought provoking short story about money and profit taking over all things so that cost-assessments need to be performed even on human life. Most people would say that you can't put a value on human life, yet we live on a planet on which people need to actually pay money for health care - ie. to stay alive.
Interesting setup, disappointing resolution. I might tentatively recommend this as a taste test for someone unfamiliar with Murderbot, but with caveats: it nicely demonstrates Murderbot's essence, yet also Wells's occasional handwave-it-away laziness. The best of her books do not rely on the latter.
A very short Murderbot story showing a step in the evolution of one SecUnit who has hacked their Governor module. I would like more, even though I came into this knowing how short it was.
TL;DR
Very short story of Murderbot before meeting his crew. I liked it, it's also free so there's that.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
✓ - Main Story: Murderbot helping out humans as he always does.
X - Side Stories (if it applies):
✓ - Characters: Not much explanation about the characters, just a few names.
✓ - Setting/Ambiance: Not much explanation about our suroundings, just that we're in a mine.
✓ - Ending: Just another day for Murderbot.
Extensive Review
You can read the story here for free:
https://www.wired.com/story/future-of-work-compulsory-martha-wells/
An excellent Murderbot short story published in Wired magazine. A prequel to All Systems Red, it does a great job of introducing the character and universe. One of the more overtly dystopian diary entries, it's both horrifying and moving in its brief word count.
Cool opening story to the series. A bit of foreshadowing of what is to come. Not necessary to start here, but it is technically the earliest in the timeline.