All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1)

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 hadnt 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

This is a bold-faced con-job! Take one big novel, split it into four novellas, charge three bucks for the first one and ten for each of the next three. Thats the kindle price btw, so $33 for an aprox. 650 page novel. Its a decent story, but I feel like a chump for buying it.

The story is actually pretty entertaining; a little cookie cutter like but the writing is well done
However the larger problem is cost. It’s $40 to read the 4 novellas. So yeah you’re going to pay $40 for the functional equivalent of 1 complete story that was separated into 4 parts within 18 months of the first part. Objectively this is a poor attempt at a cash grab to ream readers pocket books. And people lament the death of the written word…

I have no problem supporting authors with paying for books. I do have a problem throwing money for installments that don’t complete until you have paid your way through. This is the functional equivalent of Activision and EA charging money for content on video games that should have already been in the game. And it’s not working out so well for them these days.

Don’t support this business model.

OK $3.99 novella (really really short) but to continue with the series you will need to pony up $10 per novella.

$10 is way too much for what’s essentially a short story.

Given the pacing of the publishing this is obviously a novel the author/publisher are squirting out bit by bit in the hope to drive up the prices or perhaps become a contender for “best novella” awards.

Well they drove something, me and my family away from this money-grabbing author/series. We’ll either borrow it for free or just move on to better, more appropriately priced fiction.

Regarding the actual content it’s OK not-great. So many holes in the story it’s crazy making it hard to enjoy. .

Beware of the full cost of completing this series of novellas. This is a crafty bit of marketing and these are way overpriced. This is a 4 part novella series. The first book is 4 bucks for the Kindle to suck you in, but the remaining 3 are 10 bucks each. So you will end up paying $34 to finish the series. What a great way to treat and fleece your readers. These should have all been included in 1 book for maybe 10 to 12 bucks. I will never read anything else from an author that treats their readers like a cash cow.

The stories themselves start out ok. I actually enjoyed the first book, however, as you read through the series, they are variations of a theme and just occur on different planets/locations. Nothing new. Murderbot can hack just about any system, control whatever it wants to and get away with anything. It can beat combat bots and other secunits. After a while, it all just gets predictable and boring. So if you really want to jump in here, I recommend that you read the first book, if you must, and avoid the remaining three. Trust me, you will not be missing anything. Use the money that you saved to treat yourself to some better books by better authors.

Galaxyaudiobook Member Benefit

- Able to comment

- List watched audiobooks

- List favorite audiobooks

- Bookmark will only available for Galaxyaudiobook member