36: All Systems Red—The Murderbot Diaries, Book 1 (w/ Sir Aaron Carter & Emma Skies)

We’re kicking off Season Five with ALL SYSTEMS RED by Martha Wells—and a couple of very special guests! Sir Aaron Carter and Emma Skies join us to talk Murderbot ahead of the AppleTV+ adaptation premiering May 16th. (And yes, they’ll be covering the show in their very own Watch podcast, so stay tuned!)

Listen in as we dig into what makes Murderbot such a compelling character, why Emma has read this book four times, and whether Jason—reading it for the first time—thought it lived up to the hype. Plus, Aaron shares what took him so long to read the second Murderbot novella, and why he refuses to read book two of the similarly-themed Monk & Robot series.

Goodreads Synopsis

In a corporate-dominated space-faring future, planetary missions must be approved and supplied by the Company. For their own safety, exploratory teams are accompanied by Company-supplied security androids. 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 is 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, Murderbot 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 Murderbot to get to the truth.