The Murderbot Diaries, Volume 1: Robots can have recognizable personality types

It seems that robots provide endless opportunities for authors to explore human concerns.

The Murderbot Diaries, Volume 1
By Martha Wells
Published by Tordotcom, 2025
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For pretty much the entire history of science fiction, robots, artificial intelligence, and the like have been used by authors as ways to explore humanity. In fact, you could argue that this is an idea that goes all the way back to the beginning of the genre, with Frankenstein being about an artificially-created being trying to understand human relationships and desires. In the 20th century and beyond, writers and other creatives have delved into the fascinating idea that robots might strive to emulate humanity, and even when they fall short, they can provide insights into the ways people function.

In the Murderbot Diaries series, Martha Wells follows in this time-honored tradition, creating a character who struggles to relate to humans (and other robots, for that matter) but continually learns new things about himself and begins to understand the value of relationships. He’s a “construct” that has both robotic and organic components, and while this means he has enough intelligence to think independently and solve problems, he also experiences emotions that he sometimes struggles to process. Because of this, he tends to close himself off from others as much as possible, preferring solitude and the comfort of watching shows that he has downloaded to his system from the “entertainment feed.” When he does his job, he tries to stay as professional as possible, doing his best to avoid the complications that humans and their difficult-to-understand emotions often bring.

That job is to provide security for humans on various planetary or mining expeditions, which is something that gives him plenty of exasperation, since they’re constantly disregarding their own safety and doing stupid things that are likely to get them hurt. But at the same time, it’s clear that he takes pride in his work, feeling a sense of accomplishment when he’s able to help his “clients” avoid dangerous situations or rescue them from alien creatures or other nefarious humans. And due to an incident that happened in his past, he has taken the initiative to make sure he will always be able to make what he believes are the best choices to achieve his goals. To gain some measure of independence, he has hacked his “governor module,” the component that forces him to obey commands issued to him, ensuring that he will always be able to maintain control.

In “All Systems Red,” the first novella contained in this volume, Murderbot (which is the name he has chosen for himself and also the term he uses to refer to his line of SecUnits, serving as a bit of dark humor acknowledging his capability for lethality) gets embroiled in some corporate espionage when providing security for a planetary survey expedition. This not only provides us with the opportunity to get to know him, but it also gives us some information about his circumstances, in which he is the property of a corporation that makes every possible effort to cut corners and increase profits. On this particular job, his clients turn out to be especially nice, friendly, and empathetic, which is a pleasant change from the norm, but also one that’s confusing for someone who prefers to keep to himself and avoid connections that make him uncomfortable.

When his clients are threatened, Murderbot does everything he can to help them survive, which provides some exciting action, but also forces him outside his comfort zone by making him care about what happens to them. Circumstances even require him to open up to them a bit, and the fact that they seem to consider him to be a person rather than a piece of equipment is hard for him to process. This gives him no other option but to grow and change, eventually putting him in the position to actually pursue his own goals rather than meeting the demands of an uncaring owner.

In the second novella, “Artificial Condition,” he gets to do some more personal growth, learning about the benefits of forming relationships with others. When he hitches a ride on a transport ship, he learns that the artificial intelligence operating the ship is going through some similar growth. While their relationship starts off somewhat combative, they quickly bond over the shows that Murderbot likes to watch, and ART (the name he gives the ship, which stands for “Asshole Research Transport”) decides to help him on his continuing journey toward self-actualization. It’s another story that provides some excitement and personal development while pointing toward what are likely to be enjoyable ongoing adventures in future volumes.

With this series, Martha Wells has created a fascinating character that will be able to provide plenty of opportunities to explore human nature. Interestingly, Murderbot seems to have a personality similar to people who are neurodivergent. He struggles to understand people’s emotions, but he’s not an unfeeling robot, and he’s interested in the ways relationships play out, which is why he loves watching TV dramas and rewatches his favorite episodes over and over. He also has difficulty expressing himself, sometimes being overcome with emotion when people treat him with kindness and feeling uncomfortable with face-to-face interactions. While I wouldn’t go so far as to diagnose him as being on the autism spectrum, I expect that certain readers will find his ways of dealing with the world to be very relatable.

While the action and adventure of this series is tons of fun, and Wells is great at coming up with plots that take unexpected twists and turns, the exploration of this character’s internal state is what really makes it interesting. Seeing Murderbot be forced to grow as he encounters new and unexpected situations doesn’t just provide some great character exploration, but it also may provide insights into why people with certain personality types behave the way they do. That’s one of the best uses of science fiction: to give people fresh and enlightening perspectives on themselves and the world around them by making them consider human nature in a different way than they had before.