I have always loved reading sci-fi for its novel ideas, far-off places, and unique characters— but few series have entranced me as the Murderbot series by Martha Wells has. The worldbuilding is outstanding, with everything from the dystopian Corporation Rim to the lush survey planets. The series is centered around the main character, (Murderbot) a cynical and introverted cyborg who wants nothing more than to watch soap operas in peace rather than protect the humans it’s programmed to protect. Fans are counting down to May 5th when the 8th book, Platform Decay, is being released.
Capitalizing on the popularity of the series, Apple TV premiered a Murderbot TV show on May 16, 2025. Alexander Skarsgård plays Murderbot as the show follows the plot of the first novella in the Murderbot series. When I first started watching the series my expectations weren’t high, however (much to my surprise) it lived up to the book series. Most of the time remakes of books in movie format disappoint me however the changes that were made to the story to increase drama and suspense were warranted. In particular, I liked how the character Gurathin (portrayed by David Dastmalchian) had a backstory in the show. Following the success of the first season, a second season was renewed last July (2025) with the creators eager to explore more into the Murderbot universe.
This isn’t the first time Murderbot had the spotlight, since its inception in 2017, the series has hit the NYT bestseller list and the first novella, “All Systems Red,” sweeping the Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. The first book follows a humanoid “construct” assigned to a survey team on an unresearched planet. When the survey team stumbles upon a deadly plot, Murderbot has to decide how much humanity it’s willing to show to protect them. Seeing the internal struggle between its programming and budding autonomy is more relatable than it seems— proving that in our own ways, we all have a little bit of Murderbot inside of us.
