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How the new Murderbot TV series made me a reluctant convert

Murderbot fans will be thrilled to learn that the cyborg security unit that gains free will by hacking its governor module is now the star of a compelling adaptation. Bethan Ackerley has unexpectedly joined their ranks

By Bethan Ackerley

28 May 2025

Alexander Skarsg?rd in

Murderbot (Alexander Skarsgård) just wants to be left alone

Apple TV+

Murderbot
Apple TV+

Friends and colleagues spent years trying to get me to read The Murderbot Diaries, a sci-fi series by Martha Wells about a cyborg security unit that gains free will. I resisted. They pitched it to me as quirky, which raised my hackles, or as comfort reading, which sent them skyrocketing. Not my sort of thing, I thought snootily.

But once Apple TV+ said that it would be adapting All Systems Red, the first instalment, I knew I had to give it a read. It…

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