It's official: Apple TV+'s adaptation of Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries sci-fi books launches on May 16, introducing a whole new group of genre fiction lovers to this quirky series which has taken book readers by storm. Murderbot is the story of a self-hacking security construct (played by True Blood's Alexander Skarsgård) who is drawn toward human emotions despite their insistence that they want nothing to do with them. The fact that Murderbot is sentient is a danger to them should the wrong people find out, so they would much rather lay low watching soap operas than get tangled up in human affairs.

All Systems Red, the first novella in The Murderbot Diaries, was published in 2017. Since then Wells has written a number of other novellas, novels, and short stories set in the Murderbot universe which have garnered numerous awards and nominations, including multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus Awards.

I'll admit,...