Jul 4

Jul 4 Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries, #2)

Author: Martha Wells
Publisher: Tor.com
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

It has a dark past – one in which a number of humans were killed. A past that caused it to christen itself “Murderbot”. But it has only vague memories of the massacre that spawned that title, and it wants to know more.

Teaming up with a Research Transport vessel named ART (you don’t want to know what the “A” stands for), Murderbot heads to the mining facility where it went rogue.

What it discovers will forever change the way it thinks…

TL;DR Review

Artificial Condition was such a good sequel to All Systems Red! I’m hooked into Murderbot’s story (and life). Can’t wait to read the next one.

For you if: You read All Systems Red, and you like relatable, funny, surprisingly human sentient robots.

Full Review

“Fear was an artificial condition. It's imposed from the outside. So it's possible to fight it. You should do the things you're afraid of.”

Yay Murderbot! This second novella built nicely on the first, which I ended intrigued by Murderbot’s life but not irretrievably hooked. This one really deepened my love for its character, and I can’t wait to read the next one.

ICYMI, Murderbot is a SecUnit, a sentient robot built to provide security for humans. It hacked its governor module, though, so it’s not under external control, and it’s finding out who it really is — and how it’s much more like humans than it (and they) might have thought. In this installment, it ventures off on its own to try to investigate what really happened during a pivotal moment of its life — that it can’t remember. We also meet a new robot, ART, who is a truly hilarious, intensely lovable secondary character.

The strength of these novellas is not only in the fun, fast-paced plots, witty dialogue, and great characters, but also in the heart. I would take a figurative bullet for Murderbot (even though technically it would be its job to take a bullet for me, lol). As always, I marvel at the ability of sci-fi to hit at the center of what makes us all human.