Artificial Condition

 Yes, the giant transport bot is going to help the construct SecUnit pretend to be human. This will go well.

This book was literally unputdownable for me: I read it all in one gulp, and then I was upset there wasn't more to read. There were maybe a couple of places where I stumbled—when it came to unveiling the main mystery of what happened at Ganaka Pit. I pretty much always slow down and re-read some of the pages when investigative plots roll in, though, so this wasn't so much a stumble as my usual reading pattern. The mystery itself was compelling, and the answers weren't what I expected.

My favorite parts of the novella, though, were centered entirely around Murderbot's interactions with ART. I don't even know which of these bots is my favorite at this point. I especially loved the scene pretty early in the book when they …

This is a book you will love if you love Murderbot, which I assume you do, because otherwise why are you reading book two? Murderbot goes places, meets people (both human and construct) and does stuff, but my questions is, what is it about? Because I feel like it is about something, but what? What's the theme?

Maybe the theme is about extending trust against the possibility of betrayal. At one point, Murderbot points out to another construct that they can never really be friends, since a human could always order either of them to betray the other. Then there is the title, Artificial Conditions, which is directly referenced in the book: A character says "fear [is] an artificial condition. It’s imposed from the outside. So it’s possible to fight it. " (In the context spoken, Murderbot thinks, reasonably, that this is terrible advice.)

So perhaps this is …