Artificial Condition

(The Murderbot Diaries #2)

by Martha Wells

158 pages

English language

Published Nov. 11, 2018

ISBN:: 9781250186928
OCLC Number:: 1033693095

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(81 reviews)

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 vessal 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...

1 edition

ridel reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial condition' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Murderbot 2 is a nice, short story but is constrained by its length. Our main character is joined by a decent secondary, with enough story development time for us to invest in the character. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast are barely more than names and the overall plot is ultimately shallow. I continue to appreciate the thoroughness to the setting and relationships between constructs, bots, and humans. You can tell there's a lot of left unwritten, and that the world building is deeper than what Murderbot is able to explore. I appreciate this, but am also cognizant that if the setting was also shallow, I would give up on these short stories.

Readers that enjoy short stories will not have these complaints. For the rest, it's short enough that you might as well give it a try.

I'm slightly annoyed that ART will not be present in the future …

Soh Kam Yung reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Murderbot digs into its past

3 stars

The second 'Murderbot' story, this one has it going back to where it all began, a mine where it went 'rogue' and killed its clients, forcing it to disable its governor, so it wouldn't happen again. But memory, especially mostly erased memory, is a tricky thing. It isn't sure if it was the governor that made it go rogue, or it disabled its governor to go rogue. Either way, it has to know.

But getting to the mine on a distant planet won't be easy. On the journey, it finds an uneasy ally in the transport ship which happens to be an on-loan research vessel with a hugely powerful bot in charge of it, but is rather emotional over entertainment shows (provided by Murderbot) featuring research vessels whose crew dies from misadventures and needs some 'hand holding'.

On the planet itself, it hires itself off to a small team going …

On the planet itself, it hires itself off to a small team going to the planet to meet a company person holding the team's data hostage. An attempted sabotage raises the stakes as Murderbot now has to protect his clients and get them safely off the planet again before going off to find the mine. When he does this, the truth he discovers is not what he remembers. But he now has to go save his clients again before deciding what to do now he knows just what happened at the mine.

_astronoMay reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial Condition' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Murderbot and ART, a true partnership ♥️

bookafnd reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

it is episode II

5 stars

this series is shaping up to be pretty episodic (appropriate i guess given its protagonist's love of serial fiction) and this volume feels like it's leading up to a more major plot point. still i don't have any complaints about it though, it is a very good episode 2

meeg reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial Condition' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

wow ok I. LOVE. MURDERBOT.

Wetdryvac reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial Condition' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Oh gods, this series makes me so happy.

Later: Who's got a comfort series? I've got a comfort series.

Coalford reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial Condition' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Okay, I went from thinking Murderbot was kind of okay to being a huge Murderbot fan.

My only gripe is that this series of books so far does sort of seem short. Really looking forward to reading the full novel.

tivasyk reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial Condition' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

good in a non-ideal, fast-paced way, but short.

Libbum reviewed Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Review of 'Artificial Condition' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

These novellas are really quite enticing. I really love the way that you know Murderbot is a construct, that he has these conflicting views of what humanity is and how he fits into that. As a consequence the feelings and expectations you have for him and how you want him to fit in, but have to keep reminding yourself that he is indeed a construct. This friction really makes the story enticing and interesting.

This story was probably a bit better than All Systems Red, but perhaps that's just because we now understand Murderbot quite a bit more than we did initially. It's somewhat a pity that these are just novellas an not a fully fledged book, but we know #4 is coming and we'll at least be able to finish the story in a larger and deeper scape that it deserves.