First Edition, 158 pages
English language
Published May 8, 2018 by Tor.
Artificial Condition is the follow-up to Martha Wells’s Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times bestselling All Systems Red.
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…
Really entertaining, I would love to see a TV show about murderbot
I was reading parts 1 (All Systems Red) and 2 (Artificial condition) of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Here is what I wrote about it: denkpass.de/2023/04/05/Reading-Murderbot-diaries-by-Martha-Wells.html
Two passages:
What’s funny is that these AIs are supposedly superintelligent, yet they behave like small kids. This is what makes them also human or relatable in my eyes. But would artificial intelligences even pay attention to humans? We’ll see why the murderbot (and the ship AI) do, but this is almost all that makes me read these books (or Iain Banks’ Culture series, which is also heavy on AI, or Anne Leckies Radj series): because the AIs want to understand humans, they observe them so much. And find out something that we humans don’t observe consciously (but most of the time subconsciously).
Martha Wells was aware of this human centred storytelling with often the only reason being that we human readers are …
I was reading parts 1 (All Systems Red) and 2 (Artificial condition) of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Here is what I wrote about it: denkpass.de/2023/04/05/Reading-Murderbot-diaries-by-Martha-Wells.html
Two passages:
What’s funny is that these AIs are supposedly superintelligent, yet they behave like small kids. This is what makes them also human or relatable in my eyes. But would artificial intelligences even pay attention to humans? We’ll see why the murderbot (and the ship AI) do, but this is almost all that makes me read these books (or Iain Banks’ Culture series, which is also heavy on AI, or Anne Leckies Radj series): because the AIs want to understand humans, they observe them so much. And find out something that we humans don’t observe consciously (but most of the time subconsciously).
Martha Wells was aware of this human centred storytelling with often the only reason being that we human readers are so much interested in ourselves, not actually in any artifical intelligences. We want the AIs to focus on us, because we only focus on us as well.
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 …
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 novels, as the lack of developed characters constantly reminds me how much the format of short stories. I found the background for Murderbot to be an interesting diversion, but it didn't seem to impact that story. The rest was fun -- seeing how Murderbot can be revised to not be so obviously a construct, as well as his continuing dislike of interacting with humanity.
Same interesting narrative voice but nothing interesting was done with it in this second volume. The first book was novel enough to impress me but the second entry revealed an author with interests very different from mine. I might go back to this series of I'm in the mood for some fluff but probably not.
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 …
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 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.
Murderbot and ART, a true partnership ♥️
I get it now: this is autistic Jack Reacher in space. I'm glad the books eventually get longer as I suspect that's what is keeping me back from the fifth star, and I'm certainly intrigued to see where the series goes. This one is a tight little adventure that feels like a bridge towards something more substantial, but it's fun on it's own terms.
4.5
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
Loving this series so much. It's impressive to me that in such a short book, Martha Wells is able to immerse me fully in Murderbot's world.
So fast to read! These are very short books and I don't mind at all.
It doesn't add much to the first book. But all the things that made the first book fun continue. Funny lines, all characters are good people, action all the time (except a bit of lull at the start). A bit of light is shed on the mystery of Murderbot's dark past.
wow ok I. LOVE. MURDERBOT.
Finished 2024-01-06
Was better this time around (Graphic Audio version).
---------
Second try: january 6 2024. Reading the Graphic Audio version now, and that is more palatable. I think I can get through this, this time.
Segunda entrega del Matabot, y aquí toca ver un poco lo que pasó antes de su liberación.
Solo con la presentación del nuevo personaje ya habría merecido la pena leer esto.
A sweet and genuine origin story, chronicling the platonic affection between a murderous cyborg and a transport ship (it’s much more poignant than it sounds). With all the wisecracks and shoot-em-up space plots, Murderbot might be easily dismissed as a clever gimmick, but Wells writes with genuine heart and a fun examination of the emotional experience of artificial intelligence. The books are joyous, quick, and charming.
