This week I’m moving on to the second book in The Murderbot Diaries – Artificial Condition – by Martha Wells. There will be some unavoidable spoilers for the previous book. You can read my review of that first book at the link below:
Here is the blurb:
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.
The blurb for this one doesn’t do a good job of explaining what this book is about so I’ll start this review with more of a plot summary than I usually do.
After Murderbot leaves the PresAux team at the end of All Systems Red, he ventures out on his own to try to discover more about his past. He remembers enough to know that he killed many humans at a place named Ganaka Pit. As he travels there, posing as an augmented human, he meets ART – a sentient transport that is curious about him. After some salty interactions, ART (short for Asshole Research Transport) helps Murderbot make some changes to better disguise himself. Even after this, Murderbot fears being discovered by humans who are familiar with SecUnits or by other SecUnits. In order to have a reason to be near Ganaka Pit, Murderbot is hired by a group of young researchers who have been victimized by their corrupt corporate employer. They need protection while they try to get their stolen data back. The rest of the story follows Murderbot’s mission to find out what happened at Ganaka Pit while also protecting the humans who have hired him.
In this book we get to see how Murderbot acts now that he is more free to make his own choices. Despite this new freedom, he still ends up as a protector to humans. Was this a result of some inherent programming that he cannot escape or just a reasonable choice to stick with what he knows how to do? This book lets us watch Murderbot explore his choices as he decides how human he wants to be. I also love how Murderbot takes inspiration from the shows he watches, sometimes taking on a name or other parts of the story from Sanctuary Moon.
The worldbuilding in Artificial Condition also expands to show the reader a larger part of this world and more types of bots, with ART as well as ComfortUnits. Like the previous book, this one includes an anti-corporate theme. Overall I enjoyed the book – it was a quick read that wraps up with action and a satisfying conclusion.
What other books about robots and androids have you enjoyed? Let me know in the comments.
You can find more of my book reviews here.
Salvage – a flash fiction science fiction story with a winter holiday theme