Artificial Condition The Murderbot Diaries

"Sometimes people do things to you that you can't do anything about. You just have to survive it and go on."

4⭐️

I'm having fun with these little Murderbot novellas, they're really easy to read and they're a nice, short and quick snippet into this world and the life of Murderbot as it tries to uncover its past and make its way as a free agent, dodging other SecUnits who will turn it in for being rogue. This book follow it as it travels back to the planet where the 'murder' happened that gave it its name, and in doing so it travels on a transporter with a highly intelligent bot pilot, ART. These two form an alliance and work together to find a way to get Murderbot onto the planet so it can do research on the mining incident where it apparently went on a rampage and killed a whole lot of humans and destroyed the other bots. This was, yet again, a very straight to the point, no nonsense story, and it was really interesting but I'm still not connecting to this story like I hoped I would.

ART is really the star of this story. It is sassy and sarcastic and provided some really funny banter between the two bots as they figured out their plan. These novellas and Wells' writing have a lovely way of making you feel deeply for these bots and making them relatable. She manages to mix a good balance of humanised emotions and reactions with the very practical and logical way of thinking bots have. You can still tell they are bots and not humans, but they might as well be with the way they process interactions and try their hardest to protect and help humans. I really enjoyed all of the scenes with these two, especially when they were watching the media together and M-bot had to hand-hold ART through its emotional reactions to the series. The side quest helping the group of humans retrieve their stolen plans provided a good amount of action to keep my attention and the intrique created by trying to figure out what actually happened during the Ganaka Pit incident was fascinating and also quite heart breaking at the same time.

I enjoyed this and will definitly be carrying on with the series because these are a really accesible short reads that I can pick up in between other books. I do still find them a bit dry and one-dimensional at points, and I think they might have benefitted from being one novel with a bit more time spent on fully fleshing out some of the other characters and worldbuilding, but I am coming to realise I always feel this way about novellas and this might be a me problem. I'm definitely enjoying reading more sci-fi this year and this is a really digestable format to read this genre. I am looking forward to seeing what the TV series does with these stories, and I love that Alexander Skasgard has been cast to play Murderbot, I think he will bring the right amount of detatchment mixed with humour and emotion to this role.

Okay I thought I’d take a break between volumes but I fear I need to find a Barnes asap.

i love ART :(

4⭐️ (slight spoilers if you haven’t read book 1)

This was a great follow up to All Systems Red, and follows Murderbot as they search for clues about a traumatic incident in their past. MB takes on a few odd jobs that go sour, uncovers a key to the past, and makes some new friends along the way! (I love ART!)

I will say I don’t think this one was good as the first book, just because it felt like less happened, but it also could be because I took a longer break in the middle of this one and forgot the first half so maybe I’ll come back to this at a later date. I love that Wells chose to dive into Murderbot’s past and use that as their driving force, while also continuing to develop MB as a character and individual separate from its role as a SecUnit.

I already have the third and fourth books downloaded and ready to go so the series is still a yes from me!!

i keep forgetting these are like novellas and i’m like wtf why do i read them so fast well cause they’re good for starters

i think i liked this one more than the first honestly the author has to stop introducing characters i get attached to and then moving on like please let murderbot have friends that stick around!!!! anyways onto the next

I love Murderbot!

The Murderbot Diaries is the only series I can think of that makes me want to literally laugh out loud. Snarky bots are such a delight.

Murderbot makes more friends, and is still the shyest murderebot to ever exist.

Funnier than the 1st book, loved the sidekick.

This was even better than the first! I love ART 🥹

Slaps

3.5 stars The Murderbot Diaries are quickly becoming a go-to quick SF fix for me. I enjoy following Murderbot and now ART too, the pair is pretty awesome! I love the drama binge-watching, I love the catastrophic situations the bot gets into, I love ART's quips, I love the world-building. I'm really flying through these, and even though this one was not as gripping I'm still very much looking forward to the 3rd.

I love this series so much. I like that this novella picked up right after the first one, and it still has everything I’d come to expect from Murderbot - funny asides, heartfelt ideals, and refreshingly honest anxiety. Low-stakes sci-fi is definitely my thing. The addition of ART was also welcome. I like that the world is growing and introducing some new characters, even if they only last for the book. Another fun and compelling story!

The second of the Murderbot Diaries, I really cannot get enough of this character and this world.

I had fun with this one. I am glad there is also an overarching plot but mostly I can tell Martha Wells was having a great time and that really makes all the more enjoyable. Otherwise it is not too dissimilar from the first one.

More Murderbot! These novella series books are great!

In the first book, I criticised the author’s way to characterise an AI character and said it was hard to believe for me how the Murderbot felt too much like a human more than a AI. I guess I focused too much on the technical nature of it.

Now with this second I understand where the author wants to go, and why he feels so human. As we follow it, we see it learning its emotions and it’s definitely voluntary and it made me remember a short story from Exhalation by Ted Chiang. I feel like Murderbot is always learning and it’s interesting to follow.

The intrigues are okay but like book 1 it feels like an accessory to follow Murderbot as a character.

Up to the next 😂😭

This book flew by! Must have liked it more than I thought.

Another fun adventure with my new best friend Murderbot! I also very much enjoyed the introduction of ART and the two of them bonding over television. Seriously, why am I relating to these characters so much???

i liked this better than the first one????

Love these characters!

Another wonderful read. Pacing was just slightly slower than the first book in the series but there was more character development. There were some times when the plot was a little confusing since there were multiple goals going on at once, but overall it was a really interesting read.