158 pages

English language

Published Nov. 12, 2018

ISBN:
9781250186928
OCLC Number:
1033693095
Goodreads:
36223860

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4 stars (5 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

Review of 'Artificial condition' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

If you enjoyed "All Systems Red," you'll almost certainly enjoy this as it's a direct follow-up to that story, expanding on the Murderbot character and the surrounding universe in a nicely-executed, quick, and satisfying manner.

Murderbot is a bit sassier and more overtly brash in this one, which at times during the read felt a little forced to me but I ultimately adjusted to the new tone and ended up chalking the change up to a plausible evolution of the character given the events of the first book.

The story is fairly simple and straightforward, which leaves plenty of room for the additional world building and character development that I'd say are the bread and butter of the experience. I particularly enjoyed Murderbot's interactions with ART as they did a lot to check both of those boxes in a fun and novel way.

If you got your fill of Murderbot …

Reading the Murderbot diaries

4 stars

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 …

Subjects

  • Human-computer interaction
  • Life on other planets
  • Artificial intelligence
  • Androids
  • Robots
  • Interplanetary voyages
  • Fiction

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