Artificial condition by Martha Wells

SecUnits don't care about the news.
–Martha Wells - Artificial Condition - c.2018

The Murderbot Diaries ; 2

The whole time I was reading this book¹ I kept telling myself to slow down. It is short, only 159 pages² so I knew that soon it would be over and I’d be sorry because although the third installment will hopefully be out this year it isn’t out now, and please read my previous comment about instant gratification.

But I didn’t, slow down that is. In fact I may have sped up because I was enjoying it so much.

As with All systems red I just love Murderbot and its voice. It is so unique, and funny, but also touching and poignant. And this time Murderbot makes a friend! an AI sort of a friend, in the form of ART, who is a transport ship with a lot of abilities.

In this installment Murderbot wants to know exactly what happened to it³

The story is entertaining, the characters are engaging, plus it raises issues of what it is to be a person. Why do we do the things we do, and what is so scary about artificial life? All in such a short book! that’s some achievement. Actually the only negative I can think to say about Martha Wells’ Artificial condition is that I’ve finished it.

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1. novella, whatever ↩

2. not that I’d know that apart from the fact that goodreads tell me I read the ebook because pr-orders and instant gratification are the way of the now!  ↩

3. it feels strange to refer to a character as it, but that’s how Murderbot thinks of themselves, or at least I don’t think they’ve considered a gender as fitting for them, maybe them their would be better…  ↩