SciFi/Fantasy Novella Review: Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2) by Martha Wells:

Artificial Condition is the second novella (of four planned) in Martha Wells' "The Murderbot Diaries", which began with last year's "All Systems Red." (Review Here).  I've been looking forward to it a lot, given that All Systems Red is my pick for this year's Hugo for Best Novella (and won the Nebula).  And the novella mostly doesn't disappoint and is well worth your time.  The story continues right immediately (more or less) from the ending of All Systems Red, so you can't start the series with this novella, but well...you should read All Systems Red anyhow.




Quick Plot Summary:  After the events of All Systems Red, Murderbot decides to leave PreservationAux, feeling uncomfortable being "liberated" - as much as one can be called liberated while still needing a guardian.  To escape, Murderbot disguises itself as an augmented human and decides to embark on a drone ship to discover the truth about its past: was it really responsible for the massacre for which it named itself?  Or were exterior forces to blame.  But as it grows closer to the site of the massacre, Murderbot will be forced to cooperate with a powerful Ship AI and interact once more with humans who are too stupid for their own survival, and Murderbot finds even liberated he can't simply ignore them....

Review:  Artificial Condition isn't quite as good in my opinion as All Systems Red, but it's still very good.  Murderbot remains an incredibly likable character - your introverted cyborg protagonist that would preferably just be left alone to watch trashy tv dramas, but who discovers more about himself in this installment that he can't simply just do that when he still has questions about his past and well....has humans he feels obligated to save.  Still, it's hard not to feel like he's a little less original in the second installment, even with his character growth.

But what really makes this novella still excellent is the new secondary character, ART - aka Asshole Research Transport, the super powerful AI Murderbot accidentally befriends and who helps him in this adventure.  The interaction between the two non-humans is great, and really makes this novella (the humans involved by contrast are kind of boring) an excellent successor to All Systems Red.  I look forward to the third installment in August, to see how things play out.