A review by jjwilbourne
Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

adventurous funny fast-paced

4.0

Artificial Condition is the second entry in Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries series. This well-received, sci-fi story caught my attention some time ago, and after the first novella, I was curious where Wells would take the story. As you can probably tell, I found out.

Murderbot is now set on uncovering the mysteries of its past. It’s not sure how or why, but something went wrong—a malfunction that resulted in the death of many humans—during a job it was tasked with, and Murderbot’s memories aren’t quite intact anymore. After reluctantly teaming up with a transport AI, Murderbot takes on a commission as a disguised human so that it can do its own investigation of the massacre.

The appeal of this story circles around the protagonist itself: Murderbot. Still full of robotic angst, the SecUnit is as much a personality as any human character you’ll find on your bookshelf. I still hold that there’s a certain level of lovable, cute charm to the character despite its mood on the page. Perhaps it’s the extreme relatability I have with the character, or perhaps it’s the juxtaposition of our typical perception of an AI built to kill in modern media versus the anxiety and social reluctance that we so strongly graft onto the modern bookish sensibility.

Wells’s choice to pair Murderbot with ART was fantastic. Seeing two sentient AIs interact helped flesh out the fact that AIs live in a sort of shadow realm—a hidden world where they’re aware of us but we’re not quite aware of what they’re doing.

If you enjoyed All Systems Red, the sequel is an easy suggestion. I’ll probably return to the Murderbot Diaries sooner rather than later.