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

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 vessel 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…

My Review:
Murderbot is on the move, paranoid about being recognised by security and captured by the evil GrayCris Corporation, but it has also become interested in uncovering its own murderous past. It knows it massacred humans it was meant to protect but has no real memory of the incident and needs to understand what happened and why, before it can move on. To get there safely it has to put its trust in a transport ship it is not quite sure of and get involved with another team of helpless humans it feels obligated to ptotect who are virtually on a suicide mission without Murderbot.

“ART said, What does it want?
To kill all the humans, I answered.
   I could feel ART metaphorically clutch its function. If there were no humans, there would be no crew to protect and no reason to do research and fill its databases. It said, That is irrational.
I know, I said, if the humans were dead, who would make the media?" 

Murderbot is trying to get to the place where it knows it committed murder in a bid to understand what went so badly wrong but when you are a wanted rogue SecUnit, it isn't exactly easy to blend in even when you can control cameras and bots around you. One mistake and it is back in the hands of GrayCris who once tried to destroy it. It manages to get on a transport ship but it is curious about him and annoys Murderbot so much that it gets the nickname of Asshole Research Transport from our irritated hero! ART figures the best thing to do is alter Murderbot's appearance to attract less attention, a prospect that makes Murderbot unhappy. Now it just needs to get safely to its destination, sneak in to the massacre site and get to the bottom of what happened.

“I didn’t care what humans were doing to each other as long as I didn’t have to a) stop it or b) clean up after it.”

Of course it is not going to be that easy. The problems Murderbot has with ART are nothing to what the humans on the ship put it through on the journey. Travelling as a security consultant bot seemed like a good idea at the time but the stupid humans insist on bugging it to solve all the petty and stupid problems they have, causing Murderbot to lose its temper and want to hide and watch Sanctuary Moon. Having to endure an interview with a group of humans who are seeking a security expert is not fun but it will get it to where it needs to go. The humans are trying to get files back from a dodgy client that Murderbot thinks wants to kill them so trying to talk sense into them rips away the last of Murderbot's sanity.

"For a terrifying Murderbot, I fuck up a lot" 

This was an excellent Murderbot adventure! I was unsure if I would like it as much as the first one with Murderbot being out on a solo adventure but I still really enjoyed it! Pairing up our hero with ART was brilliant and I loved their interactions on the journey. Murderbot's story of the humans driving it mad on the ship were really funny, as that inner monologue usually is. As always, Sanctuary Moon is the only thing it really cares about but events of course conspire against good media time. I also really liked the new group of humans who are very dumb about their own safety and our hero feels obligated to save them from a terrible fate. It was also great to get the back story on Murderbot and what happened to it regarding the massacre. I really enjoyed fining out what actually happened that day and why its memory was wiped.

Overall this was a wonderful sequel that matched the first book for plot, character and humour. I just can't get enough of Murderbot's fun adventures and discover what new series it is discovering!

Read August 2018
4 stars.