Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

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…

After the largely self-contained All Systems Red, the second novella in Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries series Artificial Condition had a lot to cover within <160 pages. As the sequel in a now extended series, this novella needed to function both as a standalone story as well as a transitional piece for the rest of the series. While it ultimately accomplished both tasks, I personally found Artificial Condition to be slower and less exciting to read compared to All Systems Red (still a great overall read however).

While All Systems Red featured functional, albeit limited world-building that was just enough to be functional for its story, Artificial Condition greatly expands on the Murderbot universe and spends most of its first half setting the scene for what’s to come later in the series. This story introduces several new types of bots, expands the scope of the series to other stations and moons, and introduces new characters for the hilariously dry and sarcastic Murderbot to interact with. One of my favorite elements of All Systems Red was Martha Well’s great sense of humor and witty dialogue. Artificial Condition continues the humor and cranks it up a notch with the introduction of ART. Murderbot and ART’s banter (or lack of) is a highlight that largely helps keep the exposition-heavy first half from dragging too much.

While All Systems Red felt like a reconnaissance and survival expedition, Artificial Condition switches up the formula with its core plot resembling a sort of secret agent infiltration on the run instead. While both feature Murderbot in a pseudo bodyguard type of role, Artificial Condition is far more dialogue-heavy and much lighter on action (limited to only two scenes near the end of the novella). While I liked the direction the series is heading, I felt that Artificial Condition’s bodyguard plotline was a bit underdeveloped and came into the picture too late compared to ART’s introduction and the series world-building took up just as many pages. The combined plot elements involving Murderbot’s past contract that went South with the for-hire job was a great story choice and it set up a lot of material for the series to explore in the future, but it just felt too short within an already short novella to fully work for me.

That’s pretty much all I have for this review. The content, humor and writing was all there and the entire short story felt well done, but it left me wanting more (an ironic situation considering I read this on a trip while I was in the middle of another novel that I was completely apathetic about). All Systems Red was a masterclass example for excellent pacing and cohesion and set the bar high for me while Artificial Condition felt slow in places and a bit unfocused. However, I’m almost certain the breadcrumbs deliberately placed in this novella will be used for bigger and more exciting developments in future installments and I already have its sequel Rogue Protocol already ready to go!

(side note: My original review commented about how refreshing ART was for Murderbot to play off of and its introduction here could allow entry #3 Rogue Protocol to takeoff from the get go faster. Unfortunately ART is a one-off character exclusive to Artificial Condition so that point is moot, oops!).