Artificial Condition

To me, there's different levels of one star ratings. There's the ‘I hate everything about this book and want to burn it with fire' one stars and then there's the ‘I can objectively see why other people liked it but it just very much isn't for me' one stars. This is the second one.

I could sort of, almost not mind the first book because there was enough interesting stuff going on and enough secondary characters that I liked. This book spends so long setting up the story, focusing on Murderbot's existential crisis that I had completely lost interest in this short novella before I even reached the halfway point.

I continued reading because I told myself to, because I was forcing myself to give this series a real, decent chance. (And I think after reading three hundred unenjoyable pages, that I am well within my rights to say this is not a series for me.)

To be blunt, I don't like Murderbot and, pun intended, they killed the series for me. To focus so exclusively on one character and literally no one else, I have to like the character. (I don't have to relate to them.) Murderbot is misanthropic, with a heavy dose of surly and capped off with laziness. Relatable, yes. Enjoyable to read about, no.