Artificial Condition

3.75/5

Martha Wellsin Murhabotin päiväkirjat -sarjan toinen osa jatkaa ensimmäisen osan, Hälytystilan, tarinaa. Murhabotin päiväkirjat on moneen kertaan palkittu scifi-sarja, joka kertoo tappamiseen suunnitellusta turvallisuusandroidista. Ulkoasultaan ihmismäinen SecUnit-palveluyksikkö on tarpeellinen turvallisuuden varmistamiseksi.    Tämä nimenomainen Murhabotti on kuitenkin hakkeroinut oman hallintamoduulinsa ja käyttää aikansa mieluiten saippuasarjoja katsellen. Murhabotti ei pidä ihmisistä ja kokee erityisesti ihmisten tunteet kovin mutkikkaina ja vaikeaselkoisina. Sarjan ensimmäisessä osassa Murhabotin avustama tutkimusryhmä joutui hankaluuksiin, joiden seurauksena Murhabotti onnistui vapautumaan omistajastaan.    Nyt se on vapaa, mutta ”villi SecUnit” on käsite, joka herättää ihmisissä lähinnä kauhua. Murhabotin on siis toimittava varovasti. Sillä on tavoite: se haluaa tietää, mitä tapahtui eräässä kaivoksessa. Murhabotin omat muistikuvat tapahtuneesta ovat hämärät, mutta se arvelee tapahtumiin liittyneen runsaasti väkivaltaa, verenvuodatusta ja ihmisten tappamista.    Murhabotti hankkii itselleen kyydin automaattiselta bottirahtialukselta. Aluksen botti ei ole kuitenkaan niin tyhmä kuin rahtialukset yleensä ja hetken Murhabotti arvelee tehneensä vakavan virheen. Botit löytävät kuitenkin yhteisen sävelen saippuasarjojen kautta, vaikka varsin eriskummallisesta parivaljakosta on sittenkin kyse.    Edeltäjänsä tapaan Keinotekoinen olotila on pienoisromaanimittainen. Sivuja on 199, mutta teksti on isoa ja taitto väljää. Mika Kivimäki jatkaa sarjan suomentajana ja tekee hyvää työtä. Keinotekoisen olotilan teksti soljuu mukavasti ja sivut kääntyvät tällaiselle kepeälle viihdekirjalle sopivan ripeästi. Edelleen luen tätä nimenomaan Murhabotin vuoksi. Murhabotti on pätevä ja monitaitoinen, mutta toisaalta sarkastinen, vastahakoinen ja kepeästi ivallinen päähenkilö – ei siis ihan tusinatavaraa. Tässä osassa ihmiset jäävät todella sivuosaan, sillä sivuhenkilöistä ehdoton ykkönen on ART-rahtialus. Toivottavasti Murhabotin ja ART:n tiet vielä sarjan myöhemmissä osissa kohtaavat.    Hälytystila teki vaikutuksen ja on ilo huomata, että sarjan laatu jatkuu tasaisena tässä toisessa osassa. Sarjan kolmas osa, Oikullinen protokolla, on lukulistallani heti, kun se vain keväällä 2024 ilmestyy. Murhabotti on minulle lempeää lohtulukemista: tästä tiedän, mitä saan, ja se on lämmintä ja hyvää. Samaan tarpeeseen voin suositella sitä muillekin, mutta tähän kakkososaan ei kannata tarttua lukematta ensimmäistä ensin. 

This was just as delightful as the first! Murderbot is very intelligent and a bit tough on himself at times. I love the introduction of another bot, ART. My favorite part of the book was Murderbot and ART watching their shows together, and how they talk about their humans. It was very endearing. I hope ART is in the next books, because he was a joy, and so clean! I wish the Comfortbot also got to stay. I felt sorry for them, and all of the Comfortbots really. I hope Murderbot can start to call them Comfortbots instead of sexbots in the next installments. The only reason the the half-point is because we should respect all peoples' professions, even those that work in the pleasure industry.

This is definitely character driven instead of plot-driven, but that's what makes me love it. I really love Murderbot! It's still packed with action & sarcasm. I'm very excited for the next adventure!

ART <3

I enjoyed this even more than the first book. I loved that Murderbot had to deal with another robot, and how sulky he got about having to confront anything. But Murderbot is really a softy who still looks out for people (and robots). ART was a fabulous addition

Dear Madam Wells, I love your humor.

Working my way through this series on audiobook is definitely a fun way to commute to and from work.

A standout for me from this novella was ART! I loved Murderbot's perception and comments about ART. They were a great addition of a character.

I can't tell if there is something about the writing style that feels off or maybe it is the narrator but something keeps me from absolutely loving the series as much as I thought I would.

Ik ben echt fan van dit verhaalidee en de karakterisering van Murderbot (en ART), maar ik ben niet helemaal verkocht aan de schrijfstijl, die soms vreemd, onhandig en verwarrend aanvoelde. Ik weet niet of dit een bewuste keuze was, misschien om de sociale onhandigheid van ons hoofpersonage extra in de verf te zetten, maar het voorkomt wel dat ik kan wegzinken in het verhaal.
Dat gezegd hebbende, ik ben geïntrigeerd genoeg om deze serie verder te willen blijven lezen.

Far less compelling than the first entry into the Murderbot series, and with much less world building. I found this sequel to not only be extremely short, devoid of the character dynamics of the first, but also vastly hollow and lacking of any mental intrigue.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of The Murderbot Diaries, so I decided to immediately continue with the second book, Artificial Condition. I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed. This review will be shorter for a couple reasons: it's a short book, and it's a sequel. I don't want to spoil the first book.

We continue to follow the narrator, a “murderbot.” In this book, they give themself the name of Eden and they're trying to pass as an augmented human rather than just a murderbot. I won't explain how or why they got there.

The events of the book are rather slow, and virtually no action happens until the last few pages. Because of that, it felt like a real filler episode. Eden has to get from the end of book one to wherever they're going next once they do this one specific thing. That one specific thing is the goal of this book, but of course a few things get in the way. Once that thing is accomplished, and it takes about 150 pages to dance around it getting accomplished, the book has to end.

I guess you could see the goal, the reveal of certain information, was very important, and I could see why a whole book would focus on it. But overall, it just felt like a set-up between plot points. I have no idea what's going to happen in book three, Rogue Protocol, but it seems Eden had to do this thing in order for those events to happen. I don't see why Artificial Condition couldn't be tightened up and possibly combined with book three.

With that said, I obviously finished the book and wanted to see what would happen. I like our main character. I like how they think and act. I like the humor of the book. I was happy to follow Eden along. I'm not really one to ask for lots of action, but it really felt like nothing was happening except filler.

I will continue the series, but not just yet. I'm going to pick a different book to read next.

https://tinyleafbooks.wordpress.com/

I enjoyed this one more the second time around. I think the first time I waited too long between All Systems Red and this one.

The dynamic between MB and ART was a lot of fun.

I don't know what it is about this series but I really like it, and it's getting more complicated, and I like the addition of ART (the Asshole Research Transport that Murderbot befriends).

On to book 3! WHO AM I.

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

It's been probably close to a year since I read the first Murderbot novella, but I found that it didn't matter much here. Each of these stories seem to be self-contained. You don't HAVE to have read the first one in order to understand this one, but you'll definitely have more enjoyment of it if you do! All the mentions of what happens in the first book are explained enough that I think you could get by just fine. But why wouldn't you want to read the first one? These are so short and so much fun.

Good news is, I still love Murderbot, and I still feel so so bad for them. What a life. Constantly either doing what someone else orders you to, or completely on the run. I also really loved ART though I did worry for a bit that ART was going to betray them. Thankfully, that does not happen, and they have a weird sort of construct friendship. I frequently found myself wanting to shake Murderbots employers in this particular novel. What stupid decisions! Seriously! The whole book!

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this, and will definitely be continuing the series when I can!

I loved that there was a little mystery to this book and what really happened with murderbot. Also the progression of murderbot's character and mindset.... chef's kiss

Really fun read, love the humor. I liked the 1st one more than this one. It has a more interesting plot, but I still really liked Artificial Condition. I will definitely read the next one in the series.

Pages ‘n Pines Grading Scale:

5 - Amazing
4 - Really liked it
3 - Liked it
2 - Okay
1 - Didn't like

Honestly? Better than the first one! SecUnit is back baby! This time it's joined by ART (maybe even more loveable than SecUnit?) and eventually meets up with a new set of clients. The highlight of this novella is the relationship (don't call it that) ART and SecUnit develop, quickly Cementing ART as a fan favorite character.

Another equally important part of this story is the tender, protective moments SecUnit shares with his clients. It basically becomes they're “mom” for a while, helping them out on their mission while taking care of it's own business in the downtime.

Another really short and enjoyable read, I won't spoil anything for you so that you can experience what I'm talking about for myself. Just know that if you liked the first book, you'll like this one even more!

Ths second novella follows on from All Systems Red although it's largely separate from that earlier work - it helps to know what happened, and to have the introduction to the central character, but it's not essential to follow what's happening in this one. The time we see Murderbot digging into its own past, trying to find out what happened that led to it going rogue in the first place, and having to disguise its true nature in order to do so.

If there's a weakness, it's that the story is shorter than it could have been. Not that it's paced too rapidly, because it doesn't feel that way at all, but because questions remain open at the end that could easily have been followed up in a subsequent part of a longer novel, rather than having to wait for the next novella in the series. But that's the format we have. A plus, especially given the short length of the story, is that we do get to see a little bit more of the setting, with a ship AI being an entertaining major new character, differing from both humans and from Murderbot itself, and also a Sexbot appearing for the first time. (I like the way, incidentally, that the external gender of the Sexbot is never mentioned, it's so completely irrelevant to the character providing the narration).

I'm not familiar with scifi and usually don't gravitate towards it as a genre. I also read the first book in this series a pretty long time ago. Therefore it took me a lot by surprise that I slipped back into Murderbot mode so quickly and easily when I started on this one. The world, the setting, the characters all came rushing back to me almost as soon as I got started, which is a great sign.

Most AIs in fiction tend to have a Type: deadpan humour, making digs at humans for being slow, inconsistent, illogical, and quirky, and also speaking in an oddly detached way that hammers in the fact that they are robots.

Murderbot, though, doesn't quite align with that. The whole novella is told from his (? a gender or pronoun is never specified so this is an assumption on my part) perspective after all, so we are the most privy to his thoughts. Murderbot feels a bit like an extremely introverted human quite often, despite being literally a killing machine. All he wants to do is just curl up with his entertainment media and watch dramas all day long, and the way he shared that hobby with ART in this one was pretty damn precious.

In this installment, Murderbot makes a bit of a pilgrimage to a particular site that holds deep significance to him but which has been erased from his memory data. While I don't think we learn a whole ton of information in this book, I'm enjoying these bite-sized novellas in the way I enjoy a TV series with shorter but self-contained episodes that contribute to an overarching plot.

I'd always recommend Murderbot to anyone who enjoys sci-fi, and even to people who don't but who enjoys a quietly snarky and subtly humorous character study.

Great continuation of the story.

4 stars purely for Murderbot and ART's dynamic.
Again like the first book, I wasn't particularly invested in the plot but I love Murderbot as a character and for that reason I will continue to read the rest of the series.

Definitely glad I snagged this series and started reading. This is everything I love in a Sci-Fi but with a twist as we get to experience the bot's side of things.

Love this author's writing and I can't wait to continue this series.

It was so entertaining! A little slow in the beginning but so enjoyable.
The dynamic between Murderbot and ART was everything!
Can't wait to continue The Murderbot Diaries.

I don't know why people find this series so interesting. I listened to the first two audiobooks, hoping the second would be better than the first. They were so boring, I found it hard to focus on. The story made very little sense, it doesn't flow smoothly, it felt like there was a ton of world building missing, and the narrator was terrible.
I give it two stars because the story feels like it could be so much more, and I almost wanted to like it, but just couldn't.

Fun, fast, and surprisingly poignant. Love these novellas

In which our rogue SecUnit tries to check exactly why it seems to have killed multiple humans before the start of this series (its memory of the incident was partially wiped); meets ART; and accepts a temporary job protecting a small group of humans.

The story is readable and good enough, but it mainly serves the purpose of starting Murderbot's freelance career, introducing ART, and investigating the poorly remembered massacre. These things done, the series can move on.

The temporary job seems to be there mainly to provide some action to liven up the story. And it provides Murderbot with cash, which is quite useful.