Artificial Condition
Series: Murderbot Diaries, Book 2
By: Martha Wells / Narrated By: Kevin R. Free
Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins
Oh goodness gracious. I do believe I’ve had burps that last longer than Murderbot stories—tho’ nowhere near as enjoyable!
Can’t help it—I always MUST check out negative reviews and ultra-positive ones on any audiobook/book before reviewing it. Kinda wanna see if I missed anything; kinda wanna see if anything tweaks my memory.
And in this second book of the Murderbot Diaries, I just saw the same negative reviews that I saw in the first one: Too danged short to be paying for what is basically a bit of a novella; like all of the first five in the series were just one fifth of a single novel, hacked up solely for the purpose of raking in the bucks as Murderbot’s shenanigans are soooo addictive one is FORCED! at gunpoint! left no choice! to buy all of them, thus reaping untold rewards for both author and publisher. As in: shame! Shame! SHAME!
And to that, my friend, I’ve only one thing to say:
SALE!
Huzzah! I now feel I can listen to all in the series, at my leisure, with no grumbling, not feeling gypped in the slightest and able to judge solely on merits rather than perceived bang for m’ buck. I got all of them, including the full-length sixth audiobook as they went on sale through the past couple o’ years. So am I feeling all smug with myself?
Yessssss….!
Okay, so what Murderbot is up to this go-round: He’s a newly liberated Sec Unit (Never mind that he’s a bit of a gone-rogue type o’ bot), and as he couldn’t stand the thought of being around humans, like a danged pet, he’s out and jaunting around on his own. With something weighing heavily on his mind: He has to start going to places in his past to find out about that teensy weensy incident in his past where he went all spazz-ola and wreaked havoc, murdering humans and such all. That’s all. Just that one little thing is kinda sorta getting to him.
As he just left the crew that bought his liberation, and as he knows where he wants to go, he hacks into an empty space research transport ship and offers to share his PLEthora of streaming media. The ship gives him an a-okay and allows him in, giving him a ride. Thinking he’s the smartest thing, the best thing since sliced bread, Murderbot is astounded to discover that this ship, whom he comes to call ART (A**hole Research Transport), is actually pretty danged intelligent itself. Together, they watch adventure flicks, adventure series, and even totally get into the sappy soap operas that Murderbot is fond of. Okay for now.
Until Murderbot realizes that he’ll need special whatevers to get him where he wants to go. So he has to pair up with humans once again to be legit, as he can’t hack everything (Though one of the books’ weakest points is that it’s soooo easy for MB to just hack systems however he wishes, no problems, no tension). Besides, he must admit to himself that he, what’s this? He misses?!? being part of a group? Even tho’ his Sec Unit skin wanted to crawl every time his last group treated him as something almost human, one of the gang, asked him for his opinions… and thoughts…?
Yup, he’s jonesing for interaction. Thus, he joins with a group of reeeeeally young people as they try to get back some files of work that were stolen from them when they were screwed outta their jobs. MB feels a bit wary cuz what he’s forgotten is two things: Human dealings mean mistakes… which he has to clean up after, and Human failings mean danger… which he has to keep them safe from. And this idealistic and naive young bunch are in waaaaay over their heads, MB can see it a mile off. When things go very awry, he saves them, then tries to dissuade them from pursuing Option B. And it seems to work…
Until he finds that it hasn’t, and he’s in a situation where he has to kick some righteous A, with the help of ART and much hacking of systems, and plenty of gunfire involved in there too.
Seriously, I accidentally dozed off right at the beginning, and after a reeeeeally short nap? Good gosh, I found that the whole thing was over! I doubled back, listened again, and? Good gosh, I found that the whole thing was over before I knew it. I’m not sure how much I paid per installment, but I’m wondering if I should be peeved that I was duped.
Still, I do like MB and his emerging humanity, tho’ he’d haaaaaate to be thought of as human. He gets so touchy about emotional things, couldn’t accept a hug to save his life, wonders about his propensity to worry about the danged humans he… makes… FRIENDS with. It’s truly sweet, and it brings deeper questions about what humans would dearly love to proclaim as Human Only (We do that a lot, don’t we? Anything else is brusquely dubbed anthropomorphism, yegosh!). And I did like the emerging mystery of his whole murderous meltdown, and his >er< feeeeelings about what all happened that black day so many years before.
Kevin R. Free does a marvelous and entertaining job with narration. My only complaint would be there’s not much thrill to be found in the (MANY) brouhahas and violent skirmishes. But, I tell myself, Murderbot isn’t a (too) human kinda guy, and it’s all pretty rote to him, whether he’s shooting or getting shot: ‘tis all the same; ‘tis all in a Sec Unit’s day at work, doncha know? I did like how Free does MB’s confusion as he’s confronted with human emotions, and I loved the way he portrayed MB’s feeling that he’s an entity that F***s Up a LOT! Murderbot is quiiiiite the wry sorta bot.
Okay so I did feel that my post-nap yawn took more time than re-listening to the whole of Artificial Condition, but I thought it MONstrously clever to make a witty-bantering, crime-fighting duo two artificial life forms, Murderbot and ART. I loved their give and take! As such?
Dude! I shall totally be listening to the next in the series. I can ALWAYS find the piddly 3 hours if I’m pretty much assured that chuckles and action are promised. And I doooo hope ART comes back into the stories somewhere down the road.
And if not? Well THEN I’ll be pretty ticked off! MUST have ART!
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