Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After reading the second entry in The Murderbot Diaries, I’m sold on why this is such a hit with everyone. Martha Wells takes what was great about the first one – an android who just barely understands human irrationality (although suffering from some himself since he’s made of both synthetic and human tissue) and has to solve a mystery in an update from the older Golden Age format of I, Robot – and changes just enough to keep it incredibly interesting. Tore through this one in just two days and I’m already a few chapters into the next one. This one’s definitely going to be a strong contender for Hugo for best series.

Wells also continues to widen the universe as well as Murderbot’s backstory. I’m going to make a guess that the novellas conclude that portion of the story, allowing the first novel to be more self-contained. Because the novellas are short readers you won’t want to put down, I would recommend reading them all in order. However, this one catches you up enough that you can jump in here if you need to.

Murderbot is awesome!

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