Audio Review: Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
Narrator: Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, Carolyn Kashner, Eric Messner, Ken Jackson, Marni Penning, Michael John Casey, Rayner Gabriel, Elena Anderson, David Cui Cui, Jeri Marshall
Series: The Murderbot Diaries #2
Published by Graphic Audio LLC on 2023-10-13
Length: 149 pages
Length: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Listening Speed: 1.7x
Reviewing Audiobook, Kindle from Audible, Kindle Unlimited
Rating:
Reading Challenges: 2025 Audiobook Challenge, 2025 Beat the Backlist

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.

Murderbot is back in Artificial Condition by Martha Wells, the second novella in The Murderbot Diaries, which follows an android as he looks for answers to missing memories. Leaving his newfound “friends” behind, Murderbot stows away on a research transport he lovingly names ART, intending to reach the mining planet he was stationed on briefly. Working together, ART and Murderbot work to uncover what caused him to go rogue and who was behind it.

I love this series so much. It’s snarky, full of adventure, and a little mystery. It has quickly become a favorite series. Murderbot is running from the humans who saved him when he was supposed to die at the end of their mission. He isn’t running because he thinks they’ll hurt him. Instead, he runs because he is unsure of how to interact with humans. They make him uncomfortable. He just wants to be left alone with his 1400+ hours of shows and forget they exist. But now that he is free of the company (thanks to his humans), Murderbot has another mission, one he’s come up with on his own. He wants to know what happened on the mining planet when he went rogue.

The plot is again fast-paced and moves at a quick clip. Murderbot’s penchant for finding humans in need and protecting them is endearing even if he complains about them in his head the entire time. For this mission, he needs access to the planet where they won’t recognize him as human. ART, who I adore and hope to see again, convinces him to allow her to make a few modifications so he will be unrecognizable at first glance as a Sec unit. These few changes allow him to pose as a freelance security/bodyguard modified human instead of an android. What he finds is shocking and ties into what he experienced in book one.

Overall, I loved Artificial Condition. ART was a fantastic addition to the series. Murderbot is lovely as always (note sarcasm 😂). I did listen to the graphic audio for this one, and I have to say I’m obsessed with it. The cast is fantastic and really draws you into the book. I did not sit it down and finished it in one listen/sitting. If you are a fan of audio, sci-fi, and snark, I highly recommend it.

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