Artificial Condition (2018) by Martha Wells

Book Review

Artificial Condition (2018)

by Martha Wells

   Artificial Condition is volume 2 in her genre conquering series, The Murderbot Diaries, a richly drawn series of novellas that focus on the eponymous murderbot and his quest to unravel his identity.  Freed from the necessity of serving the corporation after the events of the first book, Murderbot finds a way back to where it all began, a remote mining colony where he believes he murdered a group of his employers.  He is helped on his way by a sentient spaceship and hooks up with a young group of engineers who specialize in locating advanced technology left behind by extinct spacefaring civilization. 

   It seems clear that each entry in the Murderbot series is more like an additional section of an ongoing story than a stand alone narrative. Given how short each epsiode runs, you wouldn't have to read them in sequential order, but it certainly would help to appreciate the growth of the cyborg protagonist.