Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Artificial Condition, by Martha Wells

14 reviews

laguerrelewis's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Martha Wells knows how to tell a tight story, and this installment of Murderbot Diaries is no exception! It was wonderful to revisit this genius character again, and we were introduced to a wondeful new cast of characters. This episodic installment provided much to enjoy in a perfectly bite-sized story. 
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cuteasamuntin's review

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adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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boglord's review

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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wilybooklover's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

4.0

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sexualedward's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I do like this novella. Murderbot and ART are great characters. But I do see a lot of room for improvement. The climax was lackluster with no real danger, most of the story was predictable, and the secondary characters weren’t fleshed out enough. I much prefer longer books, so I may be biased, but I think it would have been better if it had more time to set things up.
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purplepenning's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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divine529's review

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Murderbot strikes again! I absolutely loved this. 

This is the second installment in the Murderbot series and I had such a fun time with this. I enjoyed the first one, but I think I liked this installment, just a bit more. 

Once again, we're following Murderbot as it delves into a mystery of it's past and makes some new friends along the way. 

As with the first one, I liked the writing and the plot. I really enjoyed the bit of expansion into the world we got as well. But really where these books shine are the characters. Murderbot is always a delight and I loved the addition of ART. Snarky characters are some of my absolute favorites, and we have so many of those in this series. Finally, the new human crew Murderbot ends up connecting with was also great. 

Another great installment, and I can't wait to read the next one! 
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lvl52_grant's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

It's almost 4 stars for me, it just feels like this novella, like the preceding one in the series, would benefit from being a full length novel. There's not a lot of time to get familiar with the characters besides Murderbot when you have to get the worldbuilding in as well. However, it's a fascinating story with a compelling point of view character, and I do enjoy the snippets of the world we get. I will be following along for more!
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radiocryptid's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am obsessed with this series and murderbot is just an AI trying to figure out how to have emotions and be it’s own person. I am very emotional. 
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tachyondecay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 A year and a half and one gender identity change later, here I am reading the second Murderbot Diaries novella, Artificial Condition! My review of the first book focuses quite a bit on Murderbot’s portrayal as agender, along with some critiques of the worldbuilding (or lack thereof). The good news is, I think I liked this book even more than the first! That being said, I’m happy with the current lengths of these books—I know Martha Wells has a Murderbot novel out, but I’m not sure I would want to read a novel-length story with this protagonist? Hmm. We’ll see.

Having “escaped” from the humans who bought it, Murderbot books passage on an uncrewed research transport vessel. Its destination is the planet where it thinks it hacked its governor module and then killed a bunch of people, for unknown reasons. Murderbot wants answers. What it doesn’t anticipate is that the bot intelligence that runs the transport is smarter than your average bot. Murderbot nicknames it ART, for Asshole Research Transport. The two of them “bond,” if you can call it that, over watching human-produced media, and ART kind of starts to feel protective towards Murderbot. So ART helps out as Murderbot poses as a security consultant to get down to the surface of the planet and learn more about its missing murderous memories.

The dynamic between Murderbot and ART is everything in this book. This is the odd couple bot comedy I hadn’t realized I needed. I mean, yes, there is still murder and intrigue and all that stuff—but none of that matters compared to the banter between these two. You come to find out what happens to Murderbot, but you stay for ART’s sulking and Murderbot’s reluctant partnership with it.

Indeed, this is probably the most appealing element of this series: the protagonists are not human. The humans in this series are bad or fragile, and Murderbot knows how to deal with one even if it still struggles to understand the other. Watching Murderbot interact with its new humans is a rewarding experience that helps us understand what it is struggling with: it wants to hide that it is a SecUnit, so it attempts to become more human-like. But how far does it want to go in its emulation of humanity? Murderbot’s obsession with uncovering its past is laudable and understandable—but will this hinder Murderbot’s ability to conceive of a concrete, satisfactory future?

Artificial Condition doesn’t answer all those questions, nor should it. It’s a competent little novella that sets up a problem and shows us how Murderbot approaches it, and that’s good enough. If you liked All Systems Red, this one is worth a read too! Will I read the next one? Who knows! Stay tuned.
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