158 pages
English language
Published Nov. 12, 2018
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 vessal 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...
Just like in the first book it's entertaining to read Murderbot's perspective on humans and the world in general. I also really liked the transport ship. We learn more about bots and why they help humans even if they don't have to. It's also about freedom and what to with it, consent, trust and responsibility.
I was reading parts 1 (All Systems Red) and 2 (Artificial condition) of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Here is what I wrote about it: denkpass.de/2023/04/05/Reading-Murderbot-diaries-by-Martha-Wells.html
Two passages:
What’s funny is that these AIs are supposedly superintelligent, yet they behave like small kids. This is what makes them also human or relatable in my eyes. But would artificial intelligences even pay attention to humans? We’ll see why the murderbot (and the ship AI) do, but this is almost all that makes me read these books (or Iain Banks’ Culture series, which is also heavy on AI, or Anne Leckies Radj series): because the AIs want to understand humans, they observe them so much. And find out something that we humans don’t observe consciously (but most of the time subconsciously).
Martha Wells was aware of this human centred storytelling with often the only reason being that we human readers are …
I was reading parts 1 (All Systems Red) and 2 (Artificial condition) of the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Here is what I wrote about it: denkpass.de/2023/04/05/Reading-Murderbot-diaries-by-Martha-Wells.html
Two passages:
What’s funny is that these AIs are supposedly superintelligent, yet they behave like small kids. This is what makes them also human or relatable in my eyes. But would artificial intelligences even pay attention to humans? We’ll see why the murderbot (and the ship AI) do, but this is almost all that makes me read these books (or Iain Banks’ Culture series, which is also heavy on AI, or Anne Leckies Radj series): because the AIs want to understand humans, they observe them so much. And find out something that we humans don’t observe consciously (but most of the time subconsciously).
Martha Wells was aware of this human centred storytelling with often the only reason being that we human readers are so much interested in ourselves, not actually in any artifical intelligences. We want the AIs to focus on us, because we only focus on us as well.
The second adventure with the self-styled murderbot was a quick, fun read. This had echoes of the hilarious depressed disinterested yet obsessed with observations of the humans around it. With the help of a new ship AI ally ART, we find out more about murderbots past.
I still find murderbot awfully relatable and funny.
this series reads quickly and it’s entertaining enough even if it doesn't get deep and just skims over the surface of things.
good to pass the time and share murderbot's awkwardness due to being surrounded by the emotional beings called humans.
This is the second book of The Murderbot Diaries and I enjoyed it a lot more than the first one. It had a bit of a detective novel feel to it, even though it isn't anything like that. Plus I really enjoyed that there was another AI for Murderbot to talk to. I hope ART comes back in the future! Looking forward to reading more of these fun, short books.
good in a non-ideal, fast-paced way, but short.
4.5 stars for this one. I enjoyed it way more than the first one, though it nicely continues Murderbot's story. Murderbot has a hacked governor module, so is basically one of the dreaded rogues only known in media. It hacked it after a massacre in a mining pit on some moon. But Murderbot barely remembers anything about it, so instead of staying with the crew that adopted it, it runs off to travel to the mining moon to find out what happened.
On the way she 'befriends' ART, an asshole transport ship, and finds new humans to protect. Of course everything goes terribly wrong, and Murderbot has to do what it's great at: murdering.
Seriously, I enjoyed just about anything here. ART was great, the story about the surveyors wanting their data back was exciting, and it even included a non-binary character, and diverse relationships. Bring it on, modern science …
4.5 stars for this one. I enjoyed it way more than the first one, though it nicely continues Murderbot's story. Murderbot has a hacked governor module, so is basically one of the dreaded rogues only known in media. It hacked it after a massacre in a mining pit on some moon. But Murderbot barely remembers anything about it, so instead of staying with the crew that adopted it, it runs off to travel to the mining moon to find out what happened.
On the way she 'befriends' ART, an asshole transport ship, and finds new humans to protect. Of course everything goes terribly wrong, and Murderbot has to do what it's great at: murdering.
Seriously, I enjoyed just about anything here. ART was great, the story about the surveyors wanting their data back was exciting, and it even included a non-binary character, and diverse relationships. Bring it on, modern science fiction, bring it on.
Missing something from the first book, not sure what. Decent read.
