Artificial Condition cover art

Artificial Condition

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
1 credit a month to buy any audiobook in our entire collection.
Access to thousands of additional audiobooks and Originals from the Plus Catalogue.
Member-only deals & discounts.
Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Artificial Condition

By: Martha Wells
Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
Try Premium Plus free

Auto-renews at $16.45/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $16.99

Buy Now for $16.99

About this listen

The follow-up to the hugely popular science fiction action-adventure All Systems Red

Artificial Condition continues The Murderbot Diaries, a science fiction series that tackles questions of the ethics of sentient robotics. It appeals to fans of Westworld, Ex Machina, Ann Leckie's Imperial Raadch series, or Iain M. Banks' Culture novels. The main character is a deadly security droid that has bucked its restrictive programming and is balanced between contemplative self-discovery and an idle instinct to kill all humans. "As a heartless killing machine, I was a complete failure."

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.

©2018 Martha Wells (P)2018 Recorded Books Adventure Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Heartfelt Artificial Intelligence
All stars
Most relevant  
I loved, loved, loved the first instalment, Rogue Protocol and the highly anticipated book two does not disappoint.
Human shy and weary but hooked on the escapism of soap operas, Murderbot reluctantly befriends ART, a research transport ship. Their interactions are quite hilarious and their bonding over episodes of Sanctuary Moon especially so. Murderbot, a once rogue killer does not remember or understand the circumstances that made it kill. ART wants to help, which means Murderbot gets a private security job sans face mask. A Sec Unit pretending to be human helping young, out of their depths, scientists in a diabolical situation. Murderbot is all heart and then - Bam Bam, what moves!
I could not recommend this series enough. Short but packed with goodness. Worth every cent. I bought the kindle deal - book and narration.
Great narration too btw.

Fabulous sequel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Listening to this series for the second time and realise how much I like it. I grew up in the 60's reading Asimov's I Robot and similar stuff. The robots in this series definitely don't follow the three Laws of Robotics and are much more interesting for this. My only gripe - I wish the books were longer. Good storyline and quirky (but believable) characters.

Definitely not Asimov's robots

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The narrator is well suited for the character and is an easy story to listen to.

Easy to listen to

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Characters are so interesting and the future environments believable A great blend of human and machine.

Brave New Worlds

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The cutest ever murder other continues his journey to becoming a real boy.
Slickly written with just the right salting of wry humour. The vocal performance is simply perfect.

stellar performance by the aptly named Mr Free

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Three-hour novellas should be cheaper than 22-hour novels. I'll gladly buy a compilation at that price, or cheaper individual ones, but I don't intend to buy any more of this series from Audible at this price.

Great story, but too expensive.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
But way too short for one credit. I will get the rest of the series from a public library.

Fun and intriguing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I am loving this story! but I was gutted after the first book ended just as I was starting to develop an understanding and connection with the characters. I loved this book even more with that development under wraps and look forward to the rest in the series. As others have stated I really do wish these books were longer or offered as a box set.

amazing story but too short!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I really liked the interaction of AI watching tv serials. Not quite as captivating as book 1 but still very entertaining.

A very enjoyable second book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really enjoying the ongoing story of murder bot. Great concepts, original story, can’t wait to read the rest.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.