After being disappointed with the length of the first entry in the Murderbot Diaries series, I'm glad that I stuck with it and read the second book, Artificial Condition. While All Systems Red was necessary to introduce the concept of a sentient (and pacifist) murderbot, this book was much more interesting from a narrative perspective. At this point, I'm used to the short length of these stories, but after reading this book now I have to know how the rest of the series plays out.
The titular murderbot in this book felt much more fleshed out (ha ha) as a character. Having moved past the phase where it recognizes that its sentience is an anomaly, the challenge of fitting into society as a murderbot or as a human as the circumstances warranted was much more enthralling. The interactions with other AI like ART were much more entertaining than merely hearing about how the murderbot liked to binge TV shows. Perhaps the fact that much of the exposition covered in the first book is now out of the way, I felt this book didn't feel as much like an info dump.
Now that the murderbot is on its own, the goal of learning about its past is something that is not only interesting to read but provides a lot of opportunities for great action sequences. The author expertly puts the main character in situations where it has to use its AI advantages to make life-saving decisions despite the core code of its being originally designed to kill humans. The amount of character growth from the first book to the end of this one is definitely what will bring me back to finish out this series.
An improvement from the first book in the Murderbot novella series, I give Artificial Condition 4.5 stars out of 5.