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Artificial Condition
224 pages
A deeply relatable, socially anxious cyborg reluctantly makes a friend while trying to uncover the truth about its darkest memory.
What it feels like
Reading this novella feels like slipping back into the mind of your favorite grumpy, media-obsessed introvert. The experience is incredibly brisk and propulsive, yet anchored by a surprisingly tender emotional core. You are seated right inside the protagonist's anxious, deadpan consciousness as it navigates the terrifying landscape of free will and the even more terrifying prospect of making a friend. The atmosphere balances the cold, paranoid danger of corporate space with the cozy intimacy of shared binge-watching sessions. It is a story that delights in its own contradictions, cynical but deeply humane, action-packed but intensely character-driven. It perfectly captures the exhausting, reluctant joy of caring about others when you would really rather just be left alone.
- Mood
- cozy-yet-dangerous
- paranoid
- warm
- Tone
- wry
- deadpan
- anxious
- reluctantly earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- the burden of autonomy · processing trauma · reluctant companionship · personhood · corporate exploitation
- The writing
- Sharp, conversational, and deeply interior, driven by a deadpan first-person voice that masks profound vulnerability with sarcasm.
- The arc
- The protagonist moves from isolated avoidance of its own history to a reluctant, vulnerable acceptance of an unexpected friendship.
- Who it's for
- Anyone who has ever wanted to avoid human interaction by binge-watching television, but who still secretly cares about doing the right thing.
Content notes
- violence
- memory loss
- past trauma
- corporate slavery
About the book
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...
Description from Open Library.
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