2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Artificial Condition, the second book in the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells.

Pages: 158 pages

Length: 1 month (June)

Participants: Caterina, Desiré, Rebecca

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I'm third in line at my library for this one, hoping they all read it quickly!

May I join you? I have the audiobook and I'll start it in a few days 🎧

Fedra wrote: "May I join you? I have the audiobook and I'll start it in a few days 🎧"

Of course! My hold is down to 2 weeks now, was 5 weeks a few days ago, I should be good!

I'm going to join in, please! I just read Murderbot #1 to prepare for this. :) Thank you!

PS: It's available on Kindle Unlimited if you have that service.

I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as book 1; I think just because the novelty wasn't as... novel. It's a difference between a 4 (book 1) and a 3.75 (book 2). I enjoyed how the story from book 1 continued and how (view spoiler)[Murderbot was willing to trust ART (aka Asshole Research Transport 🤣) to make the alterations it needed to be able to succeed at its mission. I laughed most of time the two of them interacted. I also appreciated the inclusion of a non-binary character, pronouned as te. (hide spoiler)]

A favorite quote: Sometimes people do things to you that you can’t do anything about. You just have to survive it and go on.

Amen, Murderbot.

Beth wrote: "I'm going to join in, please! I just read Murderbot #1 to prepare for this. :) Thank you!

PS: It's available on Kindle Unlimited if you have that service."

I just got it from my library today! Good to know about KU though, I've been thinking of re-joining.

I am not a member of Kindle Unlimited but I have Audible and I wanted to mention they're having a huge sale right now, with many of the Murderbot audiobooks being about ~$2. I bought 10 audiobooks for ~$30.

So now not only do I have too many books to read but I also have too many audiobooks 🤣 🤣

I also loved this book! I feel like the only thing better than Murderbot's internal monologue is the banter between Murderbot and ART.

I began reading the book today!! I'm in about 15% mark now and I like it so far!

I finished the book today (and Desiré pointed out to me that there is a Buddy Read of the series-which I had not seen!) - and I also really loved the interaction between Murderbot and ART in this book.
I am excited to see what happens next!

Beth wrote: "I didn't enjoy this one quite as much as book 1; I think just because the novelty wasn't as... novel. It's a difference between a 4 (book 1) and a 3.75 (book 2). I enjoyed how the story from book 1..."

Sorry was doing the Reading Rainbow Readathon and was a bit distracted. Read this a few weeks ago. (Welcome Lina!)

Agreed with the interaction between them and ART (Also love what ART stands for lmao). (view spoiler)[ I wish there would have been more answers about what happened with Murderbot on the mining mission where they supposedly killed all those people. Was hoping the sexbot happened to be a part of that group and was going to give some insight but oh well. Now I'm just more excited for the next one! (hide spoiler)]

I would love to join this buddy read. I was waiting for a good deal on this book as it's way too expensive here in India. I just discovered it's available in the Plus catalog on Audible, and I have a membership so happy times. Started it yesterday :)

Harshmi wrote: "I would love to join this buddy read. I was waiting for a good deal on this book as it's way too expensive here in India. I just discovered it's available in the Plus catalog on Audible, and I have..."

Welcome!

I've read it as well (audiobook edition)! I quite enjoyed it!! I'm also going to continue with the series.

Welcome Lina and Harshmi!

I just got the next book from the library so I might start the Rogue Protocol soon.