My Murderbot re-read continues with the introduction of my favorite character, ART (which, side note, it has taken me over five years to notice that ART is in the title Artificial Condition). Book two picks up quickly after the events of All Systems Red, with Murderbot having left Mensah and her team to figure out what it wants with its freedom, now that it is off inventory from the company, but not wanting to be a “pet robot”. Quickly, Murderbot realizes it wants to get to the bottom of the event that led it to christen itself Murderbot – the mass-death of dozens on RaviHyral that led to its memory being wiped (but not entirely, its organic parts cannot be erased).
To get to RaviHyral Murderbot boards a transport vessel headed the correct way, only to discover that this isn’t any old transport, its ART (short for Asshole Research Transport, Murderbot has a way with naming things). It is with ART’s help and guidance that Murderbot can alter its appearance and land a job as a security consultant which will let it get where it needs to go to investigate its past. It also means that Murderbot has new humans in need of protection from entities which want them dead, or at least out of the way – permanently.
Wells’ writing is full of deep and complex thematic layers, much of which circles around what personhood is, anyway. With each new story in the universe, we are introduced to new types of entities which broaden and deepen the conversation that Wells is interested in contributing to. How things are represented versus how they view their reality is hit on several times, from ART and Murderbot watching serials, to how Murderbot’s programmer clients are treated, to how Murderbot views and evaluates the other constructs who tried to stop what happened on RaviHyral. This was a good and necessary step back in Murderbot’s own lore which serves to help push the story forward.
Bingo Square: Liberate, Murderbot is struggling to find what freedom in its liberated state means.
CBRSweet16: Binge. I am on a Murderbot Binge 🙂