Okay, so today we're going to be doing a spoiler free review for novella one and two in the
Murderbot diaries: All Systems Red and Artificial Condition. I decided to go spoiler free just
because these are so short, but i'm going to be doing spoiler free for book one and then book two
in the same video. I'm not going to use my three pros and three cons. This video is just a little
bit different than my reviews usually are. Both of these novellas are about 150 pages. Both are super
fast, super fun reads and i highly recommend them. Okay, novella (i keep wanting to say book) novella
one: All Systems Red. So this follows a sec unit, which is a type of robot that accompanies humans
when they go on these explorations, uh trying to keep them alive. There's a lot to it but that's
as detailed as i'll get. Murderbot has hacked its own government module and has kind of gone rogue
and is a bit of a free thinker. It still tries to complete its missions, but in a very um sassy,
ambivalent, frustrated sort of way. Easily the biggest strength to this novella series (at least
the first two) is in Murderbot's personality. It is dry, witty, irritable, um pessimistic... the
humor is oftentimes self-deprecating and uh in general ambivalent. It doesn't care about
anything, at least on the surface, but the deeper you go the more Murderbot tends to get
attached to its humans. What this book does so well other than the humor and other than the
incredible personality attached to this robot is it does such a great job of hinting at a darker
past. Hinting at something that Murderbot is holding back from us, while at the same time
making us completely attached to it and want to follow this robot through whatever it goes
through. Murderbot is incredibly relatable as a character and incredibly fun to follow alongside.
I would say that uh the plot in each of these novellas isn't incredibly important. It's
interesting, but it's really about Murderbot and following it. So if you're a character focused
reader (which i tend to lean to be) this is a great little series to... i like putting the
Murderbot diaries in between like really really big epic books. It's a perfect palette cleanser,
which sounds a little bit condescending, but i don't mean it that way. It's just such a fun,
easy, fast read that always makes me smile. Always makes me laugh and i always want more. Some cons
to this though is that it's very honed in on our main character, which doesn't sound like a con,
but what i mean is that's pretty much the focus. The plot could move around, the plot could change,
the plot could be taken out and swapped out with something else; it'd be the same story. The world
is a really interesting world. I don't yet know that much about it. And the characters, the humans
that our protagonist Murderbot uh ends up interacting with aren't very fleshed out either.
So it's a very focused, it's a very close focus on Murderbot and then everything around isn't
put... there's not a lot of focus put on it which is why both of these little novellas are four
stars for me and of course a novella you can't expect a novella to have all that a novel has,
but it would be nice to have a little bit more depth to the world and to the characters. I
think that is coming, but at this point i do wish that there were just a few more pages focused on
expanding things outside of our protagonist. Now i'm going to read some quotes so that you
can see the type of humor we're dealing with because it's amazing. Still keeping it spoiler
free. "The sense of urgency just wasn't there. Also, you may have noticed, i don't care." "Yes,
talk to Murderbot about its feelings. The idea was so painful i dropped to 97 efficiency." "You
may have noticed that when i do manage to care, i'm a pessimist." "Granted, i liked the imaginary
people on the entertainment feed way more than i liked real ones, but i can't have one without the
other." Which that final quote, i should clarify; Murderbot is a lot more interested in watching the
entertainment feed than he is on his actual job or real humans. He likes the entertainment feeds
much more than he likes reality. Artificial Condition, the second in the two novellas,
has all the same strengths as the first one and a little bit more world building.
A little bit. I still definitely want more um and this is why i think more is coming
is because it was very zeroed in on Murderbot in the first novella, and then we got a little bit
more in the second one. So i'm hoping that as we continue on with these novellas we will continue
expanding on the world because it is such an interesting society and i want to understand it.
I want it so bad. This one also has the addition of a second excellent robot. It's a research
transport vessel and it's called Art. I won't tell you why it's called that.
Art and Murderbot become good friends. Murderbot introduces Art to the entertainment feed
and it's one of the best parts of the book just seeing these two watch entertainment feeds
together, see Art get a little bit too attached to certain story lines and Murderbot having to put a
content filter on the entertainment feed to to um protect Art's feelings. In general, Martha Wells
writes these artificial creatures, artificial robots things... so well with so much personality
i love them so much. Anyway, i'm not gonna give you much of a setting or setup for novella two
because i feel like that would be a little bit spoilery, so all i'll say is that we are... the
plot still doesn't matter. The plot still doesn't matter. It's an interesting plot. It was fun to go
through, but again that's not the focus here. It's a different... it's different. It's different from
the first one. That's all i can say spoiler free, but it's a new adventure with Murderbot and with
Art as well and again, it's just so much fun. It's such a lighthearted,
funny, great story. Some things that i think, oh, okay. So i don't know which one i like more; one
or two. I think one had a little bit more humor to it probably. More quotable, laughable moments
(though they were still very present in the second novella) but the second novella had a little bit
more world building and it, i think that i liked the second novella's end more than i liked the
first novella's end. But to keep it spoiler free, it was just as good as the first one.
It's hilarious and it's so much fun. Some fantastic quotes from the second novella:
"Young humans can be impulsive. The trick is keeping them around long enough to become old
humans. This is what my crew tells me and my own observations seemed to confirm it." And then...
"If the humans were dead, who would make the media?" Still that dry, witty humor that i just
enjoy so much. If you're looking for a short read that is fast-paced, fun, hilarious; this is
great. Just go in knowing that the focus is going to be very much on the main character and not
so much on the world or the side characters, at least at the very beginning. I have loved these
first two novellas. I highly recommend them, will be continuing on with the series. That is
my spoiler-free kind of discussion. A little bit differently formatted than my reviews usually are,
but i hope you still enjoyed it. Be sure to chat with me more about these little novellas in the
comments. Also, Murderbot series will be linked in the description of this video. I post videos
every Tuesday through Friday and sometimes on Mondays. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye.