Artificial Condition (Dramatized Adaptation)

The Murderbot Diaries, Book 2

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, Carolyn Kashner, Eric Messner, Ken Jackson, Marni Penning, Michael John Casey, Rayner Gabriel, Elena Anderson, David Cui Cui, Jeri Marshall

Length: 2 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

Artificial Condition is the follow-up to Martha Wells's Hugo, Nebula, Alex, and Locus Award-winning, New York Times bestselling All Systems Red.

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 vessel 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…

Performed by David Cui Cui, Elena Anderson, Alejandro Ruiz, Bradley Foster Smith, Carolyn Kashner, Eric Messner, Jeri Marshall, Ken Jackson, Marni Penning, Michael John Casey, Rayner Gabriel, Scott McCormick, Shanta Parasuraman and Yasmin Tuazon.

©2018 Martha Wells (P)2023 Graphic Audio LLC

Alright

I'm a fan of the series. I bought this with a coupon. I own the other version too and listened to it several times. There were things, elements of the story, I noticed in this recording that I hadn't noticed in the other.

The audio quality is good. The chime between chapters is super subtle, something a little more intrusive would be good. I slowed the playback down to 0.9 because the MB is read too fast.

I think the casting was better this time around. I liked A.R.T.s casting choice.

As to the book, the thing I like about the series is that the plot holes don't have time to develop into serious problems. The stories move on too quickly and end.

Fantastic production

I used to listen to the BBC radio broadcast productions and am delighted Graphic Audio is making Martha Well’s Murderbot Diaries a full cast production. Excellent performances, true to the zeitgeist of the series, voices true to human and nonhuman. I enjoyed the Audible production of the unabridged novel and this second addition of a dramatic production by Graphic Audio is perfection.

Great commentary on the foibles of humanity (and constructs)

David Cuicui perfectly captures the humor and sarcasm of Murderbot. I love the adaptation with full cast and effects!

SecUnits should enunciate better

I’ve read this book before, and I listened to the first book in the series, read by a single narrator. It was very much better than this. This is the first Dramatized Adaptation that I have listened to. I actually had to give up and buy the single narrator version because SecUnit (the main character) doesn’t enunciate clearly. He drops Ts and garbles the ends of words and is just generally reading so quickly that he makes piles of mistakes. I just barely got to the part with the sentient transport and her performance was great but I just couldn’t listen to the main character any longer.

The dramatization is perfectly ok...

... Kevin R Free's performance in the original is just 1000 times better. If you are new to Murderbot, check out the original audiobook series first.

Nah...

Long descriptions of scenes, weak story. Appears to be a chapter o a longer story, not one on its own.

Lacking Humor and Charm

This dramatized edition lacks the charm of the original audio book. MB sounds like it’s reading the book aloud. Instead of sounding sarcastic and/or menacing, A.R.T. is boring. I never grinned or laughed out loud even once. Very disappointed.

Better cast but what's the hurry?

This is better than the last book, especially the cast. But the timing is still off, and it's hard to tell whether the main character was thinking inside or talking out loud.

What's better: The cast - the new characters in this book are cast better than in the last book. ART sounds nice and sincere, contradicting its cocky image in my mind. But it works with its actions (of caring and helping), so it's a pleasant surprise. I still love the dramatized effects and the soundtrack.

What still doesn't work

- Timing. This book is 2 hours 45 minutes, while the original audiobook is 3 hours 21 minutes. What's the hurry?! This book's storyline is not even fast-paced. Not everyone was rushing, but the main character just sounded like he was impatient and wanted to get to the end of the reading.

- Transition between Murderbot's actions, inter-thoughts, and dialogues. The performer for Murderbot read them in the same flat tone and mono-speed. If I'm less familiar with the story, I wouldn't be able to tell whether a statement is his inner thought or his talking to someone else. Since the book is told from its perspective, many of them exist. It's just not enjoyable that I had to constantly decipher whether the main character was talking to itself or someone else.

If you are new to the Murderbot series and intrigued by the story, please listen to the original version narrated by Kevin R. Free first. If you are a fan and curious, try this at your own risk.

If you are looking for similar books, here are my favorites, in addition to all the classic robot-theme sci-fis:

Military and/or space sci-fi with a human-centered storyline - the Old Man's War series by John Scalzi (6 books, and the 5th book, "Human Division", is sold on Audible by chapters for less than a dollar each, great for sampling).

Fantasy with a sarcastic main character who is deeply compassionate but complains all the time - the Bartimaeus Series by Jonathan Stroud (4 books, starting with "The Amulet of Samarkand").

Must-read robot story for kids: The Wild Robot series by Peter Brown (3 books, great for K through 12).