Martha Wells

I hope the next book will be here soon.

I’ve read Witch King two years ago and was wondering whether I should have refreshed my memory before starting Queen Demon. To my delight, I glided effortlessly into the book.

There are dual timelines again, just like in the first installment. The battle with the really evil and really powerful Hierarchs continues in the “past” chapters, with new frustrations and dangers in the “present” ones. The stakes are high.

Rising World is such a cool show more place, I loved all the descriptive passages. At times at felt as though I was there.

I think it took me a couple of chapters to “recognize” characters other than Kai and Bashasa, but once I did, I enjoyed them very much. The characters felt more well-rounded in this book, too. Perhaps this is a side effect of not having to spend nearly half the book figuring out what on earth is going on (yes, I am looking at you, Witch King). Kai is awesome! It’s great when he goes into action. I want Kai on my side in a tight spot (with Murderbot on my other side, wouldn’t that be cool?).

One of the things that resonated with me the most was that there were no action scenes without emotional consequences. Kudos to Martha Wells for doing this! There is also the theme of the price of immortality – losing friends. We talk about loyalties and how people choose them; sacrifices, friendships; dealing with past tragedies; families.

There were fun moments too, such as when Kai is watching his found family and associates fight and bicker and starts dreaming of going to live in the marshes. Alone.

This was also a “one more chapter” book for me. The tension and the excitement are never-ending! What’s next, what’s next?

The ending is cliffhanger-y, but not frustratingly so.

Quotes I liked:

”I’m unsuited for the role of the peacemaker and if I’m forced into it, you will all regret it.”

”…Tahren let out her breath in the nearly inaudible sigh, the one most associated with whatever Dahin had done now.”

”Can you tell I’m lying because you’re a demon?”
”I can tell you’re lying because I can see your face with my eyes and hear your voice with my ears.”

”I have the fanatic in me, though I keep it tightly under control. But it is how I recognize the failing in others.”

”Kai didn’t want astonishing revelations, he wanted to get this over with.” show less

Artificial Condition is the second in author Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries and this one is every bit as good as the first one which won both a Hugo and a Nebula Award in 2018. These short, lively stories are about a cyborg who is on the lam but would rather be watching soap operas than deal out the violence that she has been programmed to do. She connects with the AI of the transport that she is travelling on and in turn this ART intelligence aids her on the self-imposed mission to find show more out what really happened at the mining facility where she originally went rogue.

In order to blend in on this fact-finding mission she takes on a job as a security guard for a trio of researchers who have been cheated by their employer giving the reader plenty of action to follow. Murderbot also realizes that as she seeks answers she is also studying, planning and improving how to pass itself off as a human. Although she finds humans difficult to be around and frustrating she also learns that she too can “care”.

Murderbot’s deadpan, sarcastic, leave-me—alone attitude, along with ART’s snarky, fun comments make Artificial Condition a great read, and I am looking forward to the next installment of this great escape-stye read. show less

Exiled priestess Maskelle returns home for a centennial ritual designed to renew and preserve the world. Unfortunately, something is going wrong with the ritual, and Maskelle has to salvage the situation despite a hostile royal court, foreign conspirators, and guidance from an unreliable, inhuman source. Wheel of the Infinite was excellent: finely observed, carefully characterized, free of clichés, and progressively minded.

But most importantly, the book off-handedly introduces a cursed show more puppet. When the puppet later becomes demonically possessed, he is regarded with the same degree of weary nonchalance by the other characters. You know times are bad when the demonically possessed puppet is the least of your worries. show less

Things are going well for Murderbot — if getting shot at and needing to rescue its Preservation Station clients from raiders fits within the parameters of “going well” — until on the return journey to Preservation Station an old “friend” shows up and starts shooting, eventually kidnapping you and (inadvertently) the daughter of your most respected human colleague (and technical “owner” [at least within the Corporation Rim]). But things are even less well than they appear (did show more they seem to be going well to you?) because the huge transport that has captured them is missing the very thing that made it a “friend”, i.e. the vast AI pilot bot that Murderbot calls ART. ART, it seems, has been deleted. And that leads to a catastrophic emotional collapse for Murderbot. But then he just gets mad. Really mad. And when Murderbot gets mad…well, you can probably guess what might happen. (No, you can’t, not really; you’ll definitely still need to read the novel to find out.)

This is another tremendously enjoyable, rollicking adventure for Murderbot and his “friends”. There is so much action happening that you might lose track of the sheer fun of Murderbot’s snarky conversational gambits, his understated (ha!) level of paranoia with everyone (but especially with those who threaten to harm his clients), and the very intriguing exploration of multiple identities, emotional relations between “bots”, and the growing realization that other people care about it as much as it cares about (some of) them.

Even in the longer novel form, Murderbot and Martha Wells have enough fizz to totally keep the party afloat right through to the end. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Recommended. show less