Artificial Conditioning is the second book in The Murderbot Diaries, and I cannot recommend it enough. 

It takes the elements I loved from the first one, dials them up a couple of notches, then improves on the first by giving Murderbot more time to reflect on what it is, what it might want, and what it means to be a Rogue Murderbot. Throw in the loveable sidekick, a gigantic cargo vessel called ART (Asshole Research Transport) and you've got one of the weirdest and most charming buddy comedies I've seen.

I absolutely loved ART as a character,

and I'm devastated it doesn't stay with Murderbot at the end of this book

. Their relationship is funny from the start, with some genuinely laugh out loud moments (well, a mild snort, which in my opinion is basically the same thing). I enjoyed Murderbot

having body modifications made to it with the help of ART

, and you could feel it wrestling with what it knew it needed to do, worrying about what making changes could mean for it. 

ART was written wonderfully, providing help, banter, and gentle parenting of Murderbot when necessary. As with the previous book, if I have to give a criticism it's that the human characters were "meh".  But this time the plot linked in much more closely with Murderbot itself, and I think that made it much more enjoyable. 

This book manages to move at absolutely blinding speed, I read it in a few hours over two days, and at no point did I want to put it down and do something else. Highly recommended, even if you only thought the first in the series was "okay".