Review: Rogue Protocol

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I discovered Martha Wells' writing a little bit backward, since she's written quite a few books, including the Hugo-nominated for Best Series Books of the Raksura. I first found her through her Murderbot Diaries. Last year a friend sent me a copy of All Systems Red (also nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Novella!) to "cheer you up" after Hurricane Irma skirted Miami and took my internet with it for about 6 weeks. I looked askance at it and thought, "Really? A murderous robot is what I need right now?" Oh, Reader, they were so what I needed. The novella was laugh out loud funny in places and I've been begging and scraping for further Murderbot entries since then. Murderbot (hey, they call themselves that, and I respect self-chosen names) is a snarky, antisocial AI who survived an attempted massacre of their clients because they had hacked their governor module thereby achieving a level of self preservation and analytical thinking that helped save their client Dr. Mensah (something of a hero to them, but please don't tell Murderbot I said so) and her colleagues. Dr. Mensah bought and emancipated Murderbot and they immediately absconded and have since then been traveling the galaxy trying to figure out some of the details about what really happened that fated day when everything went haywire. Murderbot has been hot on the tracks of whatever it was that GrayCris was up to when the corporation seemed to be pretending to terraform a planet and a bunch of people in Murderbot's care almost died. (Of course, there was also the dark history of how Murderbot came to be called Murderbot to look into. Are you still wondering about the grittier details?)

Rogue Protocol gives us a continuation of this fabulous series in which Murderbot, now in possession of a well-earned hard currency card, and having left their pal ART (affectionately known as the Asshole Research Transport) behind, pursues getting back to the planet that wasn't fully terraformed, where alien artifacts of some sort may explain what GrayCris was actually doing there. They illicitly hitch a ride on Don Abene and Hirume's transport and encounter Don Abene's sweet and trusting robot Miki, to whom they take an almost allergic dislike. Miki is a treasured human-form robot, coddled, and included by Don Abene and her team, just as if Miki was, well, a person. Although Murderbot is currently still in their guise of an augmented human security consultant, they are simply astonished, and one might feel, well, to be perfectly honest... kind of jealous of Miki. They do feel that Miki is naive to the point of utter stupidity and spend a lot of time having... emotions about Miki's skills, but when it comes right down to it, they can't even bring themselves to hack Miki's processors fully to expediently get what they want off the terraforming platform they're all going to. Instead, they decide to... gasp... make friends with Miki.

Rogue Protocol is another great entry in the Murderbot Diaries. I am more smitten with Murderbot the longer I read about them. I don't want this series of novellas to end. But the final installment is releasing in October. I'm hoping for a happy ending in which Murderbot can just safely narrate everyday life for us. Because oh, their sweet sarcasm.... thick and rich.


I received an Advance Reader Copy/Uncorrected Proof of this book for review. I'm giving you my honest thoughts about this novella!

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