Book Review: Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells (Murderbot Diaries #3)

SciFi’s favorite antisocial A.I. is again on a mission. The case against the too-big-to-fail GrayCris Corporation is floundering, and more importantly, authorities are beginning to ask more questions about where Dr. Mensah’s SecUnit is.

And Murderbot would rather those questions went away. For good.

My Review: 
Murderbot has discovered the truth about its murderous past but now it seems there is more it needs to uncover. GrayCris are trying to wriggle out of responsibility for their actions and are causing more trouble, so Murderbot decides there is a need to find more evidence against them, while trying to keep itself hidden as a hunt for the rogue SecUnit develops.

"There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you."

Murderbot adopts the identity of Rin, an augmented human security expert to get on to a transport taking it to a planet where GrayCris has an abandoned terraforming facility. Could there be some kind of evidence there about the activities of GrayCris that Murderbot could use against them? The downside to this is the thought of having to play nursemaid again to another group of squabbling humans, which means time that it can't watch hours of newly downloaded media like Sanctuary Moon. It is more difficult to keep its own identity a secret when there is another bot on the transport who could expose it for being a SecUnit which would compromise the mission and its personal freedom. Can Miki be trusted when it seems to be some kind of pet to the humans?

"Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)"

Murderbot is puzzled by Miki. Miki seems to have a level of status and respect from its human owner Abene that seems strange to a killer SecUnit. It doesn't quite get how an owned bot can be treated as a friend rather than an employee. However, Miki is friendly and agrees to keep a few secrets for Murderbot to allow it to get on with a secret investigation into GrayCris in one part of the compond while the humans and Miki have their own mission to complete. Murderbot is alarmed when Miki contacts it to say that there is an unknown entity in the facility heading towards Miki's group and Murderbot feels compelled to go to their assistance. There is something not right about this mission and Murderbot needs to find out what is going on before they are all killed. 

"Rogue SecUnits are fucking dangerous, trust me on that." 

I really enjoyed this book. It explored the more complex issue of AI interaction between bots, and between bots and humans. Murderbot has extreme distrust for pretty much everyone, not trusting the human security to do a job that it can so it feels it has to go and help Miki and the humans. Murderbot also has to deal with Miki and Abene's confusing relationship which is on a friend and advisor basis rather than bot servant. It causes Murderbot to evaluate what it knows about humans and bots, which I found interesting. I loved the angst that our poor hero goes through trying to get its head around everything! Miki is a really great character who is sweet, friendly and dedicated to Abene, and a good companion for Murderbot.

This was quite a tense plot, reminding me a bit of Ripley and the Colonial Marines going to the facility in Aliens, knowing that there could be some kind of danger lurking in the dark. I found it quite intense at times as we waited for things to go wrong and when the action kicked off, it was quite exciting to read. Not much time for Sanctuary Moon on this deadly mission!

I really love these books and I'm so glad that I went outside of my usual comfort zone to read this excellent series. Murderbot has to be one of my favourite book characters ever!

Read September 2018
4 stars.