Rogue Protocol - Martha Wells

 

Rogue Protocol is the third entry in the Murderbot diaries, and frankly, I cannot get enough. This review is for the book's audio version, which I borrowed from The Free Library of Philadelphia. (Reading can get expensive - especially if you are into an engaging series of books, and a library card is excellent if you are a frequent reader.)

Rogue Protocol picks up from the last book with Murderbot deciding that it needs to gather evidence to implicate the Graycris Corporation, thus drawing attention away from itself. 


This book, just like the last two, is a quick read and is extremely fast-paced. I like the introduction of Miki. Miki is another bot that assists Murderbot in its goal of acquiring evidence against Graycris, and its interactions bring the same amount of levity that ART did in the previous book.

Or Miki was a bot who had never been abused or lied to or treated with anything but indulgent kindness. It really thought its humans were its friends, because that's how they treated it. I signaled Miki I would be withdrawing for one minute. I needed to have an emotion in private.

The setting of this book reminded me of the movie - Event Horizon - creepy. The main events of this story takes place on an abandoned Graycris Corporation terraforming station in orbit around a planet. A salvage company has taken possession and has dispatched people to inspect it. Murderbot suspects that Graycris Corporation illegally used the terraforming station to mine alien artifacts. It stows away with the salvage crew to secretly board the station and gather evidence. Action and Adventure ensue.

I was getting an idea. It was probably a bad idea. (When most of your training in tactical thinking comes from adventure shows, that does tend to happen.)

Kevin Free's narration of this audiobook is excellent, and select phrasing captures the Murderbot's self-effacing and self-degrading nature excellently. I've already put the following (audio) books in the series on hold.