“Rogue Protocol” by Martha Wells

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

An exciting episode in the Murderbot Diaries, it has the usual mayhem and humour, but also a look at re-evaluating the relationship between humans and artificial beings like him.

A comment from Murderbot’s previous client leads Murderbot to a planet that was abandoned in the past by the company that tried to kill its clients. The planet was apparently abandoned due to a failed terraforming attempt but Murderbot suspects that it was a cover by the company to retrieve alien synthetic material (that was what led the company to initally try to murder its clients in a previous story). And he needs to go to the planet to get evidence of this.

But to do this, it will have to infiltrate the survey team sent to look at the station at the heart of the apparent failed terraforming attempt. In doing so, Murderbot gets acquainted with a bot who, to his horror and confusion, is being treated kindly and as a friend by the humans. To him, this does not compute as he thinks all bots and constructs (like him) are less than human.

But that has to be put aside when the team is attacked by other bots keen to make sure they don’t get off the station. Now he has to find the evidence, keep the team alive and find a way to eliminate the bots who are better armed than him.

This, of course, he does, but in the process, an act of sacrifice makes him re-evaluate the relationship between humans and bots and constructs and lead him to conclude that he has to return to the clients, whom he left in the first story, to resolve matters.

Book read from 2020/05/03 to 2020/05/03