Book Review
Title: Rogue Protocol (The Murderbot Diaries Book 3) by Martha Wells
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
After reading the first two books in this series and the first short story I am coming to absolutely adore Murderbot and I couldn’t wait to jump into book 3. Murderbot quickly left RaviHyral on another bot driven transport but this one has passengers but it has no choice as it is the only transport going in the right direction and spends the duration of the trip playing security which Murderbot hates. However, it learns that the investigation into GrayCris is picking up as people want to investigate the abandoned terraform facility at Milu which is the exact place that Murderbot is heading and I know Murderbot is going to get wrapped up in this again as it already has experience with what GrayCris is capable of but Murderbot also seems to miss Mensah and the others and I want them to be reunited soon.
As we approach the ¼ mark in the novel, Murderbot does decides to travel to Milu to check out what GrayCris has been doing there and hopes to send the information to Mensah to help their investigation but Murderbot immediately runs into some problems. The first problem it encounters is that there are no public transports heading to Milu and it needs to find a private one which takes some time. By the time Murderbot does find a private transport heading to Milu, it realises that it will also be carrying two humans who Murderbot will have to hide from. Murderbot does succeed in hiding and it also learns that these two humans are carrying armour and weapons to Milu which seems to suggest that whoever is in control of Milu doesn’t want anyone else there. It also faces the problem that Milu is inhabited but by less than 100 people. This is a problem because if anyone sees Murderbot they will instantly recognises it isn’t supposed to be there and if there happen to be SecUnits on Milu then it is screwed. It turns out that there aren’t any SecUnits on Milu but Murderbot has to say out of sight for the entire time it is there and it needs to get off the planet pretty quickly otherwise it doesn’t have a way of getting off Milu apart from the transport it arrived on.
As we cross the ¼ mark in the novel, Murderbot begins learning about the operation that is taking place there to check out the facility and make sure it hasn’t been taken over by raiders or anyone else which is why they needed the two human security members. However, Murderbot is detected by the human-form bot named Miki who is treated as a friend of the human scientists and she agrees to help Murderbot maintain its secret presence on Milu if it protects her friends in returns and Murderbot agrees even though it knows it might not be able to keep this promise if things go bad which they are almost guaranteed to do if GrayCris still has a presence on Milu. As Murderbot watches how Miki interacts with her human scientists it begins to feel something like jealousy for how she is treated but Murderbot isn’t sure it wants to be treated the same way as it is still no closer to figuring out what it really wants and I have a feeling that this mission might determine whether it returned to PreservationAux and Mensah or whether it attempts to strike out on its own under the guise of an augmented human.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, the team get onto the facility and Murderbot follows behind and out of sight although it does keep in touch with Miki in order to keep tabs on where the teams are while it downloaded any information it can get out of the facility. However, shortly after completing this task Miki picks up on something moving around the facility and it is heading straight for them which sends Murderbot into its protective mode even though it has no reason to protect these humans. Murderbot instructs Miki to try and get back to the shuttle but both realises that there is no time as whatever is coming at them is coming in fast. Murderbot instructs Miki to close the doors on the room they are in as it races down to help but they are too slow and Abene gets grabbed by the creature and Murderbot has to reveal it is a SecUnit in order to save her life. While Murderbot saves Abene everyone is now aware that it is a SecUnit and it has to lie and say it was sent by Security Consultant Rin even though it is Rin and for some reason Abene helps it but telling the human security that she knew about the SecUnit. The injured crew member and half of the security are sent back to the shuttle to get medical assistance while Miki, Abene, the other security member and Murderbot stay in order to search for Hirune who was grabbed and dragged off when the creature attacked them. Now Murderbot is in a difficult situation as he needs to help Miki and Abene find Hirune as they are protecting it but it might not get out of this situation as everyone is aware of what Murderbot is but not that it is a rogue SecUnit.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Murderbot and the security agent come up with a plan to rescue Hirune but Murderbot knows that the human security is going to sacrifice it and not attempt to rescue Hirune because of the combat bots and drones surrounding her. However, Murderbot has realised this and comes up with an alternate plan which hopefully won’t get it shredded to pieces and rescue Hirune which it begins by taking over the drones and turning them on the combat bots which allows it to rescue Hirune. On its way back to meet up with the others, Murderbot learns through Miki that the human security is actually working with GrayCris and intends to kill them so it races back to help which desperately searching for the code to disable the security agent’s armour and it manages to do it just in time. This makes things more difficult as the other GrayCris agent is on the shuttle with the others and will need to be dealt with before they can leave Milu and the research facility but it also knows that the combat bots are self-repairing and they will be bearing down on them again very soon so time is running out for all of them.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, they manage to figure out what is actually happening on the facility and it turns out that GrayCris wants to destroy the tractor array keeping the facility from breaking up in the atmosphere in order to destroy any evidence of their activities there. Murderbot, Miki and Abene figure this out in time to get themselves back to the shuttle where they convince the others to get off the shuttle thinking that some of the diggers are going to ram them which means the other GrayCris operative also get off the shuttle delaying the plan they head before they get back onboard. The humans believes they can get the zipper carrying the final combat which is programmed to destroy the array out of range so it won’t be able to reach it and even though Murderbot knows this is a bad idea the humans have already made up their minds and are doing it. They manage to succeed with seconds remaining and they begin making their way back to the Port where they can get help especially for their injured members but something doesn’t seem to be right.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, Murderbot realises that the final combat bot has attached itself to the shuttle and it is breaking in, so it orders the humans to retreat so it can deal with the bot using the weapons that the GrayCris agents hid aboard the shuttle. As Murderbot prepares itself for a fight, Miki comes to help refusing a directive change to protect herself, opting to protect her humans and Murderbot instead. This turns out to be a disaster as Murderbot is able to destroy the bot but not before it destroys Miki which is heart-breaking for Abene since she and Miki were genuine friends, an alien concept to Murderbot. In the aftermath, Murderbot cuts itself off from the humans and seems to be grieving for Miki before leaving signalling ship to meet it there so they can escape together. In the bag he took from the GrayCris agents Murderbot finds several memory chips and decides it is returning to Mensah and the others to deliver this information against GrayCris in person. Overall, the stakes of the series are really rising and I can’t wait to get into book 4 and see Murderbot reunited with its humans and see what becomes of GrayCris especially with the information Murderbot is carrying from some of its own agents.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Also see: All Systems Red
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