Murderbot sneaks onto an abandoned terraforming facility to find evidence against a ruthless corporation, and meets a cheerful robot who has never met a human it didn't trust
Evidence on a dead station
Murderbot is still on the run, but it cannot stop thinking about the people who were kind to it. To help Dr. Mensah in her case against the corporation GrayCris, it travels to an abandoned terraforming platform where something suspicious once happened. To get aboard, it poses as a security consultant for a salvage team, whose robot companion Miki is friendly, trusting and adored by its humans.
Who will enjoy it
Fans of All Systems Red and Artificial Condition, readers who love dry humour and action, and anyone who enjoys stories about unlikely friendship.
What you will get
The third Murderbot novella, a tense and funny mission aboard an abandoned station that also asks moving questions about trust, friendship and what humans and machines owe each other.
Rogue Protocol Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Science Fiction · Murderbot · Robot friendship · Novella
Length
160 pages · ≈ 5 h
More about this book
Miki is the emotional heart of this instalment. Murderbot finds its open-hearted friendliness baffling and mildly embarrassing, and its own reactions reveal how much it has been hurt. Their relationship is funny, awkward and ultimately touching, and the story does not shy away from the cost of loyalty. Readers who grow fond of Miki should be prepared for a bittersweet turn.
The action is the most intense so far in the series, with hostile combat units, sabotage and a desperate fight in the station's corridors. Wells handles it cleanly and keeps Murderbot's deadpan narration running throughout, so even the tensest scenes have flashes of humour.
As with the other novellas, it is short and works best read in order. Some readers may wish the human characters had more depth. As a quick, exciting and surprisingly emotional read, it delivers. Wells also deepens the overarching plot about GrayCris, setting up the next novella, and keeps the pace brisk from the first page to the last, with barely a wasted scene anywhere in the book. About 160 pages in the Tordotcom hardcover.
All Systems Red
Artificial Condition
Network Effect
Exit Strategy
Ancillary Justice
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Cibola Burn
The Lost World
Abaddon’s Gate
Ender's Game
Mostly Harmless
Congo