I didn't love this as much as the other books in the series. As he spends most of this time watching from camera feeds, Murderbot is too much of an observer. I'm still looking forward to more books in this series and hoping that we will be getting back to the people from book 1 soon. I keep on feeling like he is becoming a legend.

I was skeptical of the decision to release the new Murderbot Diaries in multiple parts over such a short period of time. But as it turns out, six months is not a short enough period of time. I love you, Murderbot, and I need to know what happens next as soon as possible.*

Rogue Protocol is more action focused than the previous installment, and I think I prefer Murderbot engaging in intrigue over firefights. While it has its cool moments, the action can get a bit repetitive. That caveat aside, this volume continues to explore the struggles of being a cool, weird introvert in a warm, occasionally heart-breaking way that I really appreciate. And it's still really amusing without being snarky for snark's sake, which is a some kind of miracle.

Novellas turn out to be the perfect length for a Murderbot adventure, and the next one cannot come soon enough.

* (Don't worry, Murderbot. I love you in safe, non-romantic way, as one might appreciate a really exciting piece of media. It might be more accurate to say that I 'ship you, or perhaps I 'ship Murderbot and media.)**

** (PS - Dear Murderbot, who do you 'ship? Please address this question in future diaries. Thanks!)

I love Murderbot and will read and buy (I've already got this lovely paper book one) any novella of the series. Still this one, if a very good read, wasn't my favourite. If I was happy to meet Bootie again (she has a secret name, probably not this one!) her dry humour, her exasperated patience towards humans, I was a bit frustrated. The plot used a lot of descriptions and I was often confused, not sure of what was going on. And if I understood the point made by the author with this new adventure, it was a rather sad one, without any heartwarming human - Murderbot relationships, so.... I look forward the next one.
Despite these reservations, a must read for all Murderbot's fans!

What's not to love about a cantankerous SecUnit who'd really rather just be left alone? Too bad for Murderbot that those darn softy, squishy humans keep getting in its way and requiring its protection. So what's an exasperated AI to do? In Rogue Protocol, Murderbot once again sneaks its way onto a transport filled with humans on a secret mission, this time looking for evidence against the nefarious GrayCris Corporation. But of course, nothing goes as planned, since the humans involved end up needing looking after, even though they're not technically Murderbot's to worry about.

I'll be honest and say that the action feels a little opaque to me. Lots of hatches and corridors and whatnot... lots of energy blasters and armor and drones... It's all quite energetic and high-speed, but the technical mumbo-jumbo tends to make my eyes glaze over.

Still, what redeems these novellas for me is the fabulous voice of Murderbot itself, who is just as fed up as always. Why can't the poor AI just enjoy its media feeds in peace?

If you're a sci-fi fan and haven't yet experienced Murderbot, definitely give these novellas a try! Now is a great time to jump in -- the 4th (and final?) book is due out in October.

Even though the plot is a little whackadoodle and slower than solidified cat snot on a wall, Murderbot's voice is absolutely hilarious and totally worth everything.

Sarcastic, depressed, snarky and just everything that makes me happy in life. Although for a Murderbot, it does very little murdering. It should be disappointed in itself.

Hopefully answers will be had in book 4!

I received this ARC from NetGalley for an honest review.

I don't typically write reviews because I have a fairly hard time articulating myself but I really want to try for Rogue Protocol.

MurderBot is potentially my favourite series available right now, and that is definitely saying a lot considering I (like the typical person on NetGalley) read a lot. The relationship that MurderBot has with other AI, with humans, and with none sentient robots really hits me hard. They (It seems inappropriate but I'm not an expert nor do I remember what/if MurderBot had a preferred pronoun?) have a wonderfully complicated relationship with the world now that they posses control of their life. It really hurts how such simple things such as being considered human can really throw an emotional wall of pain at the reader.

Yet the series in itself could be-and has been-related to a lot of current realities for many people in the world today. MurderBot could easily relate to anyone who has ever been ostracized from society and made to feel other: basically anyone who isn't the 'ideal able bodied, white cis gendered' person. If you can't check off all of those little boxes then there is definitely someone in the world who thinks you are less than human. It's disgusting, but it's the truth.

And through MurderBot's point of view, I could see how anyone who is othered in society could relate to their story. I really valued having that social awareness in the novel. And I really valued the friendships and hardships that MurderBot experienced that made our little MurderBot feel 'human' to me.

The “artificial” in artificial intelligence is easy to understand. But the meaning of “intelligence” is harder to define. How smart can an A.I. get? Can it teach itself, change its programming, become independent? Can it outfox its human inventors, be guided by self-interest, have feelings?

While companies like Google and Facebook are competing to develop A.I. technology, science fiction writers are light years ahead of them, finding answers to these questions in their imaginations.

One of the most engaging A.I.s in recent years is Martha Wells’ Murderbot, a people-averse, soap-opera loving, snark-spewing and highly efficient killing machine. The first book in Wells’ Murderbot Diaries, All Systems Red, earned numerous honors this year, including Nebula and Locus awards. It also made the short list for the Philip K. Dick and Hugo awards. The second and third books—Artificial Condition, which came out in May, and Rogue Protocol, out next week on Aug. 7—are equally engaging, taking Murderbot on a journey of self discovery that one hopes will eventually allow it a chance to retire from the business of saving human lives and spend its days watching its beloved “entertainment media” in peace.

“Does it have a place in this world?” is the question at the back of its mind, Wells says in my conversation with her on New Books in Science Fiction. “It can’t go back to its corporate owner, which would destroy or erase it for going rogue; and it’s not sure it wants to go to a human who is offering it a home because it would still essentially be property.”

Despite its name, Murderbot is only murderous when work requires it. As it says on the first page of All Systems Red, “As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” Thus, even though it could seek revenge against its human taskmasters, try to amass power or wreak havoc (since it has “borked” the programs that restrain its behavior), it voluntarily elects to continue performing the function for which it was designed—providing security to “small soft” humans. Why it so often says “yes” to a dangerous assignment when it really wants to hide in a closet is as much a mystery to it as our motivations are to us. Perhaps all forms of “intelligence,” artificial or otherwise, could benefit from a few sessions on an analyst’s couch.

Wells has incorporated aspects of herself in Murderbot, a fact that resonates with readers. “I have some problems with anxiety and OCD and I’ve put those into the character… and one of the interesting things that’s happened is that people who also have bad anxiety and have other issues say that they saw themselves in this character and that was heartwarming to me.”

The final book in the series of novellas, Exit Strategy, is due out in October.

Another wonderful novella in the Murderbot series, the third of four in which a deeply unusual narrator attempts to both find safety for itself and expose the corporate interests which have used and abused it.

Martha Wells's splendid protagonist is an artificial being, a genderless blend of weaponised robotics, AI software and genetically manipulated human material, designed as a highly effective "security" consultant with very limited free will. But having, through a mix of skill and luck, secretly slipped free from its controls, the self-described Murderbot, a mostly well-meaning, socially inept and deeply dangerous character, is on a mission of its own.

I received a galley of this book through NetGalley.

I love me some Murderbot. The first book absolutely charmed me with its balance of smart action and know-how with a sentient security bot with an obsession with human entertainment shows. I dove into this third novella, <i>Rogue Protocol,</i> having not read the second. I wanted to judge how easy it was to resume the series at a later point.

To my joy, it was very easy to follow along with Murderbot. Actually, I think someone could start at this book and they would be able to follow the story quite well. I was recently reminded of the term "competence porn," and I think that's an appropriate term for why I enjoy these novellas so much. Murderbot is fantastic at their job, and that's a joy to read. The actions flow steady and fast, full of sci-fi twists, and Murderbot's exasperated frustration and obsession with humans made me smile often as I read.

I love the continuing adventures of Murderbot. Each book is a complete story and also part of a story arc. Murderbot continues to evolve emotionally, and the wry humour is very entertaining. I'm really looking forward to the final installment.

I was about to name this post Murderbot of My Heart before I looked back and found out that's what I named the post where I raved about All Systems Red, the first book in Martha Wells' incredible, delightful series about everyone's favorite socially anxious, warmhearted killing machine. I can't think of another title, because "my heart" has to be in the post name, because my feelings are going to overflow.

There have been two more books in the series since that first post, and the fourth and final novella comes out in October, at which point I will be buying it on release day and weeping that there isn't any more. That's what I did with Artificial Condition, the second in the series. I literally had "Buy Murderbot" in my calendar for that day, which Brenda (who can see my calendar) assumed meant I was feeling particularly stabby that day. (She is now also a huge fan of Murderbot.)

Artificial Condition was excellent; our beloved SecUnit (who doesn't really refer to itself often by name, and whom I don't like calling Murderbot because I love it and won't let it be down on itself) is investigating the events that led to its former murderous rampage, to try to determine how it happened. To get where it's going, it needs allies--like ART, a superintelligent research transport (who learns to love media)--and work, in the form of a security consulting gig that is pretty much as straightforwardly a terrible idea as it seems.

Along the way, our SecUnit meets nice people, pretends to be human, interacts with other bots whose feelings about autonomy are pretty intense, and has to beat up some bad guys. And watch some Sanctuary Moon reruns, of course. (I would very much like to watch Sanctuary Moon; if someone wants to create some sort of fan webcomic or something, I would Kickstart that). In sum, this was great.

Today, though, I finished Rogue Protocol, which I was fortunate enough to get as an ARC from Netgalley for review (thank you, Tor.com!). Artificial Condition was great, but Rogue Protocol was even better. Murderbot's investigation has expanded to include GrayCris, the company that tried to kill Dr. Mensah and the rest of the survey party in All Systems Red. SecUnit is on the trail of proof of larger evildoing by the company, and would like to get evidence to help Dr. Mensah in her legal battle with them. That's how SecUnit ends up with another exploration team, this time investigating a decommissioned terraforming installation that is maybe way more dangerous than it seems.

I love how full of good people these books are. It might seem kind of sappy sometimes, if there weren't so many bad people, too. But so many competent people are doing the best they can here that you can't help but enjoy watching them all work together. There is another AI character in this one, and watching SecUnit deal with its feelings about Miki--all of those feelings, many of which SecUnit can't quite pin down for itself--is really what makes this all worth it.

I love that this set of books has such a clear character trajectory, as SecUnit really processes what it means to be a free agent in the world--not just that you can choose your friends and causes, but that you almost have to. It's so clear to the reader that SecUnit is, for some definition of the word, "human" that watching it figure that out for itself is a huge, meaningful adventure to be on.

Also, super competence porn. I never thought I'd be so excited about armed drones.

However many stars there are to give, this book gets more of them. I will be shoving this book at people for months. Go read it, please! Now!

ROGUE PROTOCOL, the third entry in the Murderbot series was a lot of fun!

This volume was a bit slow going at the beginning but once Murderbot got situated and the action started it became very difficult to put down. It is still trying to solve the mystery that started in the first volume and as more information is gleaned from various sources, Muderbot's position becomes more and more precarious.

What's fun about these books is that Murderbot isn't your average Security Unit (SecUnit) bot. It hacked its governor module a long while back and now, it has real feelings. It tries to ignore and/or deny them, but they're there. These emotions are not what it's used to and it has a hard time disguising them, and I think that's where the most interesting part of this story lives. It's not in the mystery it's trying to solve, it's in the mystery of Murderbot's feelings and how it deals with them. Oh, and it's also in the humor and sarcasm that it's now developing.

This was a fun addition to the series, even though it started a bit slow, and I'm very much looking forward to what happens next!

*Thank you to NetGalley and to Tor for the e-ARC of this novella in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it.*

So Murderbot is now investigating the company that was behind the events in the previous novellas. This means a trip out to a site the corp took over. Murderbot is becoming adept at lying to convince a team they were sent by someone else to investigate the corp. Things go downhill with some betrayals but Murderbot does what they do best in a bad situation.

Digital review copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley

Murderbot, sposami.
Guarderemo bellissime serie tv e ci scambieremo libri e film da leggere.
E tu potrai studiare le mie espressioni e diventare un esperto di umanità.
Cosa puoi desiderare di più dalla vita? <3

I absolutely adored the first two installments in The Murderbot Diaries, and this third novella lived up to my high expectations, what a fantastic read!

Stories about AIs are my personal catnip and this series in particular just blows my mind because Murderbot is such a unique and fun personality - I love its sarcastic wit and deadpan humor. I think I relate far too much to Murderbot; all it wants to do is avoid humans as much as possible, do its job without having to put up with human incompetence and social rituals, and watch its favorite tv shows. Same here!

Alas, mankind insists on continuing to interfere, mainly by requiring protection which Murderbot reluctantly takes on against its better judgment. It has no obligation to the puny humans it encounters and yet it feels responsible for safeguarding them anyway.  It's fascinating reading a story from the first person where the protagonist is almost willfully blind to its own character development, like the terse moments when Murderbot experiences 'an emotion' and cuts abruptly to the next conversation or scene because emotion just doesn't compute. I really enjoy how Murderbot isn't at all like humans nor does it WANT to be, yet there are times when it acts in such a relatable way, such as rewatching its favorite episodes of Sanctuary Moon when it's anxious and wanting to put something out of its mind.

There were so many laugh out loud moments while reading Rogue Protocol, I cracked up at Murderbot's snarky internal monologue, mainly on the flaws of humanity and sometimes despairing at its own decision-making. And for a novella, I was impressed at how poignant some scenes were and the emotions that Martha Wells elicited in me over characters we had only just met. For instance, Miki is a simple robot with not much higher intelligence and could've come across as flat as Siri or the Google Assistant, and yet I found it so endearing! 

I recommend this series to everyone, I think it would appeal even to those who don't normally read sci-fi because it's hilarious and easy to get hooked on, and isn't bogged down with technical jargon like some of the dense sci-fi novels out there. You should definitely start with the first novella, All Systems Red, since Murderbot's situation won't make sense otherwise (in a nutshell, it's freed itself from the governor module that keeps it under human control and gone up against a large shady corporation and is now evading recognition/capture as a rogue SecUnit that answers to nobody), but I guarantee that you will whip through these with ease and tons of enjoyment!

Murderbot is, as always, highly amusing and entertaining. And just like the second installment , I worried that I would not be able to grow to like new characters in such a short page span. And once again, I was wrong.

First, Murderbot is developing feelings. Like stronger feelings, because they totally already had them, but you know. Basically, Murderbot is now recognizing their feelings, is more accurate.

And of course, it is full of action. It is also full of feels, as you realize how much people (and bots) can care for each other. I am just so, so happy that there is going to be a full-length Murderbot novel because if the next installment was the last? I'd need to go drown my sorrows in endless episodes of Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.

Bottom Line: Need. Fourth Murderbot. Immediately.

Another solid entry in the Murderbot Diaries...my only quibble is that I want ALL of the series, and I want it NOW. In book three, our favorite Murderbot is continuing on its quest to find evidence that will stop an evil corporation from getting away with murder and destruction on a galactic scale. The action is invigorating, as always, and Murderbot's snide commentary continues to be a delightful element, but at the same time, I appreciate how this volume shows Murderbot continuing to grow and adapt to life beyond its original role as a SecUnit. Murderbot has been stripped of its literal armor for some time now, and is now having to deal with having some of its mental armor stripped away as well. Murderbot may not know what it wants to be, yet, but it knows it is on its way to being something other than what it expected. (And I note that, despite my use of "Murderbot" throughout this review, for identification purposes, I don't think the character in question uses that self-chosen moniker for itself once throughout this book.) I will be impatiently awaiting the conclusion (?) of these adventures later this year.

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Urban fantasy has made it to the broken assassinbot AI stage in a big way. Just as much internal monologues as the other field, but this is entirely a corporate/spaceships/planetary colonies kind of popcorn fiction.

Is this is as good as the other two delicious entries? I think so. Maybe not quite as interesting as the last, but introducing the near-skinjob Miki who is treated at worst as a pet and at best as a valued member of the team was a real treat for us, if not for our favorite broken assassinbot just trying to make ends meet long enough to watch her favorite SF soap operas.

And trying not to care whether her clients kick it, of course. :)

Frankly, these novellas are smooth as silk and enjoyable no matter what goes on in them. I blame it on our MC robot. Her ruminations into her nature and her abilities and her interpersonal growth when it comes to the other robots she meets could make even watching paint dry rather interesting. Even so, it's a good thing we're ripping heads off bad guys and dealing with the intrigue of pretending to be someone's chattel or pretending to be human... sometimes successfully... while always running the risk of becoming a major scary target because she is what she is.

Ongoing goodness? Yes. Very enjoyable.

Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells is the third novella in the Murderbot Diaries series, which started with All Systems Red last year and was followed by Artificial Condition earlier this year. Although each novella tells a self-contained story, they're more like chapter's in Muderbot's life and the bulk of the characterisation work was done earlier on in the first book and I think there's less recapping of backstory in Rogue Protocol. All of which is to say that if you haven't read this series before, I recommend starting with book 1. In any case, this review will contain some spoilers for the earlier books.

SciFi’s favorite crabby 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.

I really like the Muderbot books and this one continued the series nicely. It continued to make me laugh and progressed the story set up in the earlier books. There was danger, action and snark, and maybe a little less watching of TV shows and more having confusing emotions. As I said before, it wouldn't work as a standalone, in my opinion. But it is quite episodic, since in Rogue Protocol we have Murderbot meeting new people in a new location but also continuing the overarching story about the dodgy GrayCris Corporation.

In this story Murderbot encounters a different set of characters. Where previously we've watched its interactions with various humans and (separately) an artificial intelligence more advanced than Murderbot, this time we get a story with humans of various stripes and a less advanced AI robot. My favourite part of the story was the feelings the robot caused Murderbot to feel. I won't spoil the story by going into details, but they were many and varied.

The end of this novella seems to set up a final chapter in Murderbot's current story arc. I will be interested to see how it ends (of course) and also the direction of the recently announced novel which will follow the novellas. I highly recommend Rogue Protocol to fans of Murderbot and the whole series to fans of snark and science fiction, who are not averse to a bit of (non-gratuitous) violence.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: August 2018, Tor.com
Series: Murderbot Diaries book 3 of 4 (though a novel set after the novella series has been announced
Format read: ePub eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Murderbot just cannot keep out of trouble. Even when he tries to distant himself from humans when the chips are down and they are in trouble he steps in. I love this ongoing story arc. Murderbot and his musing are priceless. To get all of his asides you need to read the first two novellas. I am looking forward to the next novella and then Murderbot get an entire book. Yea!!

I received a free copy in retune for an honest review.