Tuesday, June 24, 2025

31. Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries book 3) by Martha Wells

Cruised through another "episode" of the Murderbot series.  Now that he (she? it?) has learned the truth about the massacre for which it felt reponsible, it has now decided on a bit of a whim to investigate the GrayCris company (who was responsible for the sabotage in the first book and the original massacre).  Murderbot learns about a failed GrayCris terraforming investment but suspects it was actually a cover-up for another illegal alien artifact dig.

Murderbot sneaks onto a contracted shuttle that is going to the now shuttered terraform unit to reclaim it and ostensibly use it for some other purpose.  Murderbot makes acquaintances with a humanoid helper bot called Miki that is treated as a colleague and equal by the rest of the crew and uses Mike as its sensors and interface while murderbot remains hidden.  This state of affairs last until the crew arrives at the terraforming station and is attacked.  Much exciting bot on bot action (including three increasingly creative combat bot kills) and several layers of double-crossing, Murderbot once again helps a gang of outmatched and too sentimental human hippies against corporate malfeasance and then makes her getaway.  Still fun.

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