Martha Wells: Rogue Protocol
Aug. 23rd, 2018 01:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bibliogrammaIn Rogue Protocol, the third of Martha Wells’ wonderful Murderbot Diaries novellas, Murderbot - having resolved some serious questions about its own past in the second volume - undertakes a mission to unravel the secrets of GreyCris, the corporate entity behind the disastrous events that led to the deaths of most of its clients in the opening installment of the series and led to its becoming a free, if not precisely legal, agent. This time, Murderbot is investigating an abandoned GreyCris terraforming project, having theorised that the ailed project was actually a cover for secret excavations of ancient alien artefacts.
When Murderbot discovers that a small salvage company has purchased the rights to the abandoned project, and is on its way to the terraforming complex to begin surveying the scene, it makes contact with the company’s human-form robot Miki, a simple and innocent being who has never been violated by humans as Murderbot has, and who considers the salvage company personnel to be its friends. Murderbot convinces Miki that it is backup security for the company, secretly shadowing the team of two human security agents hired by Miki’s friends - but as it turns out, GreyCris has left some unpleasant surprises at the abandoned facility to protect its secrets, and it will take all of Murderbot’s considerable abilities to get the vulnerable humans out of the trap and back to safety.
What’s important to Murderbot’s growing sense of itself and its relationships in the world of humans is its observation of the close, caring relationship between the robot Miki, and Miki’s owner/employer, Don Abene. For the first time in its existence, Murderbot sees a model of mutual respect between artificial and human life forms, and the experience is a significant influence on Murderbot’s developing understanding of empathy, responsibility, and connection between intelligent beings. For lack of a better word, the events of this mission show Murderbot a new dimension of its own capacity for humanity.
This is in so many ways a story about becoming a truly empathetic, compassionate, and righteous being, and watching Murderbot, cranky and anti-social as it is, develop into such a being is a delightful experience.
More Murderbot, please.
When Murderbot discovers that a small salvage company has purchased the rights to the abandoned project, and is on its way to the terraforming complex to begin surveying the scene, it makes contact with the company’s human-form robot Miki, a simple and innocent being who has never been violated by humans as Murderbot has, and who considers the salvage company personnel to be its friends. Murderbot convinces Miki that it is backup security for the company, secretly shadowing the team of two human security agents hired by Miki’s friends - but as it turns out, GreyCris has left some unpleasant surprises at the abandoned facility to protect its secrets, and it will take all of Murderbot’s considerable abilities to get the vulnerable humans out of the trap and back to safety.
What’s important to Murderbot’s growing sense of itself and its relationships in the world of humans is its observation of the close, caring relationship between the robot Miki, and Miki’s owner/employer, Don Abene. For the first time in its existence, Murderbot sees a model of mutual respect between artificial and human life forms, and the experience is a significant influence on Murderbot’s developing understanding of empathy, responsibility, and connection between intelligent beings. For lack of a better word, the events of this mission show Murderbot a new dimension of its own capacity for humanity.
This is in so many ways a story about becoming a truly empathetic, compassionate, and righteous being, and watching Murderbot, cranky and anti-social as it is, develop into such a being is a delightful experience.
More Murderbot, please.