Martha Wells - Rogue Protocol

Sci-fi's favorite antisocial AI is back 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.
Martha Wells' Rogue Protocol is the third in the Murderbot Diaries series, starring a humanlike android who keeps getting sucked back into adventure after adventure, though it just wants to be left alone, away from humanity and small talk.

Comment: This is the third installment in the Murderbot series. So far, I can say it was the one I liked best...

In this story, Murderbot is considering his next moves in his attempt to expose the company he broke free from, especially since the humans he reluctantly came to care about might be punished somehow. Murderbot still felt like humans are too much hassle and wanted to accomplish this far from them, but once more he sees himself in the need to help yet another group of them, even more so because he needs to travel from place to place without being discovered. This time, there's also another bot, Miki, one who was programmed to be friendly, to help him.. or to annoy him too, but Murderbot can't help but feel, and what he feels compels him to help... 

I did enjoy this novella more than the others, for two reasons: Murderbot seemed more "human" this time around and I probably could read this without interruptions, which helps in making it seem the flow of the story is better achieved.

Basically, Murderbot is annoyed he still needs to do something to help humans when all he wants is to be left in peace. But these annoying feelings prove Murderbot is more alike humans than what he imagined, and I can only suppose the goal of these novels is for him to accept he has those emotions ingrained in his programming and that his AI status does allow him to care, more than he wanted.

In terms of plot, there isn't much I can say, in the background there's this notion Murderbot wants to help the human team he helped in the first story and I think the next novella might be about his return. While debating this and planning what he will need to do, he comes across one more complicated situation and, of course, he helps even though he claims he didn't want to rescue more humans, who might want to thank him. He does seem to collect human "friends", which is clearly ironic. This time, he also has another bot to help, and the dynamics were interesting, since this bot seemed to have been programmed to be friendly and more human-like.

The way the story went on, this new bot and how Murderbot reacts to Miki presents an interesting change in how the bots might interact. It was all very technical, but underlain is the notion these AI can be more than just machines with a purpose. Thankfully, there are plenty of those - machines without feelings I mean - to counterbalance the protagonists. What happens in this story also allows Murderbot to reflect on other things, namely the notion of sacrifice and respect. I'm quite curious to see what Murderbot will be doing in the next story, with all these new considerations in mind...

Grade: 8/10