2018/48: Rogue Protocol -- Martha Wells
Monday, September 17th, 2018 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth2018/48: Rogue Protocol -- Martha Wells
GrayCris, the Big Bad of the first Murderbot novella, is being investigated for illegal activity pertaining to alien remains, and Dr Mensah has become involved. Murderbot, being better-placed to acquire evidence of GrayCris' wrongdoing (and not wanting anyone to pester Mensah about that missing SecUnit), heads to an abandoned terraforming facility at Milu to investigate.
Murderbot is not the only individual interested in Milu. There are a pair of human security consultants, Wilken and Garth, who are employed as bodyguards to Don Abene and her assistant Hirune -- and possibly also expected to look after Don Abene's 'pet robot', Miki, who vexes Murderbot by referring to humans as its 'friends' and generally being cheerful, positive and wholesome. (I wonder if Miki is any relation to Twiki?)
Murderbot uses Miki's feeds to monitor the situation as the humans head for the terraforming facility, and gets to experience (in private, of course) quite a few emotions, including something that is absolutely not jealousy of a human-form bot. Because Miki is treated as one of the family -- maybe like a pet, maybe like a child, certainly like a friend. It's a kind of relationship between human and bot that Murderbot has never experienced, and it provokes a great deal of reflection. Not that there's much time for reflection when GrayCris' dastardly plot becomes clear ...
Murderbot is as likeable (and relatable) as ever, and Wells is very good at depicting the changes that Murderbot is experiencing -- even when (especially when?) Murderbot is unwilling or unable to consider those changes itself.
There are some excellent one-liners ('There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you.”' [loc 39]) and some intriguing observations: and a great lead-in to the fourth and final novella, Exit Strategy, due in October 2018.
Also worth noting that pretty much all the human characters are female.
Being a SecUnit sucked. I couldn’t wait to get back to my wild rogue rampage of hitching rides on bot-piloted transports and watching my serials. [loc. 1042]
GrayCris, the Big Bad of the first Murderbot novella, is being investigated for illegal activity pertaining to alien remains, and Dr Mensah has become involved. Murderbot, being better-placed to acquire evidence of GrayCris' wrongdoing (and not wanting anyone to pester Mensah about that missing SecUnit), heads to an abandoned terraforming facility at Milu to investigate.
Murderbot is not the only individual interested in Milu. There are a pair of human security consultants, Wilken and Garth, who are employed as bodyguards to Don Abene and her assistant Hirune -- and possibly also expected to look after Don Abene's 'pet robot', Miki, who vexes Murderbot by referring to humans as its 'friends' and generally being cheerful, positive and wholesome. (I wonder if Miki is any relation to Twiki?)
Murderbot uses Miki's feeds to monitor the situation as the humans head for the terraforming facility, and gets to experience (in private, of course) quite a few emotions, including something that is absolutely not jealousy of a human-form bot. Because Miki is treated as one of the family -- maybe like a pet, maybe like a child, certainly like a friend. It's a kind of relationship between human and bot that Murderbot has never experienced, and it provokes a great deal of reflection. Not that there's much time for reflection when GrayCris' dastardly plot becomes clear ...
Murderbot is as likeable (and relatable) as ever, and Wells is very good at depicting the changes that Murderbot is experiencing -- even when (especially when?) Murderbot is unwilling or unable to consider those changes itself.
There are some excellent one-liners ('There needs to be an error code that means “I received your request but decided to ignore you.”' [loc 39]) and some intriguing observations: and a great lead-in to the fourth and final novella, Exit Strategy, due in October 2018.
Also worth noting that pretty much all the human characters are female.
no subject
Date: Saturday, September 29th, 2018 10:17 am (UTC)