Rogue Protocol

Wells, Martha. Rogue Protocol. Book 3 of The Murderbot Diaries. New York: Tor, 2018. Preceded by All Systems Red and Artificial Condition; followed by Exit Strategy, planned to complete the series..[1]

Note Murderbot's social relationships, including "Befriending a bot named Miki as a means to keep its presence hidden" while doing some criminal investigations. "Murderbot is forced to reveal itself when the humans" at the facility "are attacked by a hostile combat robot, and one of the researchers is captured. Hiding its lack of a governor module [...], Murderbot attempts to guide the humans—most of whom have never worked with a SecUnit before—while still seeming to defer to them." Note also Murderbot and a human security team in powered armor that can be put in the tradition of the fighting suits from Starship Troopers on. In a climactic sequence,

The injured Murderbot comes upon [the security guard] Wilken attempting to kill [... "Miki's mistress] but manages to hack into Wilken's combat armor and seize control of it. [...] Murderbot leads Miki and the researchers back to the shuttle. Meanwhile, [the security team] Wilken and Gerth have set in motion the destruction of the tractor array that is keeping the facility from breaking up in the atmosphere. Murderbot neutralizes Gerth's combat armor and halts the destruction of the array, and the shuttle takes off just as more hostile combat robots arrive. One clings to the ship and forces its way in; Murderbot destroys it, but not before it destroys Miki.[2]

We have then the large-scale technology of "the tractor array" providing threatened protection, and the personal scale of the combat armor. Also note juxtaposition of fighting suit armor and combat robots, for which see the discussion of powered armor and fighting machines in the essay by Leonard Heldreth, "In Search of the Ultimate Weapon: The Fighting Machine in Science Fiction Novels and Films."

Note theme of friendship and love. Miki's owner does seem to love her, and if Miki doesn't have free-will and emotions, she acts as if she chooses and loves her friends. Since we generally infer love and loyalty, free will and other internal matters about other people from their behavior, this raises philosophical issues: cf. and contrast HAL 9000 in the Clarke and Kubrick 2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) and Kubrick and Clarke 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (film).

Reviewed by Cait Coker, SFRA Review 325 (Summer 2018): 30-32, who comments on the protagonist and the series: "Murderbot itself is one of the most relatable fictional characters I’ve read, let alone most relatable fictional robot. Anyone designing a course around fictional AI would do well to include Wells on their syllabus; Murderbot will probably be of interest to those who study posthumanism and transhumanism as well" (p. 31).

RDE, Initial Compiler, 4-5Mar19 (25Nov20)