Book Review
Rogue Protocal
By Martha Wells
I spoil.
This is a 150 page story, the 3rd in a 4-book series. The second book felt a little pricey. The last 3 were released in May, August, and October, 2018. So it’s a 600 page novel split into four full-priced morsels.
I’m certain that I’ve detected a trend in Tor books. If they’ve got a good author, they sell mini-sized books at full price and extend the experience (and revenue). I thought this when I reviewed The Consuming Fire. The Murderbot series is clearly another one. I was happy to pay, so clearly I am their intended audience.
Reading this was like watching a really good episode on Netflix. It’s clearly not a complete novel but it is a very complete episode. Actually, it’s like watching a half hour show. It’s too short to be a full hour. They even made space for commercials, so 22 minutes (I read it in an evening).
In Rogue Protocol, Murderbot is following another lead. It stows away on a transport (again), picks up surrogate clients (again), protects them from the evil corporation (again), and fights bad guys with ingenuity and sarcasm (again, do we see a pattern here?).
Murderbot picks up clues along the way, which can be used against evilcorp if it can only get the memory modules to Client Number One from the first book. This plot thread dumps us into the next book (reading now), searching for Client One.
There is a ton of great action, sarcasm, self reflection, personality, and getting the bad guy. If you liked the first two in the series, you will not be disappointed. I just started reading the final book in the series (though I’ve heard that there will be more).
B.S. Donovan 