Rogue Protocol [Dramatized Adaptation]

The Murderbot Diaries [Dramatized Adaptation] #3

by Martha Wells, Alejandro Ruiz (reader), Natalie Van Sistine (reader)

Who knew being a heartless killing machine would present so many moral dilemmas?

Sci-fi’s favorite antisocial A.I. 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.

Adapted from the novel and produced with a full cast of actors, immersive sound effects and cinematic music!

Genres: Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Novella, Adult, Space

1 pages, Audio CD

Published November 16, 2023

About the author

Martha Wells has been an SF/F writer since her first fantasy novel was published in 1993, and her work includes The Books of the Raksura series, the Ile-Rien series, The Murderbot Diaries series, and other fantasy novels, most recently Witch King (Tordotcom, 2023). She has also written media tie-in fiction for Star Wars, Stargate: Atlantis, and Magic: the Gathering, as well as short fiction, YA novels, and non-fiction. She has won Nebula Awards, Hugo Awards, Locus Awards, and a Dragon Award, and her work has appeared on the Philip K. Dick Award ballot, the British Science Fiction Association Award ballot, the USA Today Bestseller List, the Sunday Times Bestseller List, and the New York Times Bestseller List. She is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and her books have been published in twenty-five languages.

She is also a consulting producer on The Murderbot Diaries series for Apple TV+.

Reviews

[Suhailah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dramatized Adaptation Audiobook ☆☆☆☆☆

Engaging and so much fun!

♡Buddy listen with my husband♡

My Husband’s Rating: Another 20/10 stars ☆ (He is naturally not a reader because he is a gamer 1000% unless we do audiobooks together, or I read to him.) And he says this series has captivated him because it is so thrilling! That’s huge!

~ It was even more heartbreaking to listen to the audio of this one because of the sad ending.
~ Miki has my heart and that’s that. Even if the voice actor wasn’t quite what I imagined when I read it, it also grew on me.
~ David Cui Cui is officially my Murderbot voice now!

My original review for the novella can be found here.

[reading_paiges · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5⭐️
Best one yet.
Funniest one yet.
Saddest one yet.
I think the only thing keeping me from giving it the full 5 stars is the fact that it’s still so early in the series and what if it gets better from here….

[Debora Santo · Rating 4 out of 5]

“I hate caring about stuff. But apparently, once you start, you can't just stop.” - This Murderbot quote probably also summed up how readers felt at the end of the book.

In Rogue Protocol, Murderbot again ends up with a new crew of people who keep getting into trouble. The bot he interacts with and who would love to become their friend is Miki - a bot who became so close with humans that even Murderbot becomes jealous at some point.

This book had the first farewell, which was difficult - and the series keeps getting better as Murderbot's character develops through the story.

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man, I miss ART too I cant believe this. Overall enjoyed this installment, but I always enjoy everything before the action at the end and zone out at that part LOL

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything I love about The Murderbot Diaries series! (Except that it didn't have A.R.T.)

I thoroughly enjoyed it and burst out laughing several times as Murderbot continues interacting with humans and dealing with the series' main theme of the human experience.

The cast of the Dramatized Adaption did an excellent job! Now that I'm caught up to where I was (on book four) and I'll switch back to the normal audiobook, and it will be weird hearing a different voice for Murderbot. (Although I really enjoyed the narrator's performance for the first three regular audiobooks as well as these three Dramatized Adaptions.)

On to book four!

(This Dramatized Adaption says it's unabridged but it's still a bit shorter than the regular audiobook, and shorter than I would assume just taking out the "he said, she said's" would be.)

(I can't remember exactly but I think there's some R-rated language.)

[Alix · Rating 4 out of 5]

The structure was similar to the previous book, but I still really enjoyed Rogue Protocol. Listening to them as Graphic Audio books has made me love the series even more.

I enjoyed seeing Murderbot reluctantly connect with humans and other bots, and while I missed Art a lot in this (almost as much as Murderbot misses Art!), I really liked Miki. I was absolutely crushed by Miki's death :sob: I genuinely thought it would survive the book; GA did a good job humanizing the bot that I was quite emotional when Murderbot realized Miki was destroyed. The ending has me intrigued and excited. Can't wait to pick up the next one!

[Kat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basic Plot: Murderbot helps a bot named Mickey.

Murderbot is starting to realize that some humans (definitely not all) are actually worthwhile, and that makes Murderbot incredibly uncomfortable, even as it works to save people it really doesn't have to save. It's interesting following these shorts via Graphic Audio. Because each episode is short and features different people, it's somewhat difficult to get invested in anyone other than Murderbot. I am enjoying them, though.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75🌟

So much action in so little time! Gotta say I’m enjoying watching murderbot evolve. It just wants to live its life watching its media but somehow always ends up in the most dangerous situations LOL!

Onto the next!

[ZAF · Rating 4 out of 5]

NOOOO MIKI. STOP I GOT SO ATTACHED TO IT I CANT BELIEVE THIS

[Jim Kownacki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just couldn't get into it.

[Igor Tokmovtsev · Rating 1 out of 5]

small book but could not go all the way through..............

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love Murderbot and, as a series, is getting a 5 star, but this one just wasn't my favorite.

[Richard Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dramatisation made a huge difference to my enjoyment of this audiobook, as compared to a plain reading. The actor playing Murderbot gets the snark just right and taps into the humour underlying the story. Once again MB finds itself having to 'care' for a bunch of hapless humans and rescue them from a fix.

[Karen Hensley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dramatized version gives a whole second round of fun in each book of this series. This particular book has some confusing locations to track, so 4.5 rounded down instead of the usual solid 5-stars.

[David Cuatt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written as usual, and this time introduces a new group of characters that include a very loveable robot. Lots of action and snarky humor, plus the overarching plot involving GreyCris continues to evolve.

[Milo · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual i absolutely loved this book, especially murderbott’s inteligence, wit, and the ability to understand things he’s probably not supposed to. He makes friends and enemies throughout the books, but always leaves them in the end. Off he goes to complete more destruction.

[K D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loving this. Once again MB explore the relationships between humans and bots,Humans and humans, and bots and bots.

[Erin Hogle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best one yet! I think I'm addicted. The audio version is so good.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m an easy sell when it comes to these books. From the print to the audiobook, sign me up #Miki 😭 💜 Still doesn’t beat ART for me though

[Jeana Cheque · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had Murderbot trying to gather evidence for Dr. Menza. She's the one who freed him, before he decided to take off on his own instead of living on her farm. She was supposed to serve as his human guardian, but it felt too much like an owner to him. Graychris (?) is the evil company that almost killed Dr. Menza and her crew in book 1. Murderbot hitches a ride on "Ship". It had unsophisticated software and he made it look like he was supposed to be on board to do maintenance. He goes to a station that Graychris had been doing illegal mining on, under the guise of doing tera forming. He meets a Human Form bot named Mickey. Its human loves it like a friend, which has Murderbot feeling some kind of way. He ends up saving Mickey's human from combat bots that Graychris had left on the station to cover up their illegal mining. Murderbot gets the evidence he needs by hacking into some drones (?) and downloading what they had recorded. All hell brakes loose as they are departing. Murderbot is trying to hold off more combat bots, even though he has less weapons and speed. Mickey disobeys a direct order from her human in order to buy time for the humans to get to safety and assist Murderbot. Mickey dies in the end. Her human cries, which again, has Murderbot's emotions over human/bot relationships in turmoil. Once the humans are safely on their way in a pod, he takes a suit and makes it look like he was sucked out of an airlock along with the suit. He hails Ship to pick him up. He takes the evidence to Haveratten (?) to give to Dr. Menza in person.

[Alexa Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murderbot is so funny!! Favorite of the series so far!

[Wendy White · Rating 4 out of 5]

For any Murderbot book, I recommend reading the original first (either as text or via Kevin R. Free's fantastic, expressive narration of the unabridged audio book) but the dramatised versions are fun just to mix things up, especially if you re-read this series regularly, like I do!

5 stars for the original work, 4 stars for dramatised just because sometimes the sfx take me out of the story rather than immersing me. However, of the three dramatised versions, I think this has the most seamless sfx - maybe the next book will be the one where I give the dramatised version 5 stars too!

[karenbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for Rogue Protocol, three stars for the dramatized adaptation format. It sounds polished with all the extra voices and sound effects, I guess, but that polish means I'm even more thrown when Murderbot pronounces freight like "fright," for example. It's a fun format but it doesn't work for me.

I might try a standard audiobook at some point, but I think I like Murderbot better inside my head. You know what I mean.

[Emma Demopoulos · Rating 3 out of 5]

The mixing of this book was off, sometimes the music got distracting or too loud. [much like most tv shows and movies these days, so I guess they succeeded in making it "like a movie"]. Also, I noticed a significant change in run time for Rogue Protocol versus the other two. Not exactly sure what they cut, but an hour less seems like a lot.

[LeMarc · Rating 5 out of 5]

🥹 once you start caring, it's hard to stop !!

[Briget Colina · Rating 5 out of 5]

😭😭😭😭😭😭

[Ah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great adventure! So many fantastic moments that made me chuckle and one that definitely made me tear up.

[NewHampsterCommuter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is still five stars, though this dramatized adaptation is not my favorite. I appreciate that they made it, but I still recommend the Kevin Free audiobook.

[Kaora · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.75/5 I loved this one so much

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

"No matter how alone you feel, there are always people who care. You just have to let them in."