The Hermes Protocol by Chris M. Arnone is set in a futuristic world and
time, and is about an Intel agent who is assigned a standard heist
operation, but it turns out to be much bigger than she could have ever
imagined. Elise Corto-Intel is an intelligence agent for the Corto
Corporation. Her job is to break into highly classified and secured
areas and retrieve items for her handlers. Elise is assigned a new heist
which should have been a routine job for her. When Elise breaks into
the safe and opens the package she sees a tiny microchip. She doesn’t
think anything of it until a mysterious voice greets her on her private
communication network.
Elise is bewildered and confused because no one should have access
to her private network. It turns out the microchip she was assigned to
steal housed an artificial intelligence being, named Bastion. In Elise’s
world artificial intelligence is banned and considered a threat. Elise
could be in serious trouble just knowing that Bastion exists; having the
AI could bring graver consequences.
Elise is torn on whether or not to let her team know that she has
the chip and its contents. She decides to turn the chip in against her
better judgment. She thought she would be able to wash her hands clean
of the situation until their vault was compromised and the microchip was
stolen. Elise becomes the prime suspect as she is the last person to
leave their secured vault. Elise is desperate to figure out who is
behind the theft and clear her name before she loses everything she
holds dearly.
This was my first time reading a novel in the cyberpunk science
fiction genre. I am on the fence because the book was an okay read but I
felt like it missed the mark a few times. The story felt repetitive
because Elise mentioned every single time how her mechanical body parts
were superior to her biological body parts. I feel like that was stating
the obvious since the world was more technologically advanced than our
present times. If the author had felt the need to reinforce the fact I
felt it would have been fine once or twice but not more than that.
The author gets repetitive for other things as well. He explains
basic common concepts over and over again. Some of the ideas could have
been easily understood given previous context and didn’t need the
additional time explaining it. I felt like the time would have been
better spent world building.
Elise was a complicated protagonist. At times I thought she was
clever and acted quickly on her feet. Then there are times where she
gets beaten so badly that you can’t help but wonder why she is an
intelligence agent and not a punching bag. I felt like most of the
battles she loses on physical prowess but she comes up with a clever
solution to get out of the situation. The book ends with a possibility
for more books in the future but I don’t think this book made a strong
case to read more books in the series.
**Disclosure - I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest opinion**
