The Dead Earth Protocol by Graeme Butler: A Book Review

Synopsis

The Dead Earth Protocol opens with Gordon Onyango, a young man in a subterranean Mars colony on the day he learns his assigned role in the settlement. He scores his dream job, only to be pulled away by his mother, who warns him she is in serious trouble. She disappears shortly after, seized by the planet’s controlling organisation and tortured for information about a rebel group she is connected to called the First Olympians. When the rebel leader Dalrene hacks the room’s systems and seals it to prevent her from talking, suffocating her in the process, Gordon is left orphaned. Dalrene takes him under her wing, and he joins the rebels.

On the surface, a bomb Gordon plants destroys not bots but people. The only survivor is Alex, the daughter of the CEO of the commercial organisation that runs the Mars colony. Alex has had no idea that her father’s company has been keeping thousands of people alive underground as an unpaid labour force, mining Mars’s resources to send back to Earth. Horrified, she allies herself with Gordon. Their escape from Mars, and what they do with the truth Alex carries, is the engine of the second half of the book.

My review

The Dead Earth Protocol began as a dream – literally. Butler revealed to me that the initial concept came to him in a dream so vivid he couldn’t shake it for months, and that writing a short story was the only way to get it out of his head. That short story became a novel. Six years later, and here we are. Butler also describes himself as a techno-optimist, someone who genuinely believes technology can be a net good for humanity. A contrast to the book’s AI-controlled, corporately oppressed world.

The Dead Earth Protocol sits at an interesting intersection of science fiction traditions. The terraforming detail, the mechanics of living under the Martian surface, the air systems, the muscle-loss protocols required for low gravity — has the grounded specificity of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Red Mars. The colonial slavery premise and the revolutionary structure have the propulsive moral energy of The Hunger Games. And the loneliness of Gordon’s existence but his eventual friendship with Alex, carries something of the quiet alienation of The Left Hand of Darkness.

The book speaks to systemic oppression and how ordinary people become complicit in it.

The characters at the centre are well-intentioned. Gordon is a believable protagonist; grieving, angry, trying to do the right thing in a situation with no clean options.

Where the book is less certain is in its secondary characters and some of its plot mechanics. There are threads that are raised and not fully resolved, and a handful of characters who function more as plot devices. Though these do not significantly undermine the central story, which moves at a good pace.

Three stars is an honest rating for a debut with real strengths.

What I liked / what I didn’t

What I liked

The premise is strong. The corporate villain, a company (and its CEO), feels prescient.

Gordon and Alex are likeable leads and their dynamic develops organically.

The world-building is well-grounded (pun not intended).

What I didn’t

Some under-developed secondary characters and some narrative threads that are introduced and not fully resolved.

Final verdict

The Dead Earth Protocol is an ambitious debut.

Three stars and worth a read if you enjoy dystopian science fiction.

Preorder at Amazon Australia or visit Graeme’s website for more information. Available from 1 December 2026.

Where can I read it?