Mickey Zucker Reichert

Nate, has been Manhattan Hasbro Hospital's resident robot for more than twenty years. Nate's very existence terrified most people, leaving the robot utilized for menial tasks and generally ignored. Until one of the hospital's physicians is found murdered with Nate standing over the corpse. As programmer of Nate's brain, Lawrence Robertson is responsible for his creation and arrested for the crime. Susan Calvin knows the Three Laws of Robotics make it impossible for Nate to harm a human. But maybe someone manipulated the laws to commit murder.

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot to Preserve

Maggie Gordon

** spoiler alert **
           I have enjoyed the Calvin trilogy thus far and been okay with the changes made to canon given how technology has changed in the intervening decades. However, I just could not connect with this final book. Right at the start of the novel, Susan meets a stranger who she falls in love with quite quickly. Given what we know about Susan's character, this felt out of character for her. She's been traumatized and has had everyone she's loved ripped away from her already. Given the fact that she isolated herself from her remaining friends, it seemed unlikely that she would be so quick to consort with a new person.

However, my biggest problem with this book was that it unsuccessfully mirrors one of the strongest Calvin stories: Liar, Liar. In To Preserve, there is a lot of conversation about how could Susan's new beau couldn't possibly love her given her plainness and his incredible handsomeness. Susan was rightfully put out by these comments, and pushed her friends away for making them. In Liar, Liar, a robot leads Susan to believe that one of her coworkers is attracted to her. It makes sense in context for a lonely woman who has denied herself personal relationships to be led astray by a being that she believes can't possibly lie. To see her realise what has happened and watch her hopes be dashed is heart wrenching. In To Preserve, however, this emotional heartache feels too unearned. Younger Susan is brilliant and not entirely separated from other people. People respect her and she interacts with people, at the very least, on the job. Older Susan seems much more isolated in comparison, and Liar, Liar says a lot about the choices she's made throughout her life. To Protect wants to crush its protagonist just to get her to isolate herself. It's too convenient and plot-driven rather than natural character progression. 

I should also note that the way that Susan's friends were pushed out of her life was unsatisfying. Given Susan's lonely future, it makes sense that her personal connections would be cut before her time at the USR, but killing one and commenting that she just wouldn't be seeing one now that he worked for the government felt too convenient and not grounded in the narrative. 

Unfortunately, To Preserve was the weakest book in the trilogy, giving readers a lackluster end to younger Susan's adventures.

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot to Preserve

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