An android serial killer, a woman who brought him back, and a world where robots refuse to obey the law. Now they've gone rogue, and nobody knows who's an android and who's human anymore.
Sam's supposed to be dead, but Cassie changes that. Cassie loves Alex, but thinks she lost him. Meanwhile, the police want once-serial-killer robot Sam erased—permanently erased. Yet Sam has promised not to kill again, and Cassie believes him. Someone is causing chaos, but who? And why?
Cathy Parker's ROBOT: A Story of Love and Trust (The Series Robot and Love, Book 2) creates a science fiction world where androids and humans co-exist and not everyone knows the difference. Cassidy was sure that robots couldn't lie, yet she understands that truth itself can be ambiguous. In this world, knowing the truth can be the difference between life and death. In ROBOT, androids are bound to instruction rather than justice, and some will obey orders even though they know what's right. The result can be absolute mayhem: “He burst into the operating room, dashed to the operating table, scooped up Cassidy in his arms, quickly disconnecting various needles, tubes, and monitoring devices, and ran.”
Robots move (extremely) fast, pulling the reader through a landscape of isolated farmhouses and warehouses on the outskirts of town: locations that amplify every scene’s sense of loneliness, vulnerability, and the fragility of trust. Androids are forming their own minds here, disobeying orders, and taking over. The language is raw, human, and so immediate that the text swings from headlong action to tenderness and longing.
The one area where readers may want more is interiority. Characters react in real time, and their actions are gripping, but readers rarely find out any hidden motives or self-reflections. Motivations live in what they do, rather than how they see or position themselves within their worlds. Given how compelling these people are in motion, the novel would only gain from letting us deeper inside—even briefly. Love, sacrifice, trust, and desperation are all present, but they're largely experienced more through action than reflection.
This is the second book in the series, though it reads comfortably as a standalone novel. Parker also recaps enough of the first book to help newcomers orient themselves, a thoughtful structural choice. For readers who prefer action over introspection, ROBOT fully delivers a world crackling with android rebellion and human desperation.
ROBOT: A Story of Love and Trust (The Series Robot and Love, Book 2) is gripping, entertaining, and hard to put down. Cathy Parker has created a science fiction novel that sweeps readers along like a video game where every action counts.
—Nicci Attfield for IndieReader