This book was right up my ally! I love a good casual sci-fi read but this also encompassed police procedurals. I also found that the plague wiping out human population and robots now ruling to be interesting. It was a fast read

I’ve decided to DNF this book around page 109. It’s not that it was bad, but I found myself really losing interest. It seems like a good procedural type of mystery with a slight futuristic bent toward it, but it just wasn’t catching my fancy. The writing style is very short and informational, and the characters are a little unlikable.

I even went ahead and skip to the end and didn’t really find anything that made me want to know how it happened so i’m going to go ahead and skip this one.

It may appeal to you if you like more hard-boiled crime type stories and don’t mind a little bit of science fiction window dressing.

‼️There is quite a bit of language in this one and references to sex which also was part of why I was less interested in it.

Thanks to the publisher for this gifted copy.

The world of this book was so well developed and fascinating, and the mystery had me gripped until the end. I found the protagonist a bit of a headache, and not in the way that I like my characters to be headaches. However, that balanced out with the things I liked about this book enough for me to follow him around.

Ariel S. Winter creates a compelling dystopian world, one that envisions the bleak state of humanity, where humans have almost gone extinct, with A.I dominating the landscape. This is where the title comes in, since remaining humans flock to what they call preserves, as they try to lead a semblance of a normal life, very much aware that the status quo isn’t in their favour. As I flipped page after page, I was plagued by one question: how did it get this way?

What I like about Winter’s book is that he doesn’t hit us with blinding hot exposition from the get-go, which is what a lot of authors feel compelled to do in sci-fi – set up the world before filling it with the characters. Winter throws us right into the midst of things, with our protagonist Chief Laughton investigating a murder, and as we follow him around and observe his interactions, we start to get a feel of this world, which is a world recovering from a series of plagues. I am about thirty percent into the book when I discover that it’s risky for humans to live like this, congregating on a preserve, living in such dangerous proximity to one another.

This hits a little too close to home, as we consider the social distancing that has become a part of our lives, and the similar anxiety we get about social contact. In The Preserve, donning surgical masks are mandatory when you step into a hospital; look at us, masks are now mandatory everywhere we go, our human faces so covered up that we find ourselves becoming distant to all that we know, so detached that we barely recognise others and ourselves anymore. This is supposed to be a dystopian, a speculative kind of fiction, but it is a what-if exercise that is strangely enough the reality we currently live in. It is certainly some twisted kind of fate that Winter has released a book like this in a year like 2020.

With humanity having to deal with the shattering consequence of these plagues, this is how A.I came to dominate the landscape, since they are immune to sickness. But because robots are built to simulate the human experience, they are unable to escape the vices that come along with this affliction, as Laughton discovers that murder victim is basically an A.I drug dealer. His job gets even harder – it is bad enough that there is a murder, especially one done on a preserve, but the complications are increasingly compounded as we realise that the victim might be connected to a series of A.I deaths as well.

This revelation brings Laughton’s former partner Kir (who is A.I) back onto the preserve, and the two work the case together, adding a buddy cop dynamic to the mix. The two play off each other in a familiar way, but there are also the familiar gripes – for all the banter, Kir is still A.I, even if he does pass for human in many ways. While Laughton may like Kir, and even grudgingly enjoy his presence sometimes, there is some sense of unease in his interactions with the A.I, as there always is when one group has power and advantage over the other.

Despite the futuristic aspect of Winter’s novel, the way the investigation is carried out gives off a very old school detective kind of vibe, where Laughton and Kir track down leads, interview witnesses, as we try to figure out who the culprit or culprits could be. I like that Winter doesn’t have the A.I make fast work of the case, which is sometimes a preoccupation in fiction where the technology has superseded our times – as Back to the Future has proven, not everything can be possible even if the technology is more advanced.

The Preserve doesn’t feel like a standalone novel, and I am not sure if Winter is setting up the novel to be the first in a possible series, where we follow Laughton on his various investigations. I do hope that the fiction Winter envisioned never becomes a reality, though I do take away from the novel the idea that despite the tragedies faced, we don’t completely succumb to it, working towards rebuilding what we used to have despite the challenges. Similarly, as we walk away from 2020, his novel is a reminder that we can hope to recover what we have lost – I ardently hope we succeed.

This story is fast-paced and an easy read. The world is quickly established enough to understand, and the central rime quickly envelopes the story, making it hard to consider everything else—characterization, setting, back story, etc. I found it hard to really understand or care about Laughton, the main character. His characterization is pretty stereotypically 'gruff cop man,' which isn't a bad thing, but we aren't given enough information about his past to full understand him (or understand his face injury or some of his thinking behind certain decisions). I wish more backstory was introduced throughout the book.

Also, I noticed some odd writing errors in the manuscript. I do hope these errors were corrected prior to publication, otherwise the writing just appears juvenile and clunky. Tense was used irregularly, and names and nicknames were interchanged quite oddly in sentences. It was definitely jarring and didn't improve my reading experience.

In what is meant to be a vibrant, exciting story, everything fell a bit flat. If there are any more books in this series or world, I don't think I'll be picking them up. It was a quick read, at least.

If you’re into sci-fi but also love thrillers, this one is for you!
The sci-fi elements were a little too strong fir my preferences but I did like how fast paced this one was!

I have to say, I haven't read many police procedural mysteries with a robot science fiction element. At first I wasn't feeling very bought into the story and finding it hard to come to find my way around this dystopian world but I ended up consuming this whole read in one sitting!

In a futuristic world where robots have become the ruling majority, there are sections of land called the Preserve where humans can live with no robot interference. But just nine months later, Chief Jesse Laughton gets the call he's been dreading, there's been a murder on the Preserve. Teaming up with his robot ex-partner from his past, Kir, Laughton begins to uncover secrets that threatens life on the Preserve.

I really liked the mix of robot and human throughout the book. You got the mix of humans who hated robots, robots who hated humans, and some of each side who didn't mind the other; it created a very interesting dynamic for the plot of the story. The who-done-it and why part of the mystery was well done, it certainly kept me guessing until the end. Chief's dynamic with his family, wife Betty & daughter Erica, seemed off to me. It felt more like a forced relationship where the two ended up just somewhat caring for one another in the end but still annoyed they had to raise a child. There was also some interchangeable terms that occurred in the book that happened at times where I felt like it took away from the momentum of the plot. Interchanging things like last names with first names of the characters (Jesse/Laughton) or interchanging terms for a race (Cyborg/Robot/Metal). Also, there was the deal with the extreme pain Chief Laughton felt on his face that never really got addressed. All in all, it packed a punch for a short book and I would certainly recommend it to those looking for a good robot science fiction with a mystery twist!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria/Emily Bestler Books for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

The description of this sci-fi dystopian crime thriller really intrigued me.
AI robots now rule the world after a plague wiped out most of the human population.
Chief of Police Jesse Laughton lives in the SoCar Preserve, in the town of Liberty, near Charleston, South Carolina. He lives with his wife Betty, who runs a school and has developed a fertility program to help re-populate civilization. They have an eight year old daughter named Erica.
The machines have designated human preserves where people can live without robot interference.
But the peace is shattered by a murder.
Laughton needs to clear the case before the robots decide to use it as ammunition against the preserve and close it down.
HIs old partner Kir, a robot, now working at The Department of Health and Human Services, comes to town to help him investigate.
Hopefully, working together they can solve the crime and save the sanctuary.
The story was a bit slow moving and focused mostly on the crime. I would have liked more about what was happening in the rest of the world.
What I really did enjoy were the characters, especially Jesse and Kir. Their relationship and the camaraderie between them was so fun to read about and very engaging.
I think this has the makings of a fascinating series.
Thank you Atria/Emily Bestler Books for the e-ARC via NetGalley.
3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

Sadly, this book didn’t work for me. I had high hopes in the beginning, but it fell apart after that. It started off with a really cool concept - reminded me a bit of Westworld and a lot of Altered Carbon. I‘m always drawn to genre-bending stories. Unfortunately, the execution left something to be desired.

For one, there wasn’t anything very unique about the characters. And the main character’s family in particular confused me. The wife (and sometimes the husband) were constantly annoyed with their young daughter. The wife is passionate about convincing others to procreate & continue the human race, but she can’t stand her own daughter? Odd. And the husband just seemed indifferent to them most of the time.

Additionally, the sparse, hard-boiled prose was very readable at first, but it started to feel more jumbled as the story went on. The progression from one action or thought to the next was sometimes tough to follow, and the dialogue didn’t feel natural.

In the end, I was hoping for more world-building, stronger characters, and a more intriguing mystery.

**Thank you to Atria books for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review!

#The Preserve by author # Ariel S. Winter is a wonderful novel. A unique story that will raise questions...and to get the answers you will stay up all night!! A mixture of science fiction and murder mystery. For the full review go to Instagram Maddie_approves_book_reviews this week please.🌟🐾🐾
Thank you,
#Netgalley, # Ariel S. Winter, and # Atria publishing for the advanced copy

An intriguing concept that, for me, was not fully realized. The Preserve is a dystopian murder mystery with many elements of contemporary problems transformed by shifting the power from human to AI. It is interesting that the author refers to "robots" rather than AI, and that the most likable character is Kir, the robot partner of the Preserve police chief Jesse Laughton.

Because the robots are so human in their character flaws of prejudice and addiction, it is difficult to think of them as "not human."

Although an interesting police procedural, perhaps the most provocative aspect for me is...what is left out. The book jumps into a situation with no background or history. A little historical explanation would have been nice, if not at the beginning, at least at some point.

Kir's mechanical body blends with humans, and his brain has all of the complex, moral, and empathetic qualities we would hope for (and are often missing from) genuine humans. The only real difference between humans and AI, as presented in the novel, is that their bodies don't bleed. The movements and abilities are the same and function physically as efficiently as humans. Their "brains" also function much as in humans--with good or bad opinions and intentions.

I had all kinds of questions as I read, more questions than answers. Sometimes, however, raising questions is enough to make a book worthwhile.

NetGalley/Atria Books

Dystopian/Police Procedural. Nov. 3, 2020. Print length: 256 pages.

We open on a distant future where various plagues have decimated the human population and humans are now the minority. Complex AIs, which are Robots that are indistinguishable from humans, have taken over and are the ruling majority. 9 months ago the robot government in a controversial move opened a series of preserves for the remaining humans who choose to live their lives without robot interference. But when someone is found murdered at the SoCar Preserve, this gives the various factions that are opposed to the preserves and humans governing themselves, a reason to try and get them shut down. The Chief of Police Jessie Laughton is assigned to the case and while investigating the murder, he gets information about a string of robots dying after using a bad drug-like program that may have originated from the SoCar Preserve. When he finds out his murder victim is a hacker who wrote drug-like programs it appears the cases are linked. Laughton’s former partner Kir, who is a robot arrives to assist with the case since he is investigating the string of robots dying.

This was really interesting premise. I really liked that it was mostly a police procedural and not really focused on any sci-fi elements except that there were robots everywhere and people where the minority. It was a pretty short read and my only complaint is that we just get dropped into to this world only knowing that humans are an endangered species and robots rule the earth. We don’t really get to know how the humans ended up the minority and who built the robots and how they ended up ruling the world. It was really fast read and the mystery was good. I didn’t guess who the bad guy was and it kept me guessing so that was fun. I have gotten too good at figuring out who the bad guy is before I should with the last string of mysteries I have read. All in all, a fast and interesting read.

Thanks to Atria and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this book in e-book form. All opinions in this review are my own.

Thank you Atria for my copy!

I originally had this at 3 1/2 stars, but after stewing on it, I knocked a half star off because I realized that I pretty much instantly forgot about it.

Maybe it's just my mood right now, but it was just blahhhh.

As someone who reads A LOT of thrillers, police procedurals and mysteries I thought why not branch out (a little at a time) and add sci-fi to the mix. If you read a lot of the sci-fi genre you might find it interesting, but it was a smidge weird for me.

That aside it's a police procedural. With robots.

It's a fast read! Excellent concept and good setting, just not for me I guess.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for providing me with an advance copy in return for an honest review.
I put off reading this one because part of the premise of this book was that it was set in a future where humans were a minority because of a series of plagues that had killed most of us off, leaving robots as the ruling majority. With the COVID pandemic being part of our current reality, it felt a little too close to home, even if we haven't yet created robots on the level of The Preserve (or died off like the book's universe's humans). That being said, the premise itself is an interesting one, and I would be interested in reading more stories set in this universe.
Overall I enjoyed the story and found myself wanting to get back to it in order to find out what happened. It reminded me somewhat of John Scalzi's Lock In with the human-robot police procedural format, but much darker in tone. That being said, I had a hard time following the second half of the story and felt like there were things being left out in the story that make it difficult to track all the ins-and-outs of the narrative. I wanted to know what happened to the Chief's face, which never got explained, and also wanted more information on Kir's background. The story felt a little rushed in those respects, but like I said, I would be interested in more stories set in the same universe in order to get more background for the setting. However, the overall story was engaging and I wanted to find out what happened.

A unique sci-fi read, but that's not really my thing. Requested this book by mistake. I skimmed through most of it.

The Preserve by Ariel Winter is an original story that captivates the casual sci-fi reader. It also manages to incorporate the finest elements of procedurals which is very difficult to do, think of Winters and his Last Policeman trilogy.

As the story opens human beings have been relegated to living in what is called a preserve. It is here where humans can live as normal a life as possible. The preserve has been created because chillingly enough the majority of the human population has been wiped out due to a virus. Artificial intelligence robots enforce government regulations and service the preserve. The human survivors of the virus go about their business until a murder takes place. The crime brings unwanted attention to the Preserve and its inhabitants are now being closely monitored by the police force. The police and humans face many problems that human beings and police face in the current world. The Preserve brings together the best elements of sci-fi and procedural that will leave readers aching for more.

The concept was incredibly promising and it’s a rather short novel (about 240 pages) but I wish there had been...more. This was definitely more police procedural than sci-fi, and I wanted more background on the plague and how robots took over. I also feel that it was too dialogue heavy, so that I didn’t get to know or care about the characters, and I didn’t feel part of the story. I ended up losing focus and I didn’t find anything particularly unique or memorable about this book. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦 had a great concept but I ended up being disappointed. I think you’d enjoy this one if you want a short police procedural.⁣

In a world where robots have taken over, humans are kept on preserves. When there's a murder on one of these preserves, a police chief and his former AI partner investigate the crime. It was an interesting concept. Unfortunately, this isn't a usual genre for me, and I had trouble connecting with the characters/story. Thank you to the publisher for a copy of this book!

This one was a DNF for me at 22%. I felt there wasn’t enough backstory as to why there were preserves. Like what happened for this to be needed? The lack of backstory and explanation made me not care about the book.

So. I don't know. This book was okay??? I was initially drawn to the very sci-fi premise but the actual execution of this story is more a police story?? Where one of the detectives just happens to be a robot. And that's it??? That's literally all the sci-fi there was to this??

I guess what I wanted from this was more world building. This could've easily been longer and explained the plague that wiped out half of humans and how robots came to power (got all of that information from the premise, btw, not the actual book...) and THEN thrown in the murder and the investigation.

Because as it stands, this felt like a very mediocre "thriller" in a genre full of those. It didn't really stand out except that one of the detectives happened to be a robot. And even that was honestly easy to forget sometimes. If the actual sci-fi themes had been actually explored, I think this could've been a very unique, memorable story. But instead, I suffered through this (though I don't know if it's because I wasn't connecting with this book or if it's because I wasn't in the mood to read it) and just wanted it to be over so I could move on to something else.

So. I know this seems sci-fi but I actually don't think it is. I would classify it as more of a mystery. And even that didn't really ~grab my attention. I think I liked one character in the whole book and I only finished this because it was an arc and I felt I had to.

I think the idea here was super intriguing. I just also felt like none of the interesting ideas presented in the premise were actually explored. This needed way more world building and more sci-fi with the murder/police mystery taking the background not the foreground. This was super short and I think it definitely could've been longer and expanded on those themes and it would've been way better. But as it stands, I'm just glad I'm finally finished and can move on to something else.

Thanks to Netgalley and Atria for allowing me to read this in exchange for an honest review!