Thoughts
The Preserve is such an interesting concept. A Sci-Fi murder mystery? Yes Please!
In the future, most of the human population has been wiped out by a plague. Robots now run the world and humans are in the minority. Set in the US, Preserves have been created as human only areas. Within the Preserves, humans work together to continue their way of life while also working to keep from dying out. Ex Baltimore detective Jesse Laughton is the current Chief of Police of the South Carolina Preserve. Him along with his wife, who runs the sites fertility center, are hoping to raise their daughter with as much human influence as possible.
Our story begins when a known ‘sims’ maker is found murdered. Sims are basically robots form of drugs, so utlimately he’s a drug dealer. There has never been a murder on the Preserve until now, and Jesse’s quite Chief of Police job has ended. Instead he finds himself caught in the middle between humans and robots, and it’s up to him to catch the culprit before robots take over the The Preserve for good.
The premise sounds so good, and I felt this book had so much potential that it didn’t live up to. It’s a fairly short book so I wish it would have been a 100 pages longer and more fully fleshed out. The story felt a big rushed and I still have so many questions. Why did Jesse have so much face/head pain? How do humans live outside the preserve? How are robots running society? What type of plague? What year is it? So many questions and not enough answers for me.
I did enjoy the relationship between Kir (Jesse’s ex robot police partner) and Jesse, but that was the only relationship that had any substance behind it. Besides this relationship, I found it hard to keep track of characters because I really didn’t care about any of them and details around them were scares.
The Preserve was an enjoyable short read, but ultimately it needed more for me. If robots and dystopian crime novels are of interest to you, maybe give it a try. This book is out now, get it HERE!
I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on The Preserve If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof_books. Huge thank you to Atria for my eARC!
