Isaac Asimov's I, Robot Books in Order

Mickey Zucker Reichert's I, Robot trilogy imagines the early career of Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist from Isaac Asimov's robot stories. These books are authorized prequels that place Calvin in a near-future Manhattan where medicine, robotics, and public fear of technology collide.

The series begins in 2035 with To Protect. Susan is starting her medical residency at Manhattan Hasbro Hospital, where selected patients receive experimental nanobot treatment designed to map and unlock the human mind. When troubling events begin to surround the program, Susan sees danger that the people above her would rather ignore. Her medical training makes her observant, but it also puts her close to the people and systems at risk.

Reichert uses the hospital setting as more than background. It is a place where new tools can save lives, expose private thoughts, or become dangerous in the wrong hands. Susan has to deal with demanding training, grief, family history, and the suspicion that powerful people want to turn advanced technology toward violent ends.

To Obey moves Susan into her second year of psychiatric residency. A violent crime brings old questions about her parents' deaths and her father's robotics work back to the surface. At the same time, she is caught between anti-technology vigilantes and extremists who want to use technology for mass killing. Neither side offers a safe answer.

The final novel, To Preserve, centers on Nate, a humanoid robot who has worked at the hospital for years. When a physician is murdered and Nate is found at the scene, his creator is blamed. Susan knows the Three Laws of Robotics should make murder impossible, so proving the truth means considering whether someone has found a way to manipulate the laws themselves.

The trilogy is science fiction with the pace and structure of a medical and political thriller. It asks familiar robot-story questions about consciousness, ethics, and trust, while keeping the action close to Susan's personal life. Her work is never separate from the danger around her.

Start with To Protect and read in order. Susan's relationships, losses, and growing understanding of robotics carry directly through all three books.