About five years has passed since the New Law robots were put to work at Purgatory to assist with the terraforming effort for Inferno. Alvar Kresh won the election for governor and ended up choosing a dual terraforming system combining a positronics with a super computer. In an unexpected turn, Kresh ended up marrying Fredda Leving. Initially I thought that they made a rather odd couple, but I think Allen did a good job of handling their relationship throughout this book. The main plot Utopia revolves around a plan by a scientist to harness a comet and blow it apart to dig a huge channel from the southern ocean to the frozen northern ice cap which would otherwise be impossible by conventional means.

The argument for this drastic measure is that the existing terraforming effort will fail much sooner than expected. In just a few years the surface of the planet might not be habitable. That probably wouldn’t be a problem for Settlers since they prefer their underground buildings, but for Spacers it would pose a serious problem. The comet plan might sound plausible given the combined efforts of the Spacers and Settlers, but there are many that don’t want this to happen. Many fear that something will go wrong and the planet will be destroyed. Also, how will robots allow such a task to take place given the nature of the Three Laws? Will robots allow a comet to hit the planet? Allen answers this in unexpected, yet plausible ways which I’ll leave you to uncover.

One thing that I didn’t notice until this book in the series was that Allen had not really addressed the fundamental differences between Spacers and Settlers. In chapter 4 he explains that Spacers age much more slowly than Settlers. There were no precautions such as nose plugs or aversions to touching for fear of infection that you’d normally expect a Spacer to exhibit toward others. Possibly by this point they treat Settlers differently than Earthmen or have better less obvious protections which Allen doesn’t explain.

I think the reason I liked this book much better than the last was that there were many small mysteries. There was the main question of whether or not the comet plan would work, but the ancillary plots which came along were intertwined rather nicely. The pieces start to fall together bit by bit rather than the abrupt fashion from the last book. There was a definite “ending” to the series, although a bit cheesy, which tied everything back together.

The New Laws of Robotics
1. A robot may not injure a human being.
2. A robot must cooperate with human beings except where such cooperation would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First Law.
4. A robot may do as it likes, except where such action would violate the First, Second, or Third Laws.

About a year has passed since Caliban was exonerated. The Limbo project is currently using the New Law robots developed by Freda Leving in the hopes of fixing the terraforming problem. Although these robots are equipped with range restrictors to limit them to the island, an illicit smuggling trade has developed which smuggles robots out of Purgatory and helps remove the supposedly infallible restrictors. This criminal enterprise has caused much strain between Spacers and Settlers.

In the hopes of asserting his authority, Governor Chanto Grieg has decided to throw a party his mansion which is located on Purgatory, the home of the Limbo project and the New Law robots. Aside from the grounds of the mansion, the Settlers control the rest of the island. As an act of diplomacy all robots besides are banned from the party and all security is handled by the Governor’s Rangers and Settler Security Service. This of course causes great concern for Alvar Kresh, the Sheriff of Hades. He doesn’t have any authority outside of the city of Hades and thinks that security without robots is a big mistake. Caliban and the New Law robot leader Prospero intend to plead with Governor Grieg after the party.

Unfortunately, Caliban and Prospero appear to be the last to see the Governor alive. With Calaban’s lack of any Laws, he becomes a prime suspect. Also, since Prospero is under no compulsion to prevent any harm to humans, he is also suspected. I had expected another hunt like what occurred back in the last book, but this time the investigation took the form of a more traditional mystery. Alvar Kresh seems to have more faith in the robots than anyone else. Most of the twists and turns don’t seem related until the very end of the book where Kresh gets his brief moment of insight. I was a bit bothered at how quickly and neatly everything was laid out and explained using various clues that Kresh pieced together. With that said, most of the clues are pretty obvious once you think back except for the key one which tied everything together.

While the investigation takes its course there are a couple of passages which I enjoyed. Donald (robot DNL-111) brings up some interesting problems with the Fourth New Law in Chapter 11. He argues that this law causes robots to create desires to consume free time. Possibly this is the reason that many of the New Law robots are trying to flee Purgatory. Roger MacBride Allen appears to be setting himself up with ambiguous Laws in order to exploit them just like Asimov did. In Chapter 11 Caliban and Prospero argue over the requirements for a being to have the right to freedom. Where does one draw the line?

Overall, I think that this was a pretty good book, but I enjoyed the last one a little bit more. I was expecting a lot more focus on robots, but found that the majority of the book covered the various aspects of the Spacer and Settler political conflicts. I’m looking forward to Utopia, since from what I remember focused more on the New Law robots.

I was glad to break into a new series after reading sixteen books with Derec and Ariel as main characters. Roger MacBride Allen brings the robot Caliban to life from “infancy” from when he is first powered up. Caliban awakens with his arm half raised to see the body of a woman laying on the floor, which later turns out to be his creator Fredda Leving. If Caliban was a normal robot he would have sent for help immediately, but unfortunately he was created lacking the infamous Three Laws of Robotics. Instead, Caliban investigates the scene briefly and then ventures out to explore this new unfamiliar world.

The rest of the novel revolves around Caliban’s exploration of the city Hades, on the 49th Spacer colony of Inferno. This planet is unique because Settlers have been brought in to hopefully fix the terraforming project on this planet. Caliban soon finds himself the subject of a “robot bashing” but manages to escape but not without injuring several Settlers in the process. Sheriff Alvar Kresh heads up the investigation to track down this rogue robot which seems to be the only suspect in the attack against Fredda Leving.

I particularly like that Caliban’s thought process in this book isn’t just a bunch of computations and logic like Bogard’s was in the Tiedemann Trilogy (Mirage, Chimera, Aurora). After all, Bogard was only able to shunt Three Law violations. Caliban’s thoughts flow out like you would expect a normal person to think, but just a bit more logical in nature. It is very interesting to see how he evolves as a thinking being over the course of the book. I also enjoyed Freda Leving’s speech in Chapter 14 on the analysis of the Three Laws. I’m also a bit surprised that I still couldn’t remember the ending of this book although I read this before many years ago. All I can say is that the clues are much more visible in retrospect after things start to fall into place. I think this book proves that it doesn’t hurt to read a book more than once, especially if it has been a while.