Mickey Zucker Reichert sold three novels to Susan Allison at Berkley via agents Robert Gottlieb and John Silbersack at the Trident Media Group. The books, to be written as “collaborations” with Isaac Asimov (1920-92) will be the beginning of a new series called Robots and Chaos. The books will “explore the early life of Susan Calvin as she undergoes the pressures of her medical internship while facing the unexpected scientific challenges of a near-future world grappling with the very concept of what it is to be human in a high-stakes, suspenseful chase to save society as we know it.” Gottlieb tells us the books will be “a combination of science fiction and medical thriller involving robots.”
Gottlieb also says that Trident recently sold film rights to a second I, Robot property to Fox.
Reichert is best known as a fantasy author, particularly for her Renshai Trilogy (which had at least five other sequels). She’s also the author of the five-book Bifrost Guardians series, and several others.
Other authors who’ve written posthumous collaborations with Asimov include Roger MacBride Allen (who wrote three robot novels, the outlines of which Asimov approved before his death), Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, and David Brin (who wrote new Foundation novels), and Robert Silverberg (who novelized shorter Asimov works in Nightfall, The Ugly Little Boy, and The Positronic Man). In addition, there have been several series based on his robot stories, including the Robot City series, the Robots and Aliens series and the Robots in Time series.