Just a quick thought. Brockmann's syory takes place in the same time as the In Death series. Yet Robb's mostly optimistic and progressive view of the future is vastly different than Brockmann's world dominated by corporatized government, high unemployment, illegal birth control and more. Yes, both of their political views come through and while I believe they have similar worldviews, their individual visions of the future as portrayed in their futuristic worlds are vastly different.
More thoughts on the romance etc coming up in a full review on the blog.