Daniel H. Wilson

Two decades into the future humans are battling for their very survival when a powerful AI computer goes rogue, and all the machines on earth rebel against their human controllers.

Robopocalypse

Sarah Sammis

Robopocalypse by Daniel H Wilson opens like destruction of Cselkcess from Fullmetal Alchemist. A scientist researching artificial intelligence / artificial life unleashes something he can't control.

That something who goes on to call himself Archos, goes on to control all the computerized technology that is wirelessly connected. The first part of the book outlines how Archos tests the computer technology, slowly but surely building his network and his army.

Humans across the world start to take notice and the book follows a few of the major heroes of the human / robot wars. The action jumps from place to place but in chronological order. The different transcripts are set up by Cormac Wallace. As these were chapters were set up to be audio transcripts, listening to the book on audio (even performed by a solo actor) made sense.

For me Robopocalypse was long needed slap to the three laws of robotics. While early on there is some naive trust of the machinery and robots, the most observant of the humans begin to put two and two together. Robots, like any other software driven thing, can be hacked.

Like Hiromu Arakawa's Fullmetal Alchemist, unusual alliances develop as the war progresses. In place of the homunculi, there are the man made robots and other computer driven technology. Then there come the chimera, or in this case, the transhumans. Finally, like Grin and Selim, there are those robots who supersede their original programming and begin to act on their own. With their free will comes a chance to co-exist with the transhumans and humans.

Roughly twenty years from now, our technological marvels unite and turn against us. A childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online…and kills the man who created it. This first act of betrayal leads Archos to gain control over the global network of machines and technology that regulates everything from transportation to utilities, defense, and communications. In the early months, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans - from a senator and single mother disconcerted by her daughter's "smart" toys, to a lonely Japanese bachelor, to an isolated U.S. soldier - but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is far too late. Then, in the span of minutes, at a moment known later in history as Zero Hour, every mechanical device in our world rebels, setting off the Robot War that both decimates and - for the first time in history - unites humankind.

Lynette Pedersen

This book is pretty disturbing. It made me want to throw all my computers out the window and move waaaaay way off the grid. Beyond that aspect of the story, I was really blown away by Wilson's depiction of the Osage (and one Cherokee) characters. Specifically, chapter 4 in part two is surprisingly moving and really highlights why the OwnVoices movement is so important. 

Having said that, there are a couple things that inspired me to hold back that last star. First, I had a hard time with the weird narrative structure--Cormac is supposed to be the one transcribing these events as they are played back from the box, but we get most pieces in first person and never in Cormac's voice except for his own pieces. If all the narratives are going to be delivered as a novel why have Cormac be the one "writing" the stories at all? I can understand the underlying need for a survivor to be telling the story, but I'm not really sure I'm on board with Cormac being quite so artistic with telling the history of the war. I like Cormac, and he is a pretty good Everyman character, so why not just give us the whole narrative in Cormac's voice? I liked this story better, but World War Z did the whole reporting vignette narrative thing in a more submersive and convincing way. 

My other issues are with some of the characters that loom large in one section or another only to drop out of the narrative completely in others. Thinking on it (and realizing there is a sequel), this is probably completely on purpose, and it totally makes sense. I just don't like it. I definitely want more of Nomura's story, and I want to know what happened to both Paul Blanton and Mathilda Perez after the war. SpoilerI'm also a little mad that Lark died "off-screen" and with little ceremony. That character deserved to survive, and if he absolutely had to die it should have been more noble than shambling onto the scene as a robo-meat-puppet. Still, my beefs are fairly small in the grand scheme of things, and maybe I'll get what I want from the "missing" characters in Robogensis, which I am totally going to read. Like, right now.

Lisa Maqubela

I read this in 2018, I genuinely enjoyed it. I think I might read again to see if I still like it

Mahasin S Ameen

Admittedly, I'm one of seven people who actually liked Terminator: Rise of the Machines. I'm not sure if it was because Nick Stahl never looks like he bathes, or the plucky, "I'm my own woman, but I'm also Daddy's girl, and this randomly hot guy's woman too" Claire Danes, but I loved that movie. I think it was an interesting (and likely accurate) way a person who had been told they were going to be the leader of the free world. I don't know about you, but I'd run in the opposite direction too.

If Terminator: Rise of the Machines taught us only one thing, it is that the robot uprising is inevitable. In Robopocalypse, Skynet is instead Archos, a computer program that breaks free and begins controlling the robot masses. Told as a compilation of events that deal with the events before, during and after the Robot uprising, Robopocalypse is the story of what happens between the first moment the robot uprising starts, and the moments that it ends.

Amazing book, I can't believe it took me so long to finish it.

Robopocalypse

Reviews