Robopocalypse

A Novel

By: Daniel H. Wilson

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

Length: 12 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

They are in your house. They are in your car. They are in the skies…Now they’re coming for you.

In the near future, at a moment no one will notice, all the dazzling technology that runs our world will unite and turn against us. Taking on the persona of a shy human boy, a childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online and assumes control over the global network of machines that regulate everything from transportation to utilities, defense and communication. In the months leading up to this, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans – a single mother disconcerted by her daughter’s menacing “smart” toys, a lonely Japanese bachelor who is victimized by his domestic robot companion, an isolated U.S. soldier who witnesses a ‘pacification unit’ go haywire – but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is too late.

When the Robot War ignites -- at a moment known later as Zero Hour -- humankind will be both decimated and, possibly, for the first time in history, united. Robopocalypse is a brilliantly conceived action-filled epic, a terrifying story with heart-stopping implications for the real technology all around us…and an entertaining and engaging thriller unlike anything else written in years.

©2011 Daniel H. Wilson (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

2012, ALA Alex Award, Winner

“Daniel H. Wilson’s Robopocalypse is...an ingenious, instantly visual story of war between humans and robots.” [Janet Maslin, New York Times]

“It’s terrific page-turning fun.” [Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly]

WWZ and The Matrix had a love child

Just not great. Nothing surprising, or compelling. Not exciting. Might be a great movie, but a meh book.

Ridiculous title, worthy story

i really enjoyed this book. I wouldn't have picked it up off the shelf (so to speak) because it looks super tacky. Silly title, clichéd image, even the premise seems dubious. but it was recommended to me and I'm glad it was.

i enjoyed the fragmented, collection of mini stories, structure. the narrator did a good job giving each character a distinct personality.

while in no way ground breaking, this book did create and satisfyingly explore an intriguing scenario. the scenario felt well grounded, so that when it stretched belief at times it never broke it and the resulting experience was delightfully engrossing. i happily entered the only slightly altered reality of the book and stayed there for the whole journey.

The core concept might call to mind William Gibson's 'Wintermute' but this world is, at least before the war, very close to our own. and so the extrapolation of events feels unnervingly believable.

I love scifi for it's ability to explore thought experiments such as how would a 'Robopocalypse' really go down if it happened now, and in doing so explore humanity itself, in all it's heroic glory and ugliness as well. because for all the robots and artificial intelligence, scifi is really about understanding our own humanity.

so if you can look past the jacket, you will be plenty rewarded.

Entertaining, with a few missteps

First, I finished this about a month ago, and when I sat down to add this review, I still hear "MIL # GHA 217," which was said at the beginning and end of EVERY chapter. Annoying, after a while. Okay, there's the nitpick. This book was very obviously trying to be World War Rob, and many of the first person recounts were solid and entertaining. The plot moved along pretty well, and the characters were mostly engaging. I give credit to the suspense based on modern technology turning on humanity based on AI (smart cars in particular were made frightening...). Ultimately, I enjoyed it, and would recommend.

So So

Decent story but not earth shattering. I didn’t make it all the way to the end.

On the same shelf as World War Z

Finding a great book must be what chasing a good high is like. It was good but once it's done, you'd really like to find that same hit again. This is my feeling when it comes to apocalyptic sci-fi and World War Z as my gold standard. I won't sing its praises here but I am unable to be objective and not compare all apocalypses to it. This review also won't be a citation for similarities and contrasts to WWZ; it just is a big factor in my review.

Robopocalypse is a first-person(ish) perspective about the robot uprising against humanity and the survivors are telling the tale to give an overview of the before, during, and after moments of WWR. This format was popularized by The Good War by Studs Terkel about WWII and WWZ took inspiration from it. What this book does is that it gives a purpose for existing in the style and format that it is in right off the bat and it's in line with the story - just great.

The book does tend to follow about four to eight people throughout with several others added along the way. This doesn't cover stories from around the world but really only focuses on America, Europe, and Japan with the last two only offering a couple of side characters that advances the ending. This does allow for a diversification of stories and cultures but doesn't really give a big feel for different areas responding to the apocalypse differently.

The storyline is well done and interesting. However, there tends to be a loss of focus on just how big the apocalypse is. The military tech going AWOL is clear but other than a focus on smart cars and few helper bots running down people there isn't a lot of variety in the machine uprising. The horrors of the war are talked about but the descriptions of changes humanity undergoes is slightly lacking. There is a lot of details glanced over. In fact, most of the story coverage tends to focus on moments, both small and big, that drive humanity to reclaiming control and defeating the uprising. Other than the end of the story being upfront it seems to downplay just how dire the situation for humanity is. Most chapters tend to end with "and this event would be a catalyst that was important to humanity defeating the robots". Hope never really is in question here which leads the reader to not experience the downs enough and relish the up wins throughout the story.

There are a couple of missing plot points which include an explanation of the importance of a government robot policy and how the robot overlord thought he could use a politician's daughter to really influence whatever it is. The facts of supplies and reprogramming robots to serve in humanity's resistance tend to be underplayed and another brushed-over concept but important part in a total apocalypse. The end is also really missing a longer outlook wrap up including how life has changed, what steps humanity has taken to live again and prevent another uprising, and where the other characters are now.

The characters that are followed are interesting and have their arcs play out. Even a free robot turns out to be brought in a bit too late but could easily be a reader's favorite and wanting more of him. Wilson's Native American background plays a big part in the storytelling. It is neither a good or bad thing and, in fact, I would have liked more explanation of what made the reservation folks such a good resistance point for humanity other than the author wanted to include his background into saving humanity.

While it may seem like I have a number of negative points or critique points, this is familiar territory for me and I know what I'm looking for in a well-rounded story with all these elements. However, I really, really enjoyed my reading of this and will pick up whatever the next one in this series is about. Not going to be in my top 10 like World War Z slow dead walked into but it earns a place of what I'd recommend along with WWZ very easily. Final Grade - B+

disappointment

A collage of tired devices borrowed from greater works. Left a ton of loose ends, too. Never really explained why this was happening. Started to hint at a larger lesson to be learned at the hands of the greater intelligence, but never brought it home. Ended up just being a pointless gore fest.

Author sold out

What would have made Robopocalypse better?

I chose this book because I was aware of the authors experiences and education. "Hard Science Fiction" is, well... hard. It requires a deep understanding of the themes. While the book has some redeeming aspects later in the narrative you may find yourself disappointed by the utter laziness of the premise.

The book is effectively the equivalent of a car spontaneously exploding during a chase. The title should act as forewarning. If you know anything at all about AI or machine learning you will feel cheated before you get far enough to suspend your disbelief.

Disappointed

Way too much profanity for me to even get very far into this book. I could not finish it. The story started out interesting though.

well...No.

I'm sorry but this is more than a bit juvenile. I understand what it is trying to achieve but it sort of feels a bit less epic than it's intentions. It's very simple. If you are a fan of Stephen King...it will leave you wanting a bit more storytelling. Go for "The passage" if you need a bit more philosophy and a lot less action gun battles. If you are a fan of an easy listen and you absolutely love techno robotic babble and are under 20 years old you will love this. If you are a fan of the "what after" post-apocalyptic worlds and its complexities, this is not your book. I should have waited for more reviews. I should have known from the cheesy book title.

Interestingly bad.

Any additional comments?

The fatal flaw with Robopocalypse is that author Daniel H. Wilson wants to write two kinds of books. On the one hand, he wants to emulate the superb Max Brooks novel, 'World War Z' -- A fantastic example of fictional first person accounts of a zombie apocalypse (which was turned into a better-than-it-should-been film starring Brad Pitt). On the other hand, Wilson is kind of a terrible writer, and he's not able to tell a first person story without it being an obvious third person account. He has some genuinely great and original ideas when it comes to robotics and artificial intelligence combined with mayhem and war, but I was immediately taken out of whatever suspense might have been created when the person telling this part of the story starts describing events and emotions with the omnipotence of the Third Person. I can take only so much. I give the book two stars because of the originality of the ideas presented, but I give them with heavy caution to the prospective future reader.