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]

The robots are coming

What did you love best about Robopocalypse?

I thought the narration of the different situations was interesting. And I liked the freeborn squad.

What other book might you compare Robopocalypse to and why?

no comparisons

Have you listened to any of Mike Chamberlain’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No. this is the first time.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

Oh We really did it now

still a good book

i read this a couple years ago but wanted the audio version to hear it from a different reader. it did feel like a slightly different story because of that but not in a negative way. Will definitely checkout how the sequel sounds, which i have also already read. i hope a third book is announced soon.

Wonderful story, poor reader.

What did you like best about Robopocalypse? What did you like least?

I loved this book so much that after reading it twice, I purchased the audio book to listen to on a trip. There were moments of great importance in the book, without giving away too much, between incarnations of ROB and characters that were critical to understanding why things were unfolding the way they were, that were lost in the reading, in my opinion, because of the readers voices, inflection and cadence. Shame, but the story itself is wonderful.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Robopocalypse?

When the Akuma attack the warehouse and the clear mind senshi defend it.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Mike Chamberlain?

Dont know enough readers (it was probably more about the director)

Did Robopocalypse inspire you to do anything?

Go buy Amped.

Captivating and Wildly Intelligent

For the times that we live in, this isn't too far of a stretch. This is so well written, I will definitely be reading the next book!

HAL 9000

Similar to 2001: A Space Odyssey, technology is now in charge and in the mood to kick some human butt. This time it's Archos who is using all his hardware and software to rule the human.

Written in the first person and from the perspective of different characters. Very fast paced. Which is good because 1st person naratives are difficult to do well and many readers do not enjoy it.

The narrator is very good. Reminds me of several of my New Jersey friends, and they tell great stories.

Very entertaining and engaging

I thought the narrator was really good and story kept me thinking of how would I survive if all our technology turned on us. Highly recommend this book.

Good premise terrible writing

He starts with a very questionable situation and continues that vibe through out the book and that's how he gets from one place to another, I'd say quite roughly with a side or cringe. I got half way through it and had to stop. He jumps around a lot so it's hard to remember who's story is who's but it's there, He just doesn't do a good job at familiarizing you with the characters. The narrator is amazing. Mike Chamberlain makes bad books sound good. I think that's what kept me going so long. I think the story lacks flow and it's not very captivating because the situations are not logical to the point it could be frustrating for anyone analytical or intelligent. Without spoiling much it's hard for me to believe someone who created such an advanced ai and facility just let it loose on an oopsie. He wouldn't say that he would know better it's such weak writing. it's just not creative and lacks intellect. It's like a poorly elaborated fearful thought made into a book very sloppily with cliche situations and characters. it's like he took government collapse novels and cut paste ai and here's a book. it's not good.

Terminator meets Zombieland

Robopocalypse is an interesting variation on the increasingly common emergent-evil-AI theme. A really smart AI wakes up and hijacks the arms and legs and wheels of all the smart devices we've been building, extending itself into all of our smart machines, which suddenly begin to attack humans like artificial zombies. The story is told from the perspective of both people and machines beginning right before and immediately after the singularity (awakening), and it does a fair job of capturing what might be distinctive about those different points of view. The author has a tin ear when it comes to the portrayal of some of his characters (young girls and women seem especially badly done), but on the whole there are some memorable and compelling players here (the Japanese roboticist who genuinely loves his robots is quite moving). There isn't a lot that's new otherwise, except the suggestion that maybe the evil AI isn't really evil after all but is just trying to teach humanity a lesson for its own good. Those hints in the plot aren't very coherent and becoming annoying by the end. The narration is excellent, the story idea is solid, and it's a perfectly entertaining way to spend several hours, but the execution could have been better.

Thanksgiving Day is never going to be the same me.

I just adore this book. I like the way the story is delivered to you. I will agree the first listen it was a little slow to get into, but that is because you land right in a battle scenery. I have read this .... sorry listen to this book a couple of time. I do skip to certain parts sometimes. If you like the style of WWZ you will like. there are parts that i was glued to & even thought i was there. I loved the delivery of the story. The only problem i can see it not with the book or story. It will be with the movie that is set to come out, now granted this will make an awesome movie. However, it is not a family movie(which you know they will make) Some scenes in this book are a little graphic & i don't see how you could film them and not be "R" or even NC-17.
I would like to thank Mr. Wilson for now making me a little edge on Zero Hour a/k/a Thanksgiving Day.. 8-)

Good Book, Great Narration

Just before writing this review I thought no one else realized that this book shared a really similar feel to Max Brooks' World War Z (not to mention Max also wrote a book called the Zombie Survival Guide and Daniel H Wilson created a book called How to Survive a Robot Uprising). It seems as if others here did indeed notice this as well. As a matter of fact there were points in the book I just felt like the whole plot was lifted and re-purposed. Okay so with all this aside...

The book was actually quite good. The story is essentially a re-telling of how a computer program named Archos found a mind of its own and in pretty short order decided to go to war with the humans. The story took place somewhere in the near future which made some of the story a bit easier to believe.

My 3 stars are really because there are many unanswered questions. So many unanswered questions in fact that I believe there must be another book in the works. There was so much ground to cover in so many years, you really wanted to know more about what was going on. Without giving anything away, I will say I kept thinking "What was Archos' strategy and why did he do some of the things he did?"

Perhaps the best part of this book was Mike Chamberlain who read the book perfectly. Perhaps one of the reasons for why I wanted to learn more about Archos was the fantastic voice Mike used for him. Anytime Archos spoke, I got that weird creepy feeling that added some real entertainment.

Enjoy the book but be aware it feels like it was designed for a movie more than a good book. Perhaps that is why Steven Spielberg is directing it :-)