“Robopocalyspe” by Daniel H. Wilson … interesting enough, the black flap says the author earned a Ph.D. in robotics so I guess he was a good person to write about a robotic uprising.
This was an excellent novel that takes place in the future and with the rapid pace technology advances, they start to turn against us. The first chapter was a struggle to get through because it takes place after the robot war and I am not a fan of books not in chronological order. But after the first chapter it goes from beginning to end. And after I finished the book, I went back and read the first chapter again with more appreciation. I usually don’t like books with each chapter jumps to another character and then jumps back to another character in a different chapter. But this book was different because each segment was in the “I” first person perspective causing me to care deeply about each one like I was there with them. In addition to the firs person perspective being an asset, all the characters are connected somehow as the reader discovers. The book also brings out some compelling philosophical points as some robots awake and have the sense they are truly alive. What does it mean to be truly alive? Do robots have a soul like Archos, the leader believes robots must fight for. Also humans are finally not fighting each other and instead some totally different entity for the first time. As the book says, “For a moment we are all equal.”
For the first time humans were not fighting each other and were up against something totally different and unlikely alliances are formed like an American soldier and a Middle Eastern enemy for example. Perhaps there will now be peace although I doubt that since history has a tendency to repeat itself or be forgotten. Humans will probably forget that the awakened droids that were not under the power of Archos helped them. Perhaps a battle will result between them. In the unrecognizable world torn apart by machines, power will succumb and violence will anew. Or maybe not. Maybe I’m just a pessimist.
So far there's (just?) 3 comments on this post - join in and add one »