Aman Hiregoudar
Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson
"Humans are inscrutable. Infinitely unpredictable. This is what makes them dangerous."
In the book Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson, the robot takeover has begun. All of the robot technology on Earth has started disobeying their simple commands and are now following the instructions of Archos. Archos is a super smart artificial intelligence who was created by a scientist. After multiple times of being brought to life and shut down ─which was very annoying to Archos─ he came to life, smarter and had the power to kill the scientist; and to develop a plan to kill off all of the humans on Earth. At first, only a few smaller “robot malfunctions” (Wilson 21) take place, and no one really believes that something significant is happening. A few robots go against their program and kill a few people, but it is not considered to be a big problem. Only the victims try to explain themselves but are not really believed. Then on Thanksgiving, the attacks began. Archos unleashes his full power in what people are calling The New War. All sorts of machines start to go rogue and kill every human within their reaches. Only a few groups of people survive with their unique ideas. Once many of the cities are deserted, many human resistances develop: The Gray Horse Resistance, The New York Underground Resistance, and the Japanese Resistance. In addition to this, there are many individuals who make a substantial difference in the New War and possibly change the course of the world. One of those being a character who changes the whole course of the war. After about two years of the New War, a human army has formed. With knowledge of where Archos is located, they set off to try and save the human race. Will they survive and restore the human population; or will the human race go extinct?
This book is a great read and is very unique. Something that I really enjoyed was how the book was set up. Daniel Wilson broke the book down into multiple parts which were divided into chapters. Although this may not seem significant, the exceptional aspect of the division of chapters was in the content of each part. Instead of focusing on one character, the book switches locations and looks at different characters. As the chapters switch, so does the characters and what they are doing. I like this collection of narratives because it shows how different people are responding to the conflict, especially since the conflict in this book is so significant. On a broader perspective, each part of the book signifies a major development in the plot; but the highlight of this setup is how it comes together at the end. By the end of the book, most of the characters have come together, or have worked together, to help counter Archos.
Another thing that really stood out to me while reading this book, was how the characters developed. In the beginning, everyone was normal and going about their daily business. Then when the robot attack started, “the screaming starts” (Wilson 100). People didn’t know what to do and were panicking. After a while, people start to form resistances and work together to try and preserve the human population. Pretty soon, groups of humans are working together in unprecedented ways to stay alive. Before the attack, people stayed in their own secluded groups and told people to “go back to your own tribe” (Wilson 127), when they tried to join another group. However, that all changed when the robots attacked. People were reluctant to change at first, but soon they realized that they need to work together to survive. Everyone was welcomed into groups and soon, multiple large resistances were formed. This is a great feature of this book. I liked seeing each character develop in their own way. It really made the plot more meaningful and helped keep me interested in the book.
One of the final things that I love about this book, is the genre and the intensity and realism that the author writes the plot with. This book is science fiction, but there are many genres mixed in with that. These genres also make an appearance in the book: romance, adventure, and realistic fiction. The author, Daniel Wilson, writes the book with such intensity, and realism. Throughout the book, the scientific genre is visible with many references to parts of the robot and ways the robot works. Wilson uses complex vocabulary to describe the robots, such as “safety and pacification units” (Wilson 169). He also writes the book with real emotions of how people would feel if this was actually happening. He describes the emotions, reactions, and responses of people to the attacks. The book also contains vivid imagery of the conditions. He uses phrases like “dark red metal slides” and “bright yellow claw” (Wilson 177) to help the reader produce an image in their head. I really like this quality because it enhances my reading experience. I can clearly produce a picture in my mind of what is happening. I like books that have a main genre, but other genres mixed in. I feel that it makes the book more interesting, and this book definitely does that.
This is a great book for anyone to read. Specifically, if you are interested in the genres of science-fiction, dystopia or adventure, this is for you. On a deeper level, this book reveals so much about the way humans act and work with each other; if you are interested in humanity, this is also a great read. Or maybe if you are just interested in robots or how they will affect our future world, this is one great depiction of that. Once you start reading, it is hard to stop with so many things developing. If you have read The Martian or Ready Player One, then you might be interested in this book. I give this book a 5 out of 5. I am really interested in looking into some of the other books by Daniel H. Wilson as I am sure they are going to be amazing.
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| Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson |
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