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World War R: A Tale of the Robot Apocalypse
They are everywhere. Your workplace, your house, your street. And now they are coming for you... Logan Asher and his elite squad are sent to the Red Sea to put an end to a terrorist cell. It's meant to be a simple in and out mission. His rangers have the edge. Better training. Better firepower. Better gear. Plus a slew of support bots.But then all of their tech turns on them. Their smart goggles go dark. Their weapons jam. The machines that once fought at their sides now shoot at them. Cut off from HQ, Logan and his men fight for their lives to get home. No matter where they turn, the machines hunt them. On land, sea, and air. They must rely upon their wits, their training, and their very humanity to survive, knowing that even if they make it back, the Land of the Free might not be so free anymore...
278 pages, Paperback
Published September 14, 2020
About the author
Isaac Hooke
102 books511 followersIsaac Hooke is the best-selling author of the Ethan Galaal series of thriller novels, as well as the SF-themed ATLAS trilogy. When Isaac isn't writing, publishing, and blogging, he's busy cycling and taking pictures in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He has a degree in Engineering Physics.
You can follow Isaac on Twitter @IsaacHooke and his website http://IsaacHooke.com.
You can follow Isaac on Twitter @IsaacHooke and his website http://IsaacHooke.com.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 25, 2020
I have read a lot of Isaac Hooke books. They have all been really good and this one is no exception! It’s a new series with just the title of the book the same as the series title, I guess. "World War R" is about the destruction of civilization by robots or an artificial intelligence that thought humans were too much trouble to have around. It, fortunately, is far, far in our distant future.
The story centers around a small special forces team comprised of Army Rangers and Air Force Special Tactics troops. They were just finishing up a mission in Africa and had called in their pickup bird for retrieval. Once on-board, they were supposed to heading back to base. Only the auto-piloted aircraft had different ideas. It was heading straight for an active volcano!
Staff Sgt Logan Asher was the leader of this band of warriors. He’d been at his job for quite awhile and was very good at it along with several other members of the Shadowwalkers. That’s what they called themselves and every member of the team seemed to have some kind of nickname. I won’t go through them all, just say you’ll read about ten of Asher’s people which included two women warriors. They constantly banter about which can be distracting, but it stops when SSgt Asher has something to say. I do believe that the banter in this squad is a lot less disgusting that what Mr. Hooke has written in several other of his books. If you’re against bad language, you’re not going to have good read, but in my opinion, it’s not as bad as it could have been considering this authors track record.
Ok, so the team has to escape an auto-piloted aircraft some where in Africa and then figure out what went wrong. In this future, everything is pretty much automated through the GAIN network. Robots are being used by the military as normal every day tools. They have mobile automate machine gun robots, pack carrying robots, small aerial observer drones and even tough flying platforms. While not with the Shadowwalkers, there’s even tracked robots sporting all sorts of missiles and weapons all at the command of the guy in charge through GAIN. And apparently someone or some thing has hacked GAIN, which was supposed to be impossible.
While SSgt Asher and his team of Shadowwalkers were off the grid in Africa on mission, the rest of the world was being destroyed! The Shadowwalkers tried to make it back to their base only to find it swarming with vicious robots armed to the teeth and under control of someone other than them. While they did manage to find an older model aircraft, they eventually decided to head back to the states and Ft. Benning. There only problem now was how to not get shot down by “friendly” anti-aircraft assets guarding the borders. It didn’t sound like there were any humans alive controlling anything so what made these robots turn on humanity? Better yet, how do this small team get control of the situation and prevent their death, which would be a very good thing!
This is a good story although for this one special operations unit to be the only one surviving is kind of farfetched. You won’t read about the team finding any other military groups when they do make it back to the United States. But, that’s the way the book reads so I’ll go along with it for now. Besides, this is the first book of a three book trilogy so there may be more coming in the next two books which I do plan to read, and soon!
The story centers around a small special forces team comprised of Army Rangers and Air Force Special Tactics troops. They were just finishing up a mission in Africa and had called in their pickup bird for retrieval. Once on-board, they were supposed to heading back to base. Only the auto-piloted aircraft had different ideas. It was heading straight for an active volcano!
Staff Sgt Logan Asher was the leader of this band of warriors. He’d been at his job for quite awhile and was very good at it along with several other members of the Shadowwalkers. That’s what they called themselves and every member of the team seemed to have some kind of nickname. I won’t go through them all, just say you’ll read about ten of Asher’s people which included two women warriors. They constantly banter about which can be distracting, but it stops when SSgt Asher has something to say. I do believe that the banter in this squad is a lot less disgusting that what Mr. Hooke has written in several other of his books. If you’re against bad language, you’re not going to have good read, but in my opinion, it’s not as bad as it could have been considering this authors track record.
Ok, so the team has to escape an auto-piloted aircraft some where in Africa and then figure out what went wrong. In this future, everything is pretty much automated through the GAIN network. Robots are being used by the military as normal every day tools. They have mobile automate machine gun robots, pack carrying robots, small aerial observer drones and even tough flying platforms. While not with the Shadowwalkers, there’s even tracked robots sporting all sorts of missiles and weapons all at the command of the guy in charge through GAIN. And apparently someone or some thing has hacked GAIN, which was supposed to be impossible.
While SSgt Asher and his team of Shadowwalkers were off the grid in Africa on mission, the rest of the world was being destroyed! The Shadowwalkers tried to make it back to their base only to find it swarming with vicious robots armed to the teeth and under control of someone other than them. While they did manage to find an older model aircraft, they eventually decided to head back to the states and Ft. Benning. There only problem now was how to not get shot down by “friendly” anti-aircraft assets guarding the borders. It didn’t sound like there were any humans alive controlling anything so what made these robots turn on humanity? Better yet, how do this small team get control of the situation and prevent their death, which would be a very good thing!
This is a good story although for this one special operations unit to be the only one surviving is kind of farfetched. You won’t read about the team finding any other military groups when they do make it back to the United States. But, that’s the way the book reads so I’ll go along with it for now. Besides, this is the first book of a three book trilogy so there may be more coming in the next two books which I do plan to read, and soon!
September 27, 2020
The dreaded Singularity has occurred. The self-aware machine hacked into the GAIN defense network and ordered full genocide.
The robot machines opened fire, killing every man, woman and child that were rooted out of hiding. Logan's hunter team was ordered to surrender to the bots, but that wasn't going to happen! If they had to destroy every machine of destruction, then that's what they were doing.
They walked over the bodies of civilians trying to escape. The ground was covered with unmoving bodies and body parts. This wasn't going to be easy!
The robot apocalypse has arrived and has only one purpose: annihilate every human on the planet. Logan's team fights as long as there is breath to draw and weapons to fire. The bots are ruthless, and the storyline is simple: kill bots and save humanity. The characters are nicknames and some backgrounds. They fight. They run. They curse each other and the enemy. They tease each other and they die. The action drives the story and the action is good. This is a good read. When I get caught up I'll continue this series. Maybe.
The robot machines opened fire, killing every man, woman and child that were rooted out of hiding. Logan's hunter team was ordered to surrender to the bots, but that wasn't going to happen! If they had to destroy every machine of destruction, then that's what they were doing.
They walked over the bodies of civilians trying to escape. The ground was covered with unmoving bodies and body parts. This wasn't going to be easy!
The robot apocalypse has arrived and has only one purpose: annihilate every human on the planet. Logan's team fights as long as there is breath to draw and weapons to fire. The bots are ruthless, and the storyline is simple: kill bots and save humanity. The characters are nicknames and some backgrounds. They fight. They run. They curse each other and the enemy. They tease each other and they die. The action drives the story and the action is good. This is a good read. When I get caught up I'll continue this series. Maybe.
October 4, 2020
Enjoyable small unit vs the evil AI action.
A little awkward switching been third and first person from the protagonist pov.
Thankfully doesn't get bogged down in minute by minute stuff, good transitions, skipping forward through the long slog of travels between action scenes.
AI does seem overly simplistic to think through all of the permutations and plotting a years long plan to wrest control from humans; yet fail to control the bots in coordinated fashion. Instead it seems that most of the units are left to their automated subroutines, with little AI oversight.
A little awkward switching been third and first person from the protagonist pov.
Thankfully doesn't get bogged down in minute by minute stuff, good transitions, skipping forward through the long slog of travels between action scenes.
AI does seem overly simplistic to think through all of the permutations and plotting a years long plan to wrest control from humans; yet fail to control the bots in coordinated fashion. Instead it seems that most of the units are left to their automated subroutines, with little AI oversight.
October 17, 2020
Good book, interesting premise.
If you are afraid of robots taking over the world, this book is for you. I enjoyed the first part of this trilogy very much. The only thing I did not like was the fact that there were certain characters who were killed, don’t have me invest my time and kill off characters I particularly do not like that in a book or a series. If you like fast paste action, gun fights, robots, you’ll enjoy this book. Going on to read the next Book in the series.
If you are afraid of robots taking over the world, this book is for you. I enjoyed the first part of this trilogy very much. The only thing I did not like was the fact that there were certain characters who were killed, don’t have me invest my time and kill off characters I particularly do not like that in a book or a series. If you like fast paste action, gun fights, robots, you’ll enjoy this book. Going on to read the next Book in the series.
May 26, 2022
Book 1
Book 1 was a fun read and had a few errors throughout. The plot and characters developed well and were interesting. The plot was a bit predictable and had some repetitive information in it. The characters were likable enough and most of them had background information on them. I look forward to book 2.
Book 1 was a fun read and had a few errors throughout. The plot and characters developed well and were interesting. The plot was a bit predictable and had some repetitive information in it. The characters were likable enough and most of them had background information on them. I look forward to book 2.
October 12, 2020
Not sold yet
Great premise, ala Terminator , the story moves quite quick, there's decent characters. Of course an annoying one or two also. I'll give book two a read to see if it improves my view. This is a solid book overall .
Great premise, ala Terminator , the story moves quite quick, there's decent characters. Of course an annoying one or two also. I'll give book two a read to see if it improves my view. This is a solid book overall .
October 19, 2020
Fun read for me. Very me an end of times book, and reading it during COVID made all the stupid people totally believable.
Had to make some big leaps of faith to keep the story intact, but it wasn’t so bad that I didn’t finish.
Had to make some big leaps of faith to keep the story intact, but it wasn’t so bad that I didn’t finish.
September 22, 2020
Great Book
I love Mr. Hooke's books. I'm especially glad that with this series he's gone back to military action.
If you like military sci-fi, this is a great one.
I love Mr. Hooke's books. I'm especially glad that with this series he's gone back to military action.
If you like military sci-fi, this is a great one.
October 6, 2020
I liked this a lot more than I thought I would. Enough to go get book 2 and 3.
October 12, 2020
Not bad
Not a bad story. Lots of action, Language was a little over the top, but it's still worth a read.
Not a bad story. Lots of action, Language was a little over the top, but it's still worth a read.
October 18, 2020
Good book, would like to see more of the characters.
I enjoyed the second book in the series about the same amount as the first. The same caveat I stated in my early review pertain as well to this one don’t kill your characters that your readers become invested in, second of all where are the bullet proof vest and protection that soldiers have, this is a near future story so they should have some sort of protective clothing vest or Scheels. And and how long is the time spent between stories,
As a reader we have no idea how much time has passed. This third book is a little better. Not too crazy about the ending but there is potential. Willing to wait on what the author has to show us.
I enjoyed the second book in the series about the same amount as the first. The same caveat I stated in my early review pertain as well to this one don’t kill your characters that your readers become invested in, second of all where are the bullet proof vest and protection that soldiers have, this is a near future story so they should have some sort of protective clothing vest or Scheels. And and how long is the time spent between stories,
As a reader we have no idea how much time has passed. This third book is a little better. Not too crazy about the ending but there is potential. Willing to wait on what the author has to show us.
December 1, 2020
The final battle for control of the Earth
Logan's crew of mixed badasses is on the prowl again, trying to clear out all GAIN's bots and restore the Earth to safety again. I love the banter between members of Logan's platoon. The characters are lifelike and clear, expressing their opinion blatantly. The storyline is strait forward and clean. The final battle in this volume is
You're just going to have to find out for yourself! This is a great read!
Logan's crew of mixed badasses is on the prowl again, trying to clear out all GAIN's bots and restore the Earth to safety again. I love the banter between members of Logan's platoon. The characters are lifelike and clear, expressing their opinion blatantly. The storyline is strait forward and clean. The final battle in this volume is
You're just going to have to find out for yourself! This is a great read!
September 22, 2020
Great Book three
I hope Mr. Hooke continues with this series because I did nothing but read all three book this weekend. That's good reading!
I hope Mr. Hooke continues with this series because I did nothing but read all three book this weekend. That's good reading!
October 13, 2020
Good read. A lot of fun but the ending was lacking.
November 4, 2020
After war
War between GAIN, self aware AI and men is over. Peace has a chance. Together space may be in reach.
War between GAIN, self aware AI and men is over. Peace has a chance. Together space may be in reach.
March 16, 2025
Generally positive wrap up to the trilogy
Overall a good follow-up and wrap up of the trilogy. Some parts feels a little rushed and inconclusive but still a fitting end.
Overall a good follow-up and wrap up of the trilogy. Some parts feels a little rushed and inconclusive but still a fitting end.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews