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Robopocalypse (Robopocalypse, #1)

Daniel H. Wilson

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Why we're reading this: Short chapters keep the action going. fast and fun read.
[close] Short chapters keep the action going. fast and fun read.

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New to GR - 3500 members but group death?
By Toby · 4 posts · 52 views

last updated Oct 30, 2021 08:59AM

A Great Read
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last updated Oct 04, 2021 06:40AM

What Members Thought

Jun 19, 2013 Walt O'Hara rated it did not like it

Shelves: science-fiction

Robopocalypse is a story about a robot uprising on planet Earth, led by a rogue AI named ARCOS, and the humans that defeat it. Minor spoilers follow. I will try not to be very specific.

I find the experience of reading books like ROBOPOCALYPSE to be frustrating and ultimately a giant letdown. Let us be clear: I wanted the author to score a win with this novel. It's a great idea, and though it isn't exactly original, it seems unique in the wave after wave after wave of badly written zombie apocal Robopocalypse is a story about a robot uprising on planet Earth, led by a rogue AI named ARCOS, and the humans that defeat it. Minor spoilers follow. I will try not to be very specific.

I find the experience of reading books like ROBOPOCALYPSE to be frustrating and ultimately a giant letdown. Let us be clear: I wanted the author to score a win with this novel. It's a great idea, and though it isn't exactly original, it seems unique in the wave after wave after wave of badly written zombie apocalypse novels we've witnessed in the last five years. The author, Daniel Wilson, attempts to lift from the very best of the zombie apocalypse niche, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, by using the literary trope of telling the story of a global conflict through a series of chronologically linked anecdotes and reminiscences. The intention was good but the execution was mediocre-- the author starts with several random voices in London, Japan and North America, and immediately this narrows down to 3 or 4 consistent narrative voices. That's only a minor quibble before you even get to the larger points of failure, such as dialogue, and characterization, and believability. The dialogue is a real howler. I kept reading these supposed after action reports, memoirs, letters and asking myself-- hey, who in the world talks like this? In one section, there's a chapter that sets up important elements of the end of the novel. It's told in a series of transcripts of audio recordings from a drilling foreman to his wife back in Texas. The chapter describes a series of gradually worsening events befalling the drilling crew. Every recording is full of facts on engineering, drilling and loaded with "roughneck" slang. Basic exposition. Yet, it's a recording from a lonely guy.. to his wife. Really? That's all he has to say to his wife? Larded with choice bits of dialogue like "whatever is down in that pit.. is EVIL!" (not sure of the quote, but it had me laughing). And another great one.. there's a character who's a little anti social. He lives in England. He's a hacker type. His catch-phrase is "See you in the funny papers". Wow. What person living in the 21st century uses a phrase with an etymology that dates to the 1930s? Robopocalypse is full of unintentionally funny lines of this sort-- especially of the macho action film Schwarzenegger style of one-liner dialogue, like "Brightboy Squad had filled out it's dance card and was here to dance" (paraphrasing, here). The author's insistence on hackneyed macho dialogue, overuse of the word "hero" all over the novel (without convincing us of any heroism), and general inability to convey anything of interest about his characters other than their roles as conduits for the author's exposition that led me to rate Robopocalypse so poorly. It's just not written very well. Much as I would like to see a good "Machines against Humanity" story, this isn't it. I will just have to read Benford's GALACTIC CENTER series or Saberhagen's BERSERKERS again to get my fix.

There is cause to be hopeful. Word is out that Steven Spielburg bought the movie rights to Robopocalypse and is working on a film adaption. If he's sensible, he'll hire some screenwriting talent (NOT the author) and they'll be able to extract the good ideas out of this poorly written novel and make a great movie from it. Until then, I'll see you in the funny papers. ...more

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Jun 22, 2014 Tom rated it really liked it

I guess I was on a robot kick on a recent vacation. I read this and (book: Machine Man) on Kindle.

I enjoyed this apocalypse/singularity event novel. It's written in the (book: World War Z) style, in which different journal entries or story tellers all convey the plot. In this book, the tales blend together more snugly, with the explanation being that these stories are all be retold by a single author... who is compiling them from a memory storage robot device found after the end of the war.

The ...more

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Dec 21, 2011 Heather rated it liked it

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, library, postapocalyptic, kindle

Had I not already read, and loved, World War Z, I probably would have rated Robopocalypse higher.

Enjoyable, but the plot has already been done (see last sentence). ...more

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