15 Jun 2011 04:17:56
There's also a sense of been there, done that and a few eye-rolling moments that barge across the border into cliche. But for the most part, Wilson, who earned a doctorate in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University and plumbed these depths once before with the nonfiction novelty book "How to Survive a Robot Uprising," has created a riveting page turner that has some fine moments — and ought to make one heck of a movie by Steven Spielberg.
"Robopocalypse" is the story of an artificial intelligence named Archos who uses a virus to turn Earth's large service robot population into an army set on the destruction of mankind. Billions of unprepared humans are killed in the first weeks of the war, and it takes the remaining pockets of humanity years to mount an effective resistance against the ever-evolving and improving robot army.
The story is told by Cormac "Bright Boy" Wallace, who helps lead the final charge against Archos. At the war's conclusion he finds a black box that contains the stories of the key players — both human and newly sentient humanoid robot alike — and moments in the fight against Archos.
Wilson keeps the story simple and fast-paced as it jumps forward in time to the conclusion of the war and 347 pages melt away in almost no time.
We meet key players like Takeo Nomura, who helps humanoid robots break free of Archos after his robot companion attacks him; Lonnie Wayne Blanton, a leader of the Osage Nation's Gray Horse Army, and his son Paul, who witnesses one of the first robot attacks while stationed in Afghanistan; an initially resistant senator whose daughter is experimented on by the robots; and dozens of others who in some way help defeat Archos.
