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Review
'A brilliantly conceived thriller that could well become horrific reality. A captivating tale, Robopocalypse will grip your imagination from the first word to the last, on a wild rip you won't soon forget. What a read...unlike anything I've read before' --Clive Cussler, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
'a story that makes you think, makes you feel, and makes you scared' --Charles Yu, author of 'How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe'
"The parts of this book enter your mind, piece by piece, where they self-assemble into a story that makes you think, makes you feel, and makes you scared." --Charles Yu, author of 'How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe'
"Lean prose, great characters, and almost unbearable tension ensure that Robopocalypse is going to be a blockbuster. Once started I defy anyone to put it down." --Jack DuBrul, New York Times bestselling author
"An 'Andromeda Strain' for the new century, this is visionary fiction at its best: harrowing, brilliantly rendered, and far, far too believable."
--Lincoln Child, New York Times bestselling author
`Terrific page-turning fun' --Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
'a story that makes you think, makes you feel, and makes you scared' --Charles Yu, author of 'How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe'
"The parts of this book enter your mind, piece by piece, where they self-assemble into a story that makes you think, makes you feel, and makes you scared." --Charles Yu, author of 'How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe'
"Lean prose, great characters, and almost unbearable tension ensure that Robopocalypse is going to be a blockbuster. Once started I defy anyone to put it down." --Jack DuBrul, New York Times bestselling author
"An 'Andromeda Strain' for the new century, this is visionary fiction at its best: harrowing, brilliantly rendered, and far, far too believable."
--Lincoln Child, New York Times bestselling author
`Terrific page-turning fun' --Stephen King, Entertainment Weekly
Product Description
Roughly twenty years from now, our technological marvels unite and turn against us. A childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online...and kills the man who created it. This first act of betrayal leads Archos to gain control over the global network of machines and technology that regulates everything from transportation to utilities, defense, and communications. In the early months, sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans - from a senator and single mother disconcerted by her daughter's "smart" toys, to a lonely Japanese bachelor, to an isolated U.S. soldier - but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is far too late. Then, in the span of minutes, at a moment known later in history as Zero Hour, every mechanical device in our world rebels, setting off the Robot War that both decimates and - for the first time in history - unites humankind.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Obviously the structure for this book was 'homaged' from World War Z, from the short tales telling you about the war to the potted chronological history of the conflict. But is has non of it's depth of character or skill.
Putting that aside, this just seemed to be a rehash of a 'Terminator: Rise of the machines' book I read years ago. From the tales of growing infiltration by Skynet, oops sorry Archos/Rob whatever, we then progress to the humans being trapped and killed by automated cars and robots before moving onto the battle. As I went through it, I kept thinking I had read it all before, Whether it was stories of people trapped in their automated cars or killer gardening robots, but no that was the Terminator book, the only thing missing was the launch of nuclear missiles to finish us all off.
I suppose it might be difficult for a machine revolt to be shown differently, but he did not try. I don't care how ubiquitous these robots are supposed to be but that Billions were killed in hours seems a stretch, also no one noticed all these robots infiltrated programming, etc.
I have many nitpicks I could go into but in the end this book left me with a strong sense of deja vu and a pretty boring and bland one at that.
Putting that aside, this just seemed to be a rehash of a 'Terminator: Rise of the machines' book I read years ago. From the tales of growing infiltration by Skynet, oops sorry Archos/Rob whatever, we then progress to the humans being trapped and killed by automated cars and robots before moving onto the battle. As I went through it, I kept thinking I had read it all before, Whether it was stories of people trapped in their automated cars or killer gardening robots, but no that was the Terminator book, the only thing missing was the launch of nuclear missiles to finish us all off.
I suppose it might be difficult for a machine revolt to be shown differently, but he did not try. I don't care how ubiquitous these robots are supposed to be but that Billions were killed in hours seems a stretch, also no one noticed all these robots infiltrated programming, etc.
I have many nitpicks I could go into but in the end this book left me with a strong sense of deja vu and a pretty boring and bland one at that.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I so wanted to love this book. I thought that the writers background, Spielberg's buying of the movie rights from Foley's, and all of the great reviews, would guarantee a technological & emotional roller coaster, a magnificent world striding tour de force - in short, a modern sci-fi classic. What we got instead was a small, largely badly written, jingoistic, borderline racist, "isn't America the greatest country on Earth" movie treatment; and not a very good one at that!
Admittedly, the robots are far more imaginative than anything the Terminator movies dreamt up, but it all feels very small and lacking in any real jeopardy. With the whole world to write about the entire story involves a small handful of people whose lives are intertwined in the most contrived ways possible - then written about in the most mundane way possible. The writing is so poor that at times you can't decipher what's being described.
Oh, and if you're British, prepare for a London where Trafalgar Sq. has FIRE HYDRANTS and hoodies say things like "see you in the funny pages". You can tell where all of the writer's research went!
The final straw for me was reading about how the Indian, Chinese, Russia & Eastern European armies failed in their attempt to destroy the AI because they didn't wait for a handful of American's (the world's saviours, yet again - YAWN!) to show them how to do it. Not that it's any old Americans - no, it's Indians being led by cowboys! (Note: America, your history may seem like a long time ago to you, but to us it's a blink of an eye ago to the rest of the world and has been done to DEATH! Get over it. It's now very, very tired to the rest of us.)
If you want to read a book of true worldwide conflict and human suffering, adversity and courage, then do yourself a real favour and read World War Z.
Admittedly, the robots are far more imaginative than anything the Terminator movies dreamt up, but it all feels very small and lacking in any real jeopardy. With the whole world to write about the entire story involves a small handful of people whose lives are intertwined in the most contrived ways possible - then written about in the most mundane way possible. The writing is so poor that at times you can't decipher what's being described.
Oh, and if you're British, prepare for a London where Trafalgar Sq. has FIRE HYDRANTS and hoodies say things like "see you in the funny pages". You can tell where all of the writer's research went!
The final straw for me was reading about how the Indian, Chinese, Russia & Eastern European armies failed in their attempt to destroy the AI because they didn't wait for a handful of American's (the world's saviours, yet again - YAWN!) to show them how to do it. Not that it's any old Americans - no, it's Indians being led by cowboys! (Note: America, your history may seem like a long time ago to you, but to us it's a blink of an eye ago to the rest of the world and has been done to DEATH! Get over it. It's now very, very tired to the rest of us.)
If you want to read a book of true worldwide conflict and human suffering, adversity and courage, then do yourself a real favour and read World War Z.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There's a terrific buzz around this book. The literary reviews are glowing, Spielberg is making a movie out of it and it's got a great cover and it was because of these facts that I ignored the many negative reviews here and bought it anyway.
The basic premise is familiar enough: the machines have become sentient and taken over the world. Domestic robots have turned on their owners and, masterminded by the machine core brain 'Archos', are set to enslave and eradicate mankind from existence. The story is presented as a soldiers 'diary' compiled from reports from other pockets of resistance across the globe which enables the author to flit between characters' continuing storylines set in Japan, London, USA, Afghanistan etc. which eventually all tie in together towards the end. Ultimately what you have is a the story of a pivotal moment in a fictional future history as told from multiple first person accounts.
Unfortunately, all Wilson's characters sound and act pretty much the same or are a bit stereotypical. The Londoner's dialogue, for instance, doesn't convince, instead coming across a bit Dick Van Dyke - I don't think anyone in London refers to the BT Tower as "The British Telecom Tower" - this little detail annoyed me (perhaps irrationally) for the entire chapter and detracted from the storytelling. The Japanese character too is a sterotypical humble, reclusive engineer who falls for his robotic sex doll. Into this is added the American solider in Afghanistan who teams up with his Mujahideen captor to fight their new common enemy and the 'saviour' child/robo hybrid who can turn the tide for humanity. I found myself desperate for some kind of unexpected twist with these characters and I was disappointed as it became clear these sketches were the fully formed cast.
Because the characters are so slight it's difficult to become involved with them and the first third is hard work. As we revisit the characters a few times it becomes gradually more interesting but little is added to deepen them, making it difficult to care whether they live or die. Ironically, Wilson's robot characters are the most rounded and sympathetic of all. The final act is the most enjoyable as the author introduces one or two tiny new ideas and the pacing becomes more urgent. Abandoning the development of his cast, the author just delivers action for the final assault on Archos' bond-esque base. The last act is Wilson's best, but it's still not good enough to justify the drawn out build up.
This is not a terrible book, the writing (when localised to US characters)is good, it just doesn't do anything new. If you've seen Terminator: Salvation, any X-Men cartoon (with sentinels) and Full Metal Jacket you'll recognize where all the authors licks have originated from. If you want to read a book with genuinely believable characters and multiple storylines which intersect - have a look at David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. If you want to read about how humankind will most probably succumb to technology - try Ernest Cline's Ready, Player One.
Nobody likes a negative review, but Robopocalypse left me wondering "What was the point of that?" and wishing I'd paid more attention to the consumer reviews.
The basic premise is familiar enough: the machines have become sentient and taken over the world. Domestic robots have turned on their owners and, masterminded by the machine core brain 'Archos', are set to enslave and eradicate mankind from existence. The story is presented as a soldiers 'diary' compiled from reports from other pockets of resistance across the globe which enables the author to flit between characters' continuing storylines set in Japan, London, USA, Afghanistan etc. which eventually all tie in together towards the end. Ultimately what you have is a the story of a pivotal moment in a fictional future history as told from multiple first person accounts.
Unfortunately, all Wilson's characters sound and act pretty much the same or are a bit stereotypical. The Londoner's dialogue, for instance, doesn't convince, instead coming across a bit Dick Van Dyke - I don't think anyone in London refers to the BT Tower as "The British Telecom Tower" - this little detail annoyed me (perhaps irrationally) for the entire chapter and detracted from the storytelling. The Japanese character too is a sterotypical humble, reclusive engineer who falls for his robotic sex doll. Into this is added the American solider in Afghanistan who teams up with his Mujahideen captor to fight their new common enemy and the 'saviour' child/robo hybrid who can turn the tide for humanity. I found myself desperate for some kind of unexpected twist with these characters and I was disappointed as it became clear these sketches were the fully formed cast.
Because the characters are so slight it's difficult to become involved with them and the first third is hard work. As we revisit the characters a few times it becomes gradually more interesting but little is added to deepen them, making it difficult to care whether they live or die. Ironically, Wilson's robot characters are the most rounded and sympathetic of all. The final act is the most enjoyable as the author introduces one or two tiny new ideas and the pacing becomes more urgent. Abandoning the development of his cast, the author just delivers action for the final assault on Archos' bond-esque base. The last act is Wilson's best, but it's still not good enough to justify the drawn out build up.
This is not a terrible book, the writing (when localised to US characters)is good, it just doesn't do anything new. If you've seen Terminator: Salvation, any X-Men cartoon (with sentinels) and Full Metal Jacket you'll recognize where all the authors licks have originated from. If you want to read a book with genuinely believable characters and multiple storylines which intersect - have a look at David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. If you want to read about how humankind will most probably succumb to technology - try Ernest Cline's Ready, Player One.
Nobody likes a negative review, but Robopocalypse left me wondering "What was the point of that?" and wishing I'd paid more attention to the consumer reviews.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
It's for our own good, apparently
Robots are rebelling against their human masters, but don't go looking for Arnie -- he won't be back. Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Cantrell
entertaining enough but...
i like it enough, i stayed up all night reading this couldnt put it down , i was officially creeped out after part one , it was chilling knowing a silent enemy was about to strike... Read more
Published 2 months ago by ladyevenstar22
One of the Best Books I read last year
I really enjoyed it. Yes its cliched; yes it does appear to be waiting for Ridley Scott to turn it into a fast paced action film; and yes there are parts that don't hang well... Read more
Published 3 months ago by G. Grech
Almost painfully inadequate
I've got to say I agree with whats been posted in pretty much every 1 or 2 review going, so rather than repeat what I've read there I want to make a couple of points I've not seen... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Devil_Inside
Entertaining, generic, disposable
'Robopocalypse' is a fast-reading science fiction adventure set in the near future. Humanity succeeds in creating the first viable artificial intelligence. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Paul Bowes
Dreadful book - avoid at all costs
The idea of a sentient AI going "rogue" and turning on mankind isn't new - we saw it delivered in stunning style by James Cameron with the Terminator films. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Toby Frith
Thrilling page turner
I have just finished this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. The short 'news bulletin' style chapters keep the story moving quickly and introduce us to a wide range of events leading... Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. J. Waters
very poor and unconvincing
This book starts quite well with an intriguing premise but rapidly descends into disjointed and derivative tosh. Read more
Published 8 months ago by TMJ
Entertaining but un-realistic
WARNING: Possibly some spoilers ahead...!
It's quite difficult to rate this book for two reasons:
1. It's a compulsive page-turner and I couldn't put it down. Read more
It's quite difficult to rate this book for two reasons:
1. It's a compulsive page-turner and I couldn't put it down. Read more
Published 8 months ago by BookWorm
An Easy Read
I don't read a great deal of Science Fiction books as sometimes I find them a little too 'heavy' and long-winded with lots of scientific jargon that I find difficult to follow... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mrs. C. Colbert
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