Robopocalypse
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4.2 • 96 Ratings
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Roboticist Wilson (How to Survive a Robot Uprising) turns to fiction with this bland and derivative series of connected vignettes describing a rebellion by humanity's robot helpers. Looking back on the war, Cormac Wallace, soldier in the human resistance, offers portentous framing commentary for recordings taken by evil computer program Archos. Many of the accounts were obtained under torture or other extreme circumstances, yet the narrators are curiously devoid of feeling ("As I watch my blood smearing behind me on the tile floor, I think, shit, man, I just mopped that") as domestic robots kill, soldier robots go haywire, airplanes attempt to collide, people fight to survive, and a resistance forms. Steven Spielberg has optioned the property; perhaps the melodrama will play better on the screen than it does on the page.
Customer Reviews
A war is coming!
There is a New War igniting by the very machines that were serving humans 'Robots.' Is there any hope for the human race and what weapon could match the ability of the artificial intelligence?
We had zombies with World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War and vampires with The Strain nows the time for something new and fresh setting a new trend, evil robots. A writer who has a Ph.D in Robotics has created a gauntlet race of time to a concluding event that will change the path of robots and humans forever. Written in neat chapters of different accounts that chart the unraveling of war from the artificial intelligence Archos, unleashing unrelenting destruction upon humans via it's robots. The writing flows well and does well transferring the words well to your thought imagery as you ride along the train as time zero's down to the grand finale. Once i rode on the train i did not want to get off until an outcome is reached in this page turning orchestra of cataclysmic events. You become immersed in the battle for human salvation against the ensuing apocalypse at the hands of the robots.
"The machines are now designing and building themselves. More varieties are coming. We believe that these new robots will have greatly increased agility, survivability, and lethality. They will be tailored to fight your people, in your geographic environment, and in your weather conditions.
"Let there be no doubt in your mind that the combined onslaught of these machines, working twenty-four hours a day, will soon be unleashed by Archos on your native land."
Classic sci-fi
Technical & creepy, this tale of robot v human in the not so far future is remarkably plausible. Written in innovative style, the story advances via archive extracts from various protagonists to its climax.
I really enjoyed the journey!
Fantastic read
Not having been a big reader in my younger days I have been absorbing books via osmosis for a little while now and I have to say this is the best title I have read yet. Wonderfully written, I can't put it down