Robopocolypse

Daniel H Wilson

Simon and Schuster

Otago Daily Times, July 23rd 2011

Robopocolypse consists a series of reports from the front of the human/robot wars, detailing key moments in the lead up to Zero Hour (the moment at which technology turned on humanity) and turning points during the conflict itself. 

Collated from video and audio footage by Cormac Wallace, a soldier in the Grey Horse Army, its heroes are drawn from all corners of the world; an elderly Japanese electrical engineer, a teenage London Phreaker, the 14 year old daughter of an American congresswoman, an American Indian police officer and his son (a soldier in Afghanistan), and Cormac himself.

The author, Daniel H Wilson, has a PhD in robotics and his pre-war world, where self-drive cars and basic household robots are a normal part of life, is not too far removed from now.  In this respect the scenario is much more realistic than that of Transformers or Terminator, but it falls down in other ways.  Each episode is bracketed by Comac’s commentary, so we are repeatedly told how important this particular character or event is to the course of the war.  Many are also transcripts of oral accounts, yet protagonists talk as though writing rather than narrating a story (which is made more irritating by the occasional extract that is in the appropriate register). 

That said, it is a good story and will make a great movie.  Spielberg and Dreamworks have been involved in the project from the start, and I suspect it will be coming to a cinema near you soon.

https://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/books/angels-and-allegory