Peps' Reading List: Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

A few months ago, Marvin and I decided to check out the National Bookstore Warehouse Sale in Quezon City. We were going to look for furniture anyway, so we planned to make it a day of shopping. Let's just say that it was pandemonium. I love books, and I especially love book sales, but I think I need more than a year to recover from the madness of the people elbowing you and the long lines.

But I did get my share of the spoils. People tend to just take anything that had the words "bestselling" on them and shuffle along to the next shelf, so if you patiently scour the shelves and tables, you will find the occasional gem that makes all the stress worthwhile. Which is how I ended up with first edition copies of Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson and Reamde by Neal Stephenson. And given the more visually arresting cover of Robopocalypse and the fact that it might be a while before we get to watch Steven Spielberg's big screen adaptation, I decided to read it first.

Robopocalypse chronicles the events of a deadly war between robots and humans. An act of carelessness allows the artificial intelligence Archos to not only be self aware, but also enact a plan to eliminate the humans who have long been relying on robots and computerized technology as part of their daily lives. From seemingly isolated incidences of strange robotic behavior, the acts of violence against humans eventually culminate in the New War, where every piece of programmable machinery simultaneously and systematically starts whittling down the human population. At the end of the war, Cormac Wallace and his team uncovers an information cube that contains the surveillance conducted by Archos on different people, including himself, who made fighting back against the machines possible.

If you've read any of my previous book or film posts, I've always stressed that sci-fi isn't exactly easy for me to write about. But of late, I've been warming up to the genre as the subject of my posts. It's still not always easy to understand the technology or science behind some of what I read or watch, but it helps when you have writers like Ready Player One's Ernest Cline and Robopocalypse's Daniel H. Wilson who infuses a healthy dose of humanity alongside the technology in their writing.

Considering the scope of the war in Robopocalypse, it makes sense that it would feature several characters in its storytelling. What I wasn't sure about was how the myriad characters would all be connected and create a cohesive narrative, especially when the characters are scattered all over the globe and Archos has control over all the usual means of communication. But as the novel unfolds, it becomes apparent that the very different stories of these individuals or groups create an interesting narrative tapestry that would help readers understand the war that humanity must survive at all costs. Each character's part of the story has a distinct voice, since the storytelling varies on how Archos was able to witness them.

While the novel introduced more than a few characters in the course of its storytelling, there are a specific few that it would return to time and again. Cormac Wallace, leader of the Brightboy Squad, would not have been a likely candidate as a soldier had it not been for his more responsible brother Jack. Mathilda Perez, daughter of an influential congresswoman, is one of the first to experience the unusual behavior exhibited by the machines. Her family ends up in the human labor camps, where she becomes a subject in a horrific experiment. Lurker is a prankster whose prank causes Archos to turn its attention on him. Lonnie Wayne Blanton responds to a crime scene where a robot has caused death and injury, while his son Paul, who is in Afghanistan, is being detained while a case of robotic violence by a unit he was responsible for was being investigated. Takeo Nomura has always had a way with robots, so much so that he has a more than close relationship with his android Mikiko. His understanding of robots would prove to be useful in the many battles that he would fight against Archos.

Once you get used to the jumps in character viewpoints, it's easy enough to get into the groove of reading Robopocalypse. Though I do have to say that it was emotionally exhausting to read the book. You feel as if something bad is always bound to happen in the next page and, more often than not, something does. You can't help but hope that, somehow, the human being terrorized will prevail, but also know that there's a very big chance that he or she won't. Archos is the very evil that you don't want to face, because it is logical, calculating and doesn't have emotions that cloud the judgment of humans. All it knows is that it has deemed humans to be a waste of space on Earth, but recognizes that there are humans that are worth keeping around. And Archos adapts, as all good (or evil) AI does. It doesn't just stop at manipulating the current technology that the humans use. It invents even more horrific stuff in response to whatever resistance the humans put up against it. At some point, I started looking at my rice cooker differently (although exhaustion from taking care of a baby factors in this).

I usually mention that a book reads like a blockbuster film when I really like it, especially in the sci-fi genre, and I claim the same sentiment for Robopocalypse. Daniel H. Wilson knows how to pile on the suspense and horror, without deterring readers from turning the next page out of dread. And he balances it all by creating an ending that gives readers the payoff they deserve.

Robopocalypse is more than a satisfying read. It's a must-read for those who like sci-fi or adventure stories, or even stories of humans struggling against adversity.

You just need time to recover from it afterwards.

Happy reading!!

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