If you've seen or read 'I, Robot', you have the general concept of the story; smartypants scientist messes with artificial intelligence (A.I.) in ways he shouldn't have been, and his biggest success leads to his almost immediate demise. From that point on, the mainframe mastermind links up with the technology of the world - by this point, everything is 'smart', including cars - and instigates the annhilation and enslavement of humanity. It's a pretty straightforward plot that would frankly have been a tired rehash of other quality novels had it not been for Wilson's combination of time-lapse storytelling with a variety of personal narratives. Like many other current, popular novels, Robopocalypse employs a cast of storytelling characters to keep the reader from becoming complacent, but the format is twisted by using those voices not in conjunction, but in succession. The premise is that the main character / narrator, after having already succeeded in leading the group who ultimately defeats Archos, the AI mainframe, comes upon a box containing video clips collected by various surveillance objects of human actions during the war. It is the archived story of the human resistance, told in linear miniclips of the novel's characters.
What makes this work is that all of the characters are sincerely, completely absorbing. They are all very different, and include an elderly Japanese AI genius who is touchingly in love with his companion robot, an American Congresswoman's young daughter whose toys go frighteningly haywire, a self-absorbed London hacker, a small-town sherrif, an American military officer stationed in Afghanistan, an unlikely NYC couple who lead a resistance, and a man who against all reason winds up being the leader of the American resistance. Each member of the international cast is integral, and though the individual appearances of each one amounts to only a few short chapters apiece, Wilson somehow makes these people into living, morphing, dynamic characters that I was enthralled with. Many of the characters never even meet, and yet their presence is carried over into each other's stories in tendrils that connect the entire piece into one cohesive account. The focus is always on the characters; this is not a book that delves deeply into technobabble, or references concepts that only hard-core sci-fi readers would understand, but rather it is a very reality-based story that any of us could imagine experiencing. While self-professed geeks will probably enjoy Robopocalypse (such as my husband, who also couldn't put it down, and who spends a great deal of his time reading hard-core scif fi that frankly makes me want to take a nap), this is a very accessible story to the general reader who enjoys seeing how pieces, and people, fit together in this shrinking world.
This is not to say that the book didn't have flaws, such as the resolution, which seemed to be pretty simple. I feel that I can discuss this, because the book is clear from the start that humanity has already won, and that the tale is more about how we got there rather than where we ended up. I mean, really? It was irrationally easy, which if anything you would expect a computer overlord to uber-rational. Quality endings are hard to come up with, and here I think Wilson falls a bit short. The robots who are 'awakened', i.e. freed, by Takeo's work should have been further developed; I understand that some were crucial in the war's resolution, but really, a lot more could have been done with them, particularly Mikiko, his beloved companion. I believe that the Congresswoman's daughter was vastly underutilized as a character and could have been developed further. I have also seen many comparisons to a book called World War Z, by Max Brooks, which I have not read; those who have claim that the two are very similar, and if you like one, you will like the other, and vice versa. I cannot speak to this, but plan to check out WWZ, both because I really liked Wilson's take and because I heard WWZ is about zombies. I think I've made it pretty clear how I feel about zombies, people.
I read this one almost straight through. It was a nice change of pace for me, but more than that, the characters are gorgeous. I loved how they all were so disparate, but yet fit together in key ways from thousands of miles away. Even if you're not a science fiction person, I would try it out for size. The first chapter is a bit dull, but once the other characters begin to come into play, it's defintiely a worthwhile, fun read.
Discussion questions for Robopocalypse:
1. What did you think of the ending? How could it have been made more compelling?
2. Why do you think the humans were so taken aback by the uprising of the machines? Do you think that real society would be as vulnerable to being duped?
3. Which characters do you feel were most like what you think your own personal reaction might be to the uprising? Would you survive?
4. If you have read WWZ, compare and contrast the stories. Which one relates the apocalypse tale better? How do you feel about authors releasing similar tales, even if they were 'inspired by' other previous works?
Rating: four stars. Very engrossing, character-driven reboot of the apocalypse theme.
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