I read this book because I wanted to read a book with my girlfriend and share her passion in reading. I looked at her 100 books to read list and the title caught my attention. I am a huge fan when it comes to zombies and end of the world stories. I also like machines and robots! So this book was just perfect!
Robopocalypse is a series of events told by Cormac Wallace about how robots took over the world and how humanity fought back to claim it. To me, this was a good book because it starts off with its origin and forms a time line of every action that was taken to reach the end. From the start of the robotic takeover to the the importance of characters actions that changed the outcome of everyone's survival.
The story begins with a scientist awakening a machine with an intelligence that can not be measured by any human scale. Archos, as they call the machine, grows so intelligent that it believes humans are only capable of destruction thus end humanity and rise of the machines. Archos kills the scientist and starts his evil plot of robotic domination.
In the book the world is at a futuristic time where robots are everywhere. Domestic robots that look like humans. Worker robots that are designed for specific jobs. Even the vehicles are designed with thoughts of their own. Different cases around the world start happening where robots start to "malfunction" and start to attack people. Archos commands all type of robots to enslave humanity and kill any threat. It experiments on humans and creates new type of droids to attack in any type of situation. It starts a war that nearly leaves all humans extinct.
Now I am not about to go over every story and every important character that is in this book but here are some of my favorites.
Takeo Nomura , an old mechanic that can fix any robot, he builds a human like wife robot that he truly loves, and was willing to die when his robot wife started to attack him. I believe he has a connection with the machines since he is able to love one. He becomes sort of like a robot whisperer and is able to reprogram some robots to fight for him. During the war he builds a castle and has the best army robot that protects him and the people he shelters. Even though Nomura and his wife aren't really talked about, they are important for the awakening of the domestic robots that help the humans during the war.
Lurker was another interesting character to me. He is a genius kid just pranking people around the world for kicks and by sheer luck he comes in contact with Archos. When he talks to this super machine, Lurker realizes that the world is going to war and does nothing but run and hide. After some time in hiding he witnesses a car killing a little girl and her family and that causes him to take action and fight back. Lurker and his friend get in these mobile suits and fight off robots and break in their communication station and destroy everything. That scene and Lurkers determination and realization in how he owed the world is such a good chapter.
The last character that I enjoyed was Mathilda Perez. A ten year old girl that has a first hand experience with an evil toy robot. The robot warns her about a robot defense act which clearly a little girl wouldn't know anything about. As her story progresses Mathilda and her family get captured and sent to a holding facility. The robots experiment on her and remove her eyes and replace them with robotic ones. Because of her mothers love and determination she escapes with her brother from the facility. Mathilda is given a gift to see what the robot's see, that helps out during the war.
The book goes on with stories from and Osage tribe having a well guarded city, to brothers doing anything they can to help out people. In the end every person and their story is connected and it's amazing how it all connects to change the outcome of the robot war.
The book ends with a chance that Archos still might be alive somewhere and maybe that's what the second book will be about. This book is being made into a movie. I am excited because there were a few scenes that I couldn't quite imagine and I want to see how they look on the big screen! When the movie comes out I am for sure taking my girlfriend out to see it!
-Jonathan I Martinez
