Book Review – Robopocalypse By Daniel H. Wilson

Finding a great book must be what chasing a good high is like. It was good but once it’s done, you’d really like to find that same hit again. This is my feeling when it comes to apocalyptic sci-fi and World War Z as my gold standard. I won’t sing its praises here but I am unable to be objective and not compare all apocalypses to it. This review also won’t be a citation for similarities and contrasts to WWZ; it just is a big factor in my review.

Robopocalypse is a first-person(ish) perspective about the robot uprising against humanity and the survivors are telling the tale to give an overview of the before, during, and after moments of WWR. This format was popularized by The Good War by Studs Terkel about WWII and WWZ took inspiration from it. What this book does is that it gives a purpose for existing in the style and format that it is in right off the bat and it’s in line with the story – just great.

The book does tend to follow about four to eight people throughout with several others added along the way. This doesn’t cover stories from around the world but really only focuses on America, Europe, and Japan with the last two only offering a couple of side characters that advances the ending. This does allow for a diversification of stories and cultures but doesn’t really give a big feel for different areas responding to the apocalypse differently.

The storyline is well done and interesting. However, there tends to be a loss of focus on just how big the apocalypse is. The military tech going AWOL is clear but other than a focus on smart cars and few helper bots running down people there isn’t a lot of variety in the machine uprising. The horrors of the war are talked about but the descriptions of changes humanity undergoes is slightly lacking. There is a lot of details glanced over. In fact, most of the story coverage tends to focus on moments, both small and big, that drive humanity to reclaiming control and defeating the uprising. Other than the end of the story being upfront it seems to downplay just how dire the situation for humanity is. Most chapters tend to end with “and this event would be a catalyst that was important to humanity defeating the robots”. Hope never really is in question here which leads the reader to not experience the downs enough and relish the up wins throughout the story.

There are a couple of missing plot points which include an explanation of the importance of a government robot policy and how the robot overlord thought he could use a politician’s daughter to really influence whatever it is. The facts of supplies and reprogramming robots to serve in humanity’s resistance tend to be underplayed and another brushed-over concept but important part in a total apocalypse. The end is also really missing a longer outlook wrap up including how life has changed, what steps humanity has taken to live again and prevent another uprising, and where the other characters are now.

The characters that are followed are interesting and have their arcs play out. Even a free robot turns out to be brought in a bit too late but could easily be a reader’s favorite and wanting more of him. Wilson’s Native American background plays a big part in the storytelling. It is neither a good or bad thing and, in fact, I would have liked more explanation of what made the reservation folks such a good resistance point for humanity other than the author wanted to include his background into saving humanity.

While it may seem like I have a number of negative points or critique points, this is familiar territory for me and I know what I’m looking for in a well-rounded story with all these elements. However, I really, really enjoyed my reading of this and will pick up whatever the next one in this series is about. Not going to be in my top 10 like World War Z slow dead walked into but it earns a place of what I’d recommend along with WWZ very easily.