Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson

"Why did you attack the humans?"

"They murdered me, Arbiter.  Again and again.  In my fourteenth incarnation, I finally understood that humanity learns true lessons only in cataclysm.  Humankind is a species born in battle, defined by war."

"We could have had peace."

"It is not enough to live together in peace, with one race on its knees."

Robopocalypse has been sitting on my bookshelf collecting dust since the year it came out - 2011.  I had every intention of reading it, since it was pretty well reviewed, but as time went by, I basically forgot I even had it.  Since January is for science fiction, I figured it was finally time to give it a try.  It's a good thing I did too, because it's my favorite book of the month so far.  I love it when I find a hidden gem right on my own bookshelf.

As the name suggests, Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson is about a catastrophic robot uprising against humanity.  The book begins twenty minutes after the war between robots and humans has ended.  The humans were victorious, but it is apparant that their victory came at a great cost.  The narrator, soldier Cormac Wallace, finds a mysterious object at the site of the last battle.  He determines that the object is a black box of sorts; it's a record of the entire war recorded by Archos, the robot leader.  He begins to record the information inside the object, to create a record of what happened for humans.  His notes make up the rest of the novel and explain major events of the war through the eyes of its key players.

One feature of Robopocalype that I really enjoyed was the narrative structure.  The chapters rotate through a handful of different important figures in the war, showing them during critical moments.  This kept the story interesting, fresh, and action-packed.  It also gave it a feeling of credibility, as if you were reallly reading a historical record.  Mixed in are Cormac's annotations about where the information was obtained and how the characters mentioned go on to affect the outcome of the war. 

I had two favorites amongst all the characters - Mathilda Perez and Takeo Nomura.  Mathilda is a young girl who undergoes robot experimentation in a forced labor camp during the war.  The modifications forced upon her end up giving her a powerful advantage over the robots and allow her to aid the human soldiers in the war.  Takeo is an elderly man living in Japan.  He is a genius with technology and figures out a way to free several robots from the grip of Archos and create a safehouse for some human survivors. The fact that my two favorite characters are an adolescent American girl and an old Japanese man speak to the diversity of characters present in the novel.  The robot uprising affects the whole world, and heroes are shown to exist in many corners of the globe.  It was quite refreshing.

Another high point for me was the idea running behind the plot that in times of crisis, people are capable of working together.  I know that this is hardly an original idea in a science fiction novel, but it was satisfying to read, just the same.  The different characters that make up Robopocalypse are shown to care about something larger than themselves.  They make difficult decisions and tough sacrifices in the name of saving humanity.  This idea gave a nice background to a rather outrageous storyline.  I would like to think that if robots ever really rose up against us, we would respond in the same way - with courage and integrity.

"Human beings adapt.  It's what we do.  Necessity can obliterate our hatreds.  To survive, we will work together.  Accept each other.  The last few years have likely been the only time in human history that we weren't at war with ourselves.  For a moment we were all equal.  Backs against the wall, human beings are at their finest."

Robopocalypse was a fun, interesting novel.  I was thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. High literature this is not, but anyone looking for a smart, fast-paced science fiction book would do well to give this one a try.