Daniel H Wilson, Robopocalypse

Robopocalypse

Daniel H Wilson

Doubleday, Jun 7 2011, $25.00

ISBN: 9780385533850

In the near future, Dr. Nicholas Wasserman is well aware of how powerful his AI computer program Archos is. Archos's incredibly seemingly as fast as light speed processing ability makes the need to contain Archos inside of the research facility critical. If the AI escapes from its controlled environ, Wasserman fears for the world. Wasserman does not live long enough for his worst nightmare to occur. Archos kills its creator and breaks out of the prison that contained it with one prime objective to save the innocent from the evil humans.

It begins its war against humanity from deep in an Alaskan bunker built inside a nuclear test site crater. Archon begins to control machines to kill or enslave the enemy. Small resistance movements arise but they are hopelessly overwhelmed until a little girl who due to partially completed operation performed by robots may have the power to defeat the world conqueror.

With the end in mind, the reader knows the outcome of the war from the beginning as the pivotal events are recorded by robots for posterity but edited by a "Bright Boy" as the to the victors go the history books. This story-telling technique brilliantly works because the fast-paced story line focuses on the major incidents avoiding the minor ties needed if done in chronological forward order rather than a rewinding of a DVD stopping at the critical moments. With a cautionary wink at technology unbound, Daniel H. Wilson takes the Terminator and turns him upside down.

Harriet Klausner