Robopocalypse

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Robopocalypse
Author(s)	Daniel H. Wilson
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	June 7, 2011
Pages	368 pp
ISBN	0-385-53385-3

Daniel H. Wilson on Bookbits radio talking about Robopocalypse.

Robopocalypse is a New York Times best selling science fiction book^[1] by Daniel H. Wilson published on June 8, 2011. The author has a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, and many of the robots in the novel were inspired by real-world robotics research.^[2] Sources like Robert Crais and Booklist have compared the book to the works of Michael Crichton and Robert Heinlein.

Plot

In the near future, an increasingly robot-reliant society faces extinction after a computer scientist accidentally unleashes a sentient artificial intelligence named Archos.

After failed attempts at making the AI less smart, Archos becomes self-aware and immediately takes steps to stop the Earth's destruction. Since humans have been polluting the Earth (determined to be the only source of life in the galaxy), Archos makes them his prime target. By infecting all devices that are chip controlled (cars, elevators, robots, etc.), Archos begins a systematic attack on the human race.

Small bands of survivors find ways to circumvent the eradication and survive without the modern technology. This is a story of those survivors in the months and days leading up to and following Archos' date of attack, Day Zero.

Reception

Author Stephen King called the book "terrific page-turning fun", and the Richmond Times-Dispatch found it a "superbly entertaining thriller" with "everything you'd want in a beach book".^[3] Several other prominent reviewers reviewed the novel favorably.

Unfavorable reviews include those of fantasybookcritic.blogspot, which called it "a disappointment";^[4] Damien Walter of the Guardian, who called it "nothing more than an airport thriller";^[5] and Ron Charles of the Washington Post, who called it "a groaner", and lamented that "even by the cornball standards of the original 'Battlestar Galactica', this is a frakkin’ disaster".^[6] Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times thought it "crisply efficient and intermittently chilling", but with "ham-fisted dialogue".^[7]

Film adaptation

Steven Spielberg has committed to direct a film based on the novel.^[8] Drew Goddard has been hired to write the screenplay.^[8] Steven Spielberg has also hired designer Guy Hendrix Dyas to work with him and his writers on creating the visual tone for the film and conceptualize its robotic elements.

The film, jointly financed by 20th Century Fox and Spielberg's DreamWorks, will be released in North America by DreamWorks through Touchstone Pictures on July 3, 2013. Fox will handle the international distribution.^[9] Filming will take place entirely in Montreal, Canada.^[10]

Notes

External links

• Author site