Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson is a thrilling and creative exploration of the apocalyptic uprising of Artificial Intelligence, and the global human resistance to their efforts to destroy mankind. It’s a chilling vision of our near future, in which household servant robots, military technology, and self-driving cars quickly devastate human populations, but pockets of persistent survivors across the world resist by any means necessary. This book is tense, thought-provoking and action-packed, and I loved every minute.⁣
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Wilson, a Cherokee citizen, populates this novel with numerous Indigenous characters, most prominently a father and son from the Osage Nation who join the war from far flung fronts. Popular dystopian media too often centers exclusively/majority white characters, but books like this one decisively deny that false vision of the future. And I love the way this book shows the fight against the robot uprising as a global struggle, skipping across the world to depict the war's complex diversity. Wilson’s Robotics PhD also shines through in his conception of the finer details of the strengths and weaknesses of AI. The tight chapters which zero in on key moments of a many year long war make the ending feel somewhat rushed, but overall I thought this book was completely awesome and I can hardly wait to pick up the sequel.⁣