I had such high hopes for
Robopocalypse. The story sounded pretty good: Robots get
smart. They try to take over the world by annihilating humans. Humans
resist. If it sounds familiar it's because it's been done before.
Unfortunately, it's been done much, much better.
What a silly book this was. Right from
the first pages of the book I understood that this was going to be
the literary equivalent of a Michael Bay movie. Action, explosions,
soldiers, tough talk. Characters who are shallower and more wooden
than their robot enemies. While that might work on the big screen (at
least if you're looking for some mindless entertainment), 350 pages
of it get boring real fast.
The book is divided into chapters, each
of which retells events as witnessed by one of the many characters.
These accounts are based on CCTV footage, webcams and the like. The
central character provides an introduction to each story, as well as
a final note at the end of the chapter. This was a major fault of the
book for me. It took me out of the story (not that I was lost in it,
but still). He also kept hinting at the importance of these events
for the future, which didn't leave any room for suspense or surprise.
I'm only giving this book two stars
instead of one because Daniel H. Wilson obviously knows his subject
matter: robot technology. Too bad he couldn't work in some more
humanity.
I hear this is currently being made
into a movie by Steven Spielberg. Will this be one of the few times
the movie is better than the book?
No comments:
Post a Comment