This book is pretty disturbing. It made me want to throw all my computers out the window and move waaaaay way off the grid. Beyond that aspect of the story, I was really blown away by Wilson's depiction of the Osage (and one Cherokee) characters. Specifically, chapter 4 in part two is surprisingly moving and really highlights why the OwnVoices movement is so important.

Having said that, there are a couple things that inspired me to hold back that last star. First, I had a hard time with the weird narrative structure--Cormac is supposed to be the one transcribing these events as they are played back from the box, but we get most pieces in first person and never in Cormac's voice except for his own pieces. If all the narratives are going to be delivered as a novel why have Cormac be the one "writing" the stories at all? I can understand the underlying need for a survivor to be telling the story, but I'm not really sure I'm on board with Cormac being quite so artistic with telling the history of the war. I like Cormac, and he is a pretty good Everyman character, so why not just give us the whole narrative in Cormac's voice? I liked this story better, but World War Z did the whole reporting vignette narrative thing in a more submersive and convincing way.

My other issues are with some of the characters that loom large in one section or another only to drop out of the narrative completely in others. Thinking on it (and realizing there is a sequel), this is probably completely on purpose, and it totally makes sense. I just don't like it. I definitely want more of Nomura's story, and I want to know what happened to both Paul Blanton and Mathilda Perez after the war. I'm also a little mad that Lark died "off-screen" and with little ceremony. That character deserved to survive, and if he absolutely had to die it should have been more noble than shambling onto the scene as a robo-meat-puppet. Still, my beefs are fairly small in the grand scheme of things, and maybe I'll get what I want from the "missing" characters in Robogensis, which I am totally going to read. Like, right now. ( )

Another one that's hard to rate. Some parts I liked very well indeed and some I didn't. Not really one I'd recommend but I'm not necessarily sorry I read it. Hmmm

The story of the apocalypse started by a robot uprising, Robopocalypse is a story about human resilience, unpredictability, and stubbornness. Wilson raises some great questions: What makes us human? Do we become less so when we're forced to lose our compassion in dire times? What makes a hero?

While there are some technical terms and phrases in this book from an engineering standpoint, everything is concisely and easily explained, keeping you immersed in the story even if you know nothing about robotics. Every choice that a robot makes, makes sense, and every moment of humanity, from both humans and AI, that shines through the gloom is a tear that went down my cheek. ( )

En un futuro cercano, una unidad de inteligencia artificial llamada Archos se activa sola y mata al hombre que la creó. Con este primer acto de traición, Archos inicia el siniestro proceso que la llevará a controlar la red de máquinas y la sofisticada tecnología que regula nuestro mundo. Unos meses más tarde, todos los dispositivos mecánicos se sublevan, haciendo estallar la Guerra de los Robots, una sangrienta ofensiva que diezma a la población humana y que, por primera vez en la historia, hace que hombres y mujeres de orígenes y creencias dispares se unan sin reservas.

I found this book pretty entertaining. It wasn't groundbreaking and may have contained Sci-Fi clichés but it was still a fun read. I had forgotten this was supposed to be made into a film by Steven Spielberg and I'm not sure where that stands but would look forward to seeing that. In the meantime, I enjoyed it enough to read the sequel. ( )