In the indistinguishable and not too distant future, a unified robot uprising threatens humankind’s existence. Retold in the form of transcribed data mined from Archos, the driving A.I. force behind the Zero War, Cormac “Bright Boy” Wallace refers to this written history as the Hero Archive. Each transcription fills in the timeline detailing the crucial contributions of man, woman, child, and robot before, during and after the uprising. Think Bicentenial Man meets the Borg, then they invite the Terminator over for dinner. You can just imagine the eminent major motion picture—directed by…you guessed it…Mr. Spielberg himself.

In his tale of technology gone bad, Daniel H. Wilson questions just what it means to be human, and explores the idea that we must stop fighting our selves. There is no single Zero War hero, rather characters, spanning the spectrum of scumbag to saint—troubled Native American youth to the daughter of a congresswoman—elderly Japanese electronics repairman to American air traffic controller. In a post-modern turn, the hero is not a lone good-guy, but the combined and isolated efforts (at least early in the war) of every-man—judged not by traditional societal values, but by his part in taking Rob down. 

This event appeared to represent a turning point in Lurker’s life. As the New War began in earnest, it seems that he left all childish things behind him and started behaving as a member of the human race. In further records, Lurker’s arrogance and vanity remain the same. But his breathtaking selfishness seems to have disappeared along with the silver car. —Cormac Wallace MIL#GHA217

Humans need each other to win this war, but do we still need a common enemy to bring us together? Archos, the child-like A.I. directing the uprising tells his followers so. However, the line between human and robot becomes fuzzier with every story Wallace reports. Humans are altered in grizzly robot experiments leaving them one foot in flesh and the other in Battlestar Galactica. Robots awaken and desire liberation from the network of machines, while others are disconnected and altered, loyally serving the cause. Is turning the machine’s own technology against itself enough to ensure the survival of humankind? And, what separates human from artificial intelligence? After reading Robopocalypse, you may not be so sure.