Publisher: Vintage

Author: Daniel H. Wilson

Release Date: 4/17/2012

MSRP: $15.99 (Paperback), $11.99 (Digital)

Pages: 416

Recommended Audience: Adult

I have never read a book that made me feel so scared of our current technology. Computers and AI are getting scary, so Daniel Wilson wakes us up with a man-made computer with hyper-intelligent AI that takes over the world and starts killing us. Before you go rolling your eyes thinking this is some cheesy sci-fi story think again. David takes his story seriously, and this is all in the way he tells the story itself. The book is a journal written by a war hero named Cormac Wallace who sees video and audio on a “black box” from recordings of every robot or “Rob” that was connected to Archos (the evil AI).

Throughout these passages is his retelling of what he is seeing and hearing, but he tells it like he might be interviewing the people in the recording. We follow several war heroes from just before Zero Hour and on throughout the war against the robots. Daniel tells the story in a relentless balls-to-the-wall sort of way that sucks you in just the first couple of pages. Each scenario describes the torture and gruesome death scenes as we get torn apart and destroyed by these robots. The characters are well portrayed and vary greatly. Each person has a completely different personality so you have many people to look forward to reading about.

Each story from each person is heart-wrenching and you really feel what it is like to be afraid of what we rely on on a day-to-day basis. Simple machines like service robots to high-tech military drones are overwritten and start attacking people. Daniel does an excellent job of telling you how innocently each robot acted before Zero Hour then suddenly they become killing machines. Things like Smart Cars start running people over in the streets. The book is far from cheesy and will just take your breath away.

My only complaint really is that I wish there was more. I wanted to hear more stories from these people, but overall what we get is one hell of a ride through robotic hell. Other than that the book is excellent and any fan of technology should read this and be wary of the future.