I just finished Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson. I don’t generally read Science Fiction but I think this book transcends that genre.  Imagine a world a few years down the road from ours, but not too far but long enough for domestic robots to become commonplace, where there are chips and control systems in our cars that do most of the driving and sense, communicate, and react to other cars to avoid collisions. Where the military deploys robots in non lethal duty in Afghanistan monitoring villages. Now imagine that all these robots and computers and sensors are interconnected.

Next imagine that the machines start to take over. The same computers, communications, and sensors that enable cars to avoid collisions, well … do you get the picture? Or that the military non lethal robots suddenly know how to pick up, load, and fire machine guns. Or that Afghan Taliban and American soldiers uniting to fight the machines. (The terrorists have years of experience fighting robots and drones.) This book is about the machines taking over and human resistance..

Mr. Wilson is a PhD robotics scientist who gave up the field to write books. I think he’s going to be a star. His book reminded me more of Stephen King that straight science fiction. He has the perfect way of making the commonplace, scary and frightening. Robopocalypse is going to be Stephen Spielberg’s next movie.

For now though, Daniel Wilson is an engaging smart, funny cool guy, who gives book readings at small stores in Tulsa and yells to his Godson that he can only have one cookie.

Sweetie got my copy signed by the author. No, you can’t borrow it. His next book out is Amped. You’ll bet I’m getting it.