Book Review: Robogenesis: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson



Robogenesis: A Novel by Daniel H. Wilson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Publisher: Doubleday

Summary:  "The machine is still out there. Still alive."

Humankind had triumphed over the machines. At the end of Robopocalypse, the modern world was largely devastated, humankind was pressed to the point of annihilation, and the earth was left in tatters . . . but the master artificial intelligence presence known as Archos had been killed.

In Robogenesis, we see that Archos has survived. Spread across the far reaches of the world, the machine code has fragmented into millions of pieces, hiding and regrouping. In a series of riveting narratives, Robogenesis explores the fates of characters new and old, robotic and human, as they fight to build a new world in the wake of a devastating war. Readers will bear witness as survivors find one another, form into groups, and react to a drastically different (and deadly) technological landscape. All the while, the remnants of Archos's shattered intelligence are seeping deeper into new breeds of machines, mounting a war that will not allow for humans to win again.


I read this while under the weather so perhaps it was more depressing, gruesome and bleak than I normally would have taken it. That said, the setting is the apocalypse so it's not supposed to be unicorns pooping candy and sunshine. I liked the human-robot hybrid perspective and quite took to Lark and his point of view. The complexity of what to do with those now so changed and where the lines of humanity and robot were exactly, blurred a lot. I think this was my favorite aspect of the book overall. The question being posed over and over again as the two merged in different ways. There wasn't a lot of resolution here and I did feel that, as with many second or middle of series books, there was some meandering about in anticipation of things to come in the next. I did feel that overall, the pace of the story moved along well and there was plenty of well done action to be had. All things considered, I do look forward to reading the next in the series. I'd recommend this for sure if you're a scifi fan (whether you've read the first in the series or not) or are looking for a new apocalypse world in which to immerse yourself. I might not tote this one to the beach but it's a good read poolside over a weekend.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.



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