Robogenesis

by Daniel H. Wilson
362 pgs

Robogenesis is the sequel to Wilson's very entertaining book Robopocalypse, which detailed mankind's war against Archos 14, the artificial intelligence that brought about the robot uprising and decimated the human race. Robogenesis picks up immediately where its predecessor leaves off; mankind thinks they've destroyed Archos 14 and won the war (not a spoiler, since you find that out right at the very beginning of Robopocalypse). Unfortunately for the survivors of the war, however, their victory is short-lived, as Archos 14 had left behind many copies of its code.

Now the war moves into a new stage. It's no longer simply a war between robots and humans. Now, it's a war between different generations of robots. Mankind, and thousands of human-robot modified creatures left behind by Archos's experiments are simply trying to stay out of the crossfire and survive.

Robogenesis took me somewhat longer to get into than the first book did, and I think that's because the plot took awhile to surface. But the imagery of the world Wilson has created is fantastic and I was more than happy to wait for the story to unfold. It's clear from the first chapter, which gives an account of a man becoming the host to a robot parasite, which merges itself with the man's nervous system and takes over both his mental and physical functions, that Wilson's storytelling abilities have developed and progressed since the first book.

I'm hoping there's a third book coming.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆