“A thrilling ride through a nuanced, post-singularity world populated by a frightening and fascinating array of smart machines. Read this and you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: the world belongs to robots; we’re just living in it.” —Daniel H. Wilson, best-selling author of Robopocalypse and The Clockwork DynastyThe Robots of Gotham is a near-future novel set in an occupied Chicago in … novel set in an occupied Chicago in 2083. The world is on the verge of total subjugation by machines, and American resistance has just collapsed. With the war over, a foreign businessman comes to Chicago to profit from the rebuilding, and stumbles on a machine plot to exterminate all life in North America. He assembles an unlikely team of foreign peacekeepers, American resistance fighters, and robots to stop it.
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Our first person narrator is Canadian businessman Barry Simcoe who happens to be in Chicago to conduct business. When his hotel is abruptly vacuated and he runs out into the middle of a firefight, he discovers that the war in Chicago isn’t quite as over as he’d assumed.
And here is where I got hooked: in the middle of this vivid, extremely tense and bloody fight, Barry’s instinct is compassion. For humans, for robots. Later, for a dog about to starve to death in an abandoned hotel room.
This mixture of humane behavior in the midst of inhuman violence gripped me tight and made it difficult to put the book down. From the beginning, the pacing accelerates steadily to a high stakes climax.
Along the way, Barry teams up with a Russian doctor, a Chicago realtor, and a Venezuelan soldier as well a couple of machine intelligences. As Barry ends up doing what he feels is the right thing, though it’s usually the most dangerous thing, he’s constantly outrunning surveillance as he begins to find out who the enemy is, and what motivates them.
The aspect that won me over with the robots is that they aren’t machine-evil, or gigantic tin cans for guys to smash buildings, bridges, and countries. McAulty takes the time to develop the robot intelligences, making their culture fascinating as well as believable.
I really liked the female characters, who all have smarts and agency, and the occasional robot blog posts are a hoot—a great way to deliver background data and make it entertaining. The narrative style is skillful, full of humor and image, and gracefully executed in past tense. (I’ve been reading too many first person present tense stories in which complicated backgrounds are especially awkward in present tense.) We assume he survives, and yet that somehow didn’t take away from the white-knuckle climactic scene, which we see twice—and the second time the action is relayed, step by step, blow by blow, increases the tension, even though we know what happened.
When I finished, I was surprised to discover that it’s 600 pages. Those pages flew by so fast I really thought it was a short novel.
It ends with some intriguing threads still dangling, making me hope there will be more from Barry and this world.
When the robot apocalypse comes, I hope it’s this much fun. Like The Martian and Ready Player One, The Robots of Gotham is set in a high-tech near-future where something has gone terribly wrong, and it’s navigated by a hero who’s quirky, resourceful, and as likable as they come. Read it for the rock’em-sock’em-robot action — read it for the deft world-building with its detailed taxonomy of intelligent machines — read it for the sobering parallels to modern-day issues and threats. Or just read it because it’s a helluva good ride.
The Robots of Gotham is a thrilling ride through a nuanced, post-singularity world populated by a frightening and fascinating array of smart machines. Read this and you’ll come to the same conclusion I did: The world belongs to robots, we’re just living in it.
Smart machines are here – whatever the laws banning the development of AI might be – and they’re here to stay. They’ve made sure of that, in the post apocalyptic future in which The Robots of Gotham is set.
Canadian businessman, Barry Simcoe, arrives in 2083 Chicago only days before the hotel in which he is staying is attacked by a rogue war machine. In the chaos that ensues, he ends up accused of murder, makes the acquaintance of a badly damaged robot called Nineteen Black Winter and, while awaiting interrogation, chips in to help an overworked, understaffed Russian medic.
It’s as this hotchpotch of events come together that Barry stumbles upon a machine conspiracy to reduce mankind to nothing more than a token species by way of a deadly plague. Obviously, he wants to do something about it. And as he begins his hopelessly inept investigation, he ends up committing himself – and his new friends – to a helter-skelter ride that rapidly spirals out of control.
How much out of control?
Trigger-happy revolutionaries; maniacal scientists; bloodthirsty tyrants; hidden robot colonies; genocidal war machines; James Bond scenarios. Barry has to face them all, and still find time to arrange a charity dinner for Chicago’s elite while maintaining the charade of total, bumbling innocence.
Never a dull moment in this compulsive, fast paced and thoroughly engaging romp through a future that could all too easily overtake us. And on a personal note, I DO hope to see Barry Simcoe again one day.
Brilliant!
I really hoped to enjoy this book more than I actually did. And it’s unfortunate because, despite a sometimes meandering sequence of events, there was a really great example of worldbuilding going on here.
The robot society is a clever one, and I found myself wanting to learn more and more about the ways of sovereign intelligences and thought machines. The named robot characters in the book were great too. Pretty much all the supporting characters in the story were also well done.
The problem is the protagonist. Barry is not an enjoyable main character to follow. I cared very little to his well-being, and cared far more about the fates of other characters like Sergei, Black Winter, the AGRT, even the dog Croker. Not Barry. He was boring, borderline annoying, and about as exciting as toast. It really brought the experience down a few grades for me, unfortunately.
But if there was ever a book written more on the robot side of things, I’d be all over that!
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As an AI researcher I appreciated this view of machine intelligence & the human-machine interaction.
The book has a great premise-sentient robots that can “be born” and super computers that run most of the world governments. Good character development and plot line. My only complaint is that the main character seems to find himself in one dangerous and violent situation after another, yet bounces back (despite injuries and gunshot wounds) ready for the next harrowing, violent encounter without any debilitating effects. All in all, a good read and l liked the book.
One of the best “world building on future history of robot human interaction” books, ever.
One of the best books I’ve read in a long, long time. Characters were well developed and realistic, and the story was well told and flowed nicely. Highly recommended.
Adventure, mystery, action, sinister intrigue, clever heroics, and robots — what more do you need? I couldn’t put it down.
A fast-moving adventure story set in the haunting cityscape of a near-future Chicago hollowed out by war. The headlong plot somehow includes enough breathing space to execute a thought experiment about the mingling of true AI and human cultures, and also vividly portray friendships that cross the boundaries of nation and even species. Handle with care: this is the sort of book that makes people sf-addicts for life.
The Robots of Gotham is my kind of summer reading. A big, fat, robot-y book that is so human. This guy will throw himself in front of robots to save the lives of his enemies. The best solution is the courageous one. It’s so delicious.
If Johnny 5 had a baby with the Terminator, the result would be The Robots of Gotham: a book that explores the consequences of world domination by our Robot Overlords. (And, lest we forget the badassiest of them, our Robot Overladies.) Drones, dinosaurs, and doggies — with a plague thrown in for good measure! — the barter is banter, and death is cheap. With man against machine, machine against machine, man against man, unlikely alliances must be forged across all species, rational or otherwise. For all its breakneck world-building, constant questing, and relentless wheeling and dealing, The Robots of Gotham is deceptively deep-hearted: a novel about, of all things, friendship.
Soldiers, spies, diplomats — and that’s just the machines. Wait until you meet the wise-cracking hero and his dog. Wildly inventive, outrageous fun!
Todd McAulty has imagined a fascinating geopolitical future, filled it with some very cool technology, and thrown in healthy helpings of intrigue and action. The result is a page-turner that kept me riveted from the opening lines to the final chapter. Highly recommended!
Todd McAulty has done the incredible. Delivered a rich and credible near-future world, where Thought Machines control, well, almost everything (and are themselves astonishingly diverse and cool), and used all this to create the most human SF story I’ve read in a very long time. I love everything about The Robots of Gotham. I want more, McAulty. MORE!
An epic novel of man vs. machine, full of action, political intrigue, and unexpected twists. Todd McAulty has given us a fresh, compelling take on life during a robot apocalypse.