7. Robopocalypse - Daniel H. Wilson
A tale of mankind overcoming the odds after a global attack by a robotic hive mind hell bent on revenge and destruction, on paper sounds like the perfect starting point for a big budget action blockbuster. But what Robopocalypse provides, instead of bombarding us with action set pieces and tales of heroics, is an engrossing handful of stories from a varied and distinctive set of characters, all experiencing the attempted annihilation of the mankind from their own vantage point, told in their own words. Wilson's PhD in robotics also helps in making the details of the automatons and their workings seem frighteningly real, which in the hands of a lesser writer, could have been the far fetched downfall of the book. The book's relatively short but thrilling chapters give us every angle of the apocalypse, from a small girl noticing something strange about her robotic teddy bear early on, to the cataclysmic zero hour when the world changed and millions died, to the eventual rising of a human resistance, spearheaded by teenage cyberbully from London and led by a team of disparate soldiers, citizens and humans that have been tampered with by robotic surgeons. Its large ensemble cast of characters all fighting for a single cause, use of multiple locations and different genres, as well as its singular big bad villain, a self aware computer program with an unsettling child's voice, could make for thrilling and highly emotional viewing.
Is It Happening? Steven Spielberg was quick to scoop up the rights to the novel before it was even released, and has had it pencilled in as his next directing project for some time, but thus far the film adaptation has been put aside for more biographical fare from the director. Given Hollywood's nature of streamlining many of its action properties however, chances are the film will barely resemble its source material, much like the next entry on our list...