Amped (Vintage Contemporaries) Paperback – February 12, 2013

I enjoy Daniel’s ideas on how robotics and technology might become not too far in the future. The story really emphasizes that technology just makes us more of what we already are. Great read!

This is a dark, and entirely convincing post-apocalyptic sci-fi piece, which is probably why I didn’t like it as much as Robopocalypse. Call me goofy, but I insist even my End Times dramas come with some cheeky humor and unforgettable one liners, if only to break the monotony of the otherwise dark and dreary world being portrayed with relentless, grim determination. Something the author gave us in spades in Robopocalypse but fails to do here. Maybe he thought by losing the sense of humor the world would be just that much more terrifying, or that we’d take him that much more seriously. Ironically, I didn’t find it to be so. I found the world certainly that much more depressing, and something I didn’t want to escape to even for a few hours, far less live in indefinitely. And maybe that was as intended. Maybe considering the gravity of the subject matter the author felt it more important to wake us to eff up from our somnolence about a future that we’re sleepwalking into that if we could wake up for a moment, would surely run the other direction from. But for such a tale to be truly effective, you have to want to finish the story. And I found doing so this time around more of a chore than a truly enjoyable undertaking. But I may not have been the right audience for this book. If you like things dark and humorless, then by all means jump in (most people would insist that it’s the only way to dine on post-apocalyptic fare.)On the plus side, the author is wrestling with very real and important issues, far more real and important than anything which makes the headline news. The latter seems if anything like a smoke and mirrors distraction from the real issues of our day. Things such as the ongoing, ever-expanding loss of jobs to automation, robotics, self-service IVRs and websites, and of late, Watson stepping in to do what even most doctors and highly educated people can’t. I guess it’s too scary and too depressing that people face the prospects of being made entirely obsolete in their own lifetime, surpassed and outclassed by AI in every way. And then, to add insult to injury, after being demoted from the top of the food chain, they come to find out their even more dire fate may well be to simply be eliminated from the food chain. Yeah, maybe with that in mind, I can see why the powers that be try to distract people from the issues that really matter. Hats off to this author for at least keeping things real, and for that he deserved my rounding up to four stars and my getting over myself regarding his story being a bit less fun of a read than I’d have liked. If, after all is said and done, he paints a picture of the future that seems that much more realistic and inescapable, can he really be blamed if that future isn’t something we want to live in? Or does that blame fall more properly on the rest of us too busy playing ostrich with our heads in the sand to insist these near-future concerns be front and center in the public forum?

I have not read anything else by Daniel Wilson, but was looking forward to this book. It starts out strong and fast. Unfortunately it suffers from a number of flaws that become apparent as the story progresses. First is the unbelievability of the world in which it is set.HERE BE SPOILERS... don't read on if you don't want major plot points revealed to you!It's set in a near-future America, and one particular politician, a McCarthy-like US Senator named Vaughn foments hatred against the amplified humans or "amps" to the point of stripping them of all civil liberties and placing them in concentration camps. While I don't have any problem believing that on some dark day this might happen, I simply don't believe it would happen all at once, nor would it happen without a MAJOR outcry from the rest of the non-amped population. Or the rest of the world. After all, most people are good, right? In fact, that sentiment is a kind of mission statement for the book's main character, an amped schoolteacher named Gray, who is capable of far more than he thinks.Which brings me to the next story problem: Gray, the main character, is a total WUSS. This story focuses nearly all of its attention upon the amps who are weaponized. Ex-soldiers, fighters. And into this arena steps the most chicken-hearted character I've read recently. I think Gray is supposed to be the Voice of Reason, someone reluctant to use his destructive capabilities, and a foil to the other villain of the piece, an amped ex-soldier named Lyle--who glories in the bloodshed his battle-ready enhancements can deliver.Gray has to fight Lyle again and again, and of course each time he does he's dragged kicking and screaming (metaphorically and literally) into using his hidden amp'ed talents to a greater and greater degree. His reticence is I think meant to show his moral fiber, but to me it just read like he was a great big coward. The book is half over before he decides to stand up for himself and stop letting himself get beaten up by nearly everybody he encounters.And BTW, although I am a liberal, I don't think the characterization of the "Pure Pride" group (the story's national anti-amp coalition)--a thinly-veiled analogy to any number of rabid-yet-popular Right Wing hate groups--does anybody any favors by portraying them as bloodthirsty rednecks with no other dimension to their actions beyond bigotry and hatred.And finally, in the Big Showdown of Gray versus Lyle and Vaughn (SPOILERS, you were warned), Vaughn's motivations and characterization shift from bullying to pathetic to evil conspiratorial bossiness to clueless and back again. Consequently the reasons for all the trouble he's caused don't make any sense, and neither do the climax and final resolution of the plot. It just wasn't believable.(Oh, and by the way, if you're going to put in a shout-out to "Flowers for Algernon", the least you can do is acknowledge "Beggars in Spain", which covers a LOT of the same ground.)This book does have its moments. Some of the prose is great, and it flows along at a fast clip. Too fast for my tastes, but your mileage may vary.I still want to read Robopocalypse. But this is the work of a young man who doesn't really understand how people are. He seems to understand how technology works--although he utterly ignores the fact that the amp technology is a commercial commodity and the consequences of that. He doesn't seem to understand how US politics works--one senator, by himself, changing the face of civil rights in the United States? I don't think so! And although I don't know from personal experience, I found it unbelievable that genocidal levels of oppression could be allowed to blossom without an angry (and possibly armed) push-back from "the good people"--something that never happens, and its implied throughout the book that it would never happen.There's also a tacked-on love story that doesn't really do much, or say much about the characters. It's just there to sweeten the pot by the time we reach the ending. Give Mr. Wilson a few more years of living, let his writing reflect his real-life experiences, and then these stories will be great.But right now? This didn't cut it for me. I wish it had.

Bought for my husband, who says it's an excellent book.

Bought on the back of the superb Robopocalypse and had high hopes for this one. Sadly soon dashed into a very predictable plot with an ending that was so obvious - wont tell you as I'm not that naughty.Some may like this - if so, good for you.

An interesting follow-up to Robopocalypse discussing the near-future where individuals can elect to have implants which increase their cognitive powers. This inevitably leads to a situation of amped and non-amped individuals set against each other.

I'd read Robopocalypse by the same author and loved it and so I thought I'd give this a try. I found it un-put-down-able! If you like your Sci-Fi 'real' - no spaceships, aliens and galaxy-spanning tales - then you'll love it too. The technology is just 'there' and not the centrepiece, as it is in real life, and the story is about people's relationship with technology.Buy it now and read it now. If you haven't read Robopocalype, then buy that now and read it now too.Catch you later, G.

Great premise but very boring book. Struggled to finish it and found it to be a bit of a slog.