Author: Daniel H. Wilson
Publisher: Doubleday
Put simply, this 2011 book is a Ctrl+V of Max Brooks's 2006 novel "World War Z," only using Find & Replace to change every instance of the word 'zombie' to 'robot'. It's got precisely the same formatting: narrator pieces together the history of a globe-spanning war, based on interviews and other oral accounts. It also has the same structure: quiet before the storm, sudden apocalypse, retreat and entrenchment, human counterattack and victory. They even both have a cutesy nickname for their apocalyptic opponent: Zack and Rob.
"Robopocalypse" comes off significantly worse for these comparisons though. The imaginative scope feels much narrower: Brooks invented a dozen clever ways for the zombie virus to spread, while Wilson just has one. "World War Z" has a pure, clean, crystal-clear focus on 'survival at any cost', while the themes of "Robopocalypse" are muddied by an AI antagonist with baffling and contradictory aims. Brooks maintained the verisimilitude of his book by filling his world with detail; Wilson's novel is story on specifics, long on magical technology like a singing android and a girl with robot-controlling eyes. Brooks's novel was truly globe-spanning, hopping from place to place from chapter to chapter, while Wilson's takes place almost entirely in America (except for a few chapters set in Japan, which make it painfully clear Mr. Wilson has never been to Japan and speaks no Japanese.)
The Japanese aren't the only ones being stereotyped, as one thread of the book follows the battles of a group of Native Americans, whose first reaction to the collapse of civilization is to do a war dance. Subtle characterization is not Mr. Wilson's forte.
For all that, it's just kind of slightly trashy, shlocky fun that shouldn't be taken too seriously. I read on the Wikipedia page that Michael Bay is attached to direct a movie version, and let me say he is the perfect choice. Loud, dumb and violent is pretty much baked into this book's OS.
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