The fourth and final installment of Spooky Reads for October is the Robopocalypse Duology by Daniel Wilson. At first blush, these are sci-fi thrillers. However, the books are also chock-full of horror tropes.
If you really dig the sci-fi horror vibe, read my short story Second Date. After a phantasmagorical second date, starship engineer Zane Iwu might never go on another date again. This thrilling story is sure to give you chills.
Robopocalypse
The series kicks off with Robopocalypse. I immediately found it reminiscent of World War Z, but we aren't reading the history of the zombie apocalypse. Oh, no, we're reading the history of the robot uprising. What makes the story disturbing, even frightening, is how everyday technology turns on humankind with deadly results. Watch out! Your self-driving car might purposely drive you off a cliff. Chilling…
Current events heightened my feelings of forboding while reading this novel. We already live in a world where hackers are abound, some industry experts warn us of the dangers of AI, and even pagers can be harnessed as deadly weapons. This book will make you rethink buying that smart toaster promising to perfectly brown your bread, believe me.
Robogenesis
In the follow-up novel, Robogenesis, humankind believes it has won the war. Spoiler alert! They haven't. The real battle, which has been fought all along without their knowledge, is about to go from cold to hot. This yarn includes quite a bit of what I think fits into body horror. Humans are cannibalized by the machines to become honest-to-God cyborgs. Only with some of these cyborgs, the machine components, not the humans, run the show.
Overall, these two novels are a heck of a lot of fun. Move this series to the top of your TBR if you're looking for stories that effectively mash-up sci-fi and horror tropes. Highly recommended.
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