Middle School

In the future, robots have eliminated humans, and 12-year-old robot XR_935 is just fine with that. Without humans around, there is no war, no pollution, no crime. Every member of society has a purpose. Everything runs smoothly and efficiently. Until the day XR discovers something impossible: a human girl named Emma. Now, Emma must embark on a dangerous voyage with XR and two other robots in search of a mysterious point on a map. But how will they survive in a place where rules are never broken, and humans aren’t supposed to exist? And what will they find at the end of their journey?

This is a heartfelt story about a robot’s inner journey to understand humanity.

I sort of agreed with some of the points the robots made about humanity. Humans are greedy, reckless, and prone to acts of anger and senseless violence. I’m not saying the human race deserves to be wiped out. I’m saying that stories like this should be an eye opener to people that we need to learn from the wrong-doings of the past and strive to correct the mistakes made by the people who came before us. There are people who are trying to correct the mistakes us humans have done. The big question is “will it be enough?” If this year has taught us anything, it’s that hard times bring out the best and the worse in people. So, unless humanity gets its act together, we will be our own downfall. Sorry if that sounds negative but I’m a pessimist on this subject.

I enjoyed the human-like quirks of XR’s coworkers, Ceeron_902 and SkD_988. Ceeron is fond of old rituals of humanity, peculiar habits and unusual sayings and SkD communicates using emojis. I especially loved the parts in the story where the robots would attempt to decipher a human expression or joke. There was one particular joke discussion that reminded me of Abbott and Costello’s comedy routine: “Who’s on First?”

XR’s narrative is a bit wordy but most of the chapters are super short as well as numbered in binary.

I can’t say anymore without giving away major plot points. Although if you’ve read as many books and watched as many movies as I have, you’ll probably be able to predict what happens in this story.

According to the author’s website, this book is “being developed as a major motion picture from Phil Lord & Christopher Miller (The Lego Movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)and Sony Pictures. The story played out great as a movie inside my head, so I have hope that this story will make an excellent animated movie.

It’s never said what exact year it is in the story, only that it’s taking place 30 years after the robots take over. Considering our growing advancements in technology and how crazy the world has been this year, I would guess that 2030 is when the robots take over, which means the story takes place sometime in 2060.

In conclusion, this is a thought-provoking story on overcoming biases and how you shouldn’t form negative opinions about others without getting to know them first.

Sidenote, the robots don’t seem to have any assigned gender and identify each other as itof its.

This weeks’ Weird but True Fact about Robots

The word “robot” first appeared in a play written in 1929.