Revolution 19 (Revolution 19, #1)

by Gregg Rosenblum

From the creators of Homeland and the Final Destination films, Revolution 19 is a cinematic thriller unlike anything else. At first they called it system-wide malfunctions when the robots stopped fighting at exactly 2:15 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time, August 17, 2051. For twenty-two hours the battlefields were silent. Then when the bots began killing again, now targeting their human commanders, they shook their heads and called it fatal programming errors. When, a day later, the skies over cities on six continents grew dark with warships, they began to understand. And when the bombs rained down and legions of bot foot soldiers marched into the burning ruins, killing any humans who resisted and dragging away the rest, they finally called it what it was: revolution. Only a few escaped the robot war. Those who did lived in secret freeposts, hiding from the robot armies determined to control the human race. Nick, Kevin, and Cass are some of the lucky ones-they live with their parents in a secret human community outside the robot-controlled Cities. But when the bots discover their village and attack, the teens are forced to run.
Determined to find out if their parents are alive, the three siblings venture into the heart of the robot City, where one misstep could be their last.

• ISBN10: 0062125982
• ISBN13: 9780062125989
• Publish Date: 8 January 2013
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Revolution 19 is a compelling and adventurous post-apolocalyptic young adult novel, sure to get anyone's blood pumping. Fast paced and full of wonderful drama and action, this is a novel that will knock your socks off. Gregg Rosenblum has written an incredibly dymanic thriller, full of mystery, romance, and suspense. With an intriguing cast of characters, brilliant plot development, and tons of action and drama this is a surefire winner from a new debut author blasting onto the scene with intense and incredible talent for captivating anyone with his stunning abilities to tell a story in such a cinematic way. The world he creates is unlike anything else I've read closely compared to it in the young adult genre. When opening this book from the first page and diving in, it's almost as if you are stepping inside a real live movie and fighting for survival to live through the aftermath of the robot revolution.

The strength, courage, and sacrifice that the three main characters (Nick, Cass, and Kevin) show is incredibly overwhelming, when faced with the odds of possibly never getting to see their family members or friends alive again. Their relationship with one another was one of the things that I liked best, while reading about them. Rosenblum does a wonderful job of showing character depth and has taken the best care to write them in such a relatable and likable way that reader's will be able to identify with them and sympathize with their situation. Each of them has their own strengths, weaknesses, and distinct qualities that make them stand out on their own.

The world Gregg Rosenblum creates is incredibly intriguing and his attention to detail is amazing. The world in Revolution 19 is jam packed with the right amount of fear and action, that it leaps to life off of the pages. In some ways, it's chill-inducing and has a way of creating the feel of panic. The twists and turns will leave your head reeling. It's an intriguing debut young adult book that you will definitely not want to miss out. If you enjoy dystopia, action, and suspsense then this is defintiely the book for you.

[Ashley]

BookNook — Young Adult book reviews

Revolution 19 is so far my biggest disappointment of winter 2013 releases. I thought it was going to be AMAZING! With a great cover and a great blurb, I envisioned a crazy world thrown into war and chaos, with Terminator Transformers whooping ass left and right and a group of brave teens standing up for FREEDOM and THE FREE WORLD and THE RIGHT TO LIVE! What did I get? A book that reads very much like a lame cartoon with 12-year-old "save the world!" kids as the main characters.

Let's start with the world building: that's easy because there was none. I read the blurb about how robots were designed to fight human wars and then turned their weapons against the humans. I thought OMG THIS IS AWESOME! I'll get to learn all about this war, why and how humans created robots, what went wrong, maybe they got too intelligent or there was a glitch in the software, and how the robots decided to take over the world, and what steps they took, and what their end-game was..... nope. None of that. The ONLY piece of world building information we get is in one tiny paragraph in the beginning that basically reiterates the synopsis.

At first we called it system-wide malfunctions when the robots stopped fighting at exactly 2:15 P.M. Greenwich mean time, August 17, 2051. They had been designed by humans to fight our wars, but for twenty-two hours the battlefields were silent. We called it a blessing and the beginning of a new peace. Then when the robots began killing again, now targeting their human commanders, we shook our heads and called it fatal programming errors. When, a day later, the skies over cities on six continents grew dark with warships, we began to understand. And when the bombs rained down and then legions of bot footsoldiers marched into the burning ruins, killing any humans who resisted and dragged away the rest of us, we finally called it what it was: revolution.
—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

That was the end of the world building. After that, we just know the robots are there and accept it. No more questions answered. No more world developed. That's it.

If you're going to write a scary robots-take-over-the-world sci-fi book—the kind that people love to imagine might happen—why would you make the robots lame? This is the stuff people love to fantasize about! They love imagining extremely high-tech humanoid robots with fierce intelligence and crazy weaponry. So please explain to me why you would choose to load up your book with robots that just sound... lame?

[The robot] was roughly the shape of a man, but broader, taller, more boxlike, and rolling rather than stepping.

Their faces were the same dull metal as the rest of their bodies, flat and featureless except for two rectangular openings where eyes would be.

Robots that are boxlike? They have WHEELS? Their faces are flat and featureless? Are we talking about WALL-E? Is that what we're so afraid of? When I imagine robots—especially ones that take over the world—I imagine looking into their HUMAN-LIKE eyes and seeing fierce, scary intelligence. I imagine them being scary and metallic, but also molded in the human image—not boxlike. The more similar they are to humans, the scarier the story. But instead of going that route, Revolution 19 loaded up its book with robots that are essentially big boxes on wheels.

Okay, onto the characters. I didn't care about any single character in the book. First, apparently they're teenagers:

"How old are you?" asked Mrs. Tanner.
"I'm seventeen," said Nick. "My sister is fifteen, and my brother is thirteen."
—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

But ALL of them act like 12-year-olds. They're all immature, make stupid decisions, and bicker over ridiculous things. Oh and Lexi "flirts" the way a girl might flirt in 6th grade.

"[Kevin] hated when Nick called him 'Kid.' Like Nick was so grown up and Kevin was just a useless little child."
—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

The character development was non-existent. Each character is given a very specific personality at the beginning of the book, and they maintain it from start to finish. They don't grow, they don't change, they don't get better. Kevin is the tech geek who is miraculously some kind of computer/tech genius, despite living in the forest all his life. Anytime he seems a comm or a TV or any piece of technology he goes "OMG I HAVE TO LEARN EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS!" Cass is the sporty girl. That's about it. She's athletic, she runs fast, and any time there's any kind of sports or movement-related thing, she just dominates at it. And then there's Nick. Since Nick is the oldest, he's the "brave" one who's all self-sacrificing and has to leap into all danger (stupidly) in order to "protect his family." This results in him making loads of stupid decisions that oftentimes compromise their goal. One example:

Lexi takes Nick & Co. to the re-education center, where they think maybe their parents are being held. Lexi gives them one simple instruction: don't get too close. The area is surrounded with CPs and if they get too close, the robots will spot them and apprehend them immediately.

"Can we get closer?" says Nick. [..]
"No," said Amanda[..]. "Come on, let's go back."
"Amanda's right," said Lexi. "Not safe."
"Come on, just a few blocks closer," said Nick. He knew it wasn't smart, that he was pressing his luck, but they were here now, and he had to get a closer look.
[..]
"I need to get closer." [Nick] took a step toward the checkpoint.
Lexi grabbed his arm. "No, you idiot!" she hissed.
"I need to look!" Nick said, too loudly, yanking his arm away.
[..]
The robot, with a graceful burst of speed, glided over the kids' heads and then hovered in front of them on the sidewalk. "YOU WILL HALT AND RECEIVE YOUR INFRACTION, OR YOU WILL BE DETAI—" The robot cut itself off mid-word and began pulsing a bright red. "YOU ARE LACKING IDENTIFICATION IMPLANTS. REMAIN HERE AND YOU WILL BE PEACEFULLY DETAINED."
—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

So Lexi says "Don't go closer, you'll get caught" about 8 times, Nick doesn't listen all 8 times, Nick gets caught and almost captured, Lexi (smartly) runs away, then when Nick sees her next, he thinks to himself:

He grinned back at her, feeling his cheeks flush, but then reminded himself, as he broke into a jog toward the door, that Lexi and Amanda had abandoned them back at the re-education center.
—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

Yeah, she abandoned you because YOU didn't listen to her and YOU got yourself caught. Did you seriously expect her to stick around and risk her life for your stupidity? [/rage] Kevin made countless stupid decisions like this that ultimately didn't help anyone. It was extremely frustrating for me to see him make bad move after bad move, and it's not like they were stupid decisions that happened to have a good outcome.. most of them were just really pointless and if anything, they jeopardized their goal.

Finally, the plot. The reason I compared Revolution 19 to a cartoon, is because it has that "kids have all the power" vibe. Robots take over the world, the poor helpless parents get captured, and only the kids can SAVE THE WORLD! Sounds like a cartoon, does it not?

And like a cartoon, this book is also riddled with happy coincidences. Any time something goes wrong, someone shows up to save the day. The kids are lost in the forest, and a random dude stumbles out who they get directions from. The kids go into a restaurant, order their food, realize they have no money and don't know how to pay, and they meet Lexi, a girl who decides to help them because she's bored. The kids are being chased by robots and have nowhere to hide, and they run into a sympathetic storeowner who lets them hide in their basement. The kids can't go around town because they don't have identity chips, and Lexi happens to know someone who can make fake ones... etc.

And before anyone gets excited, there is no romance in Revolution 19, even though it was promised in the blurb. There is a 17-year-old boy (or a 12-year-old in a 17-year-old body), and a similarly aged girl, but that's it. They kiss ONCE, randomly. But there is no romance. There is no flirting (unless you count the girl calling Nick a "rock star" a million times), there is no sexual tension, there is no love, there is no lust; there is only one silly kiss.

"You broke out?" said Lexi. "And made it across town again?" She smiled. "Now you're just trying to impress me."
—Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

At the end of the day, Revolution 19 might be a book geared towards kids.. Like 12-year-olds. It has that vibe; it has characters who feel really young, it has a somewhat ridiculous plot that may appeal to daydreaming young'uns, and maybe to a 12-year-old that boy-girl relationship might seem romantic. But for your average young adult, Revolution 19 sums up to being very sub-par on all levels. If you're looking for something dangerous, dark, intense, and full of frightening robots and mind-blowing action, don't read this book. Go read Partials by Dan Wells instead. Now THAT'S a book about creepy, intelligent robots taking over the world. And it's epic.

[Amber]

I am muy disappointed. I was expecting something AMAZING with this one. I mean, come on, there are evil robots that turn on their creators. How could this NOT be good? So much potential was wasted here.

That rant was slightly more ranty than I intended. Because I did like Revolution 19. It was a good book. It just wasn't the Terminator 2 that I was expecting. Sorry, I'm just a little disappointed since this was one of my most anticipated reads of 2013 and I didn't love it, though I certainly liked it.

Full review here: http://www.booksofamber.com/2013/01/revolution-19-by-gregg-rosenblum.html