Roboscape

Roboscape is a young adult, sci-fi/action thriller novel written by American teen novelist E. M. Rivera set in Illinois in Earth 2090. The story centers around a teenage boy whose family and future is ruined by a robot invasion from the AI Humanoids, robots that worked under the control of humanity and went out of control from a technological virus. It is told in a first-person viewpoint in present tense, and has a total of four viewpoint characters that appear throughout the story, the main character's viewpoint being the only one that lasts throughout the entire book. She initially wrote it as a stand-alone children's book when she was younger, but scrapped it until she could come up with something better, which she did some years later. She started writing it at 15, then left it on hold, and revisited it afterwards in 2019. She started officially writing the series at the end of 2020.

Rivera was inspired by sci-fi novels and films such as The 5th Wave, Divergent, and the Tom Cruise film The Edge of Tomorrow. She also took her cue from videogames she played and certain soundtracks she listened to. She claims that writing the technology in the book was difficult, since she repeatedly made the mistake of making it too old for the century the story is placed in. After making too many of these mistakes, she introduced the anti-tech movement idea so it would have more sense.

She quotes:"'Writing sci-fi is hard. World-building, inventing new cultures and themes, new political and religious issues, economical issues... you have to recreate everything. Setting the Earth in the future isn't easy, even if it is the same world we live in. Sometimes we can't simply recreate everything. So in turn, I used an opposing force; something that would make technology retract a bit. And it's true that even now in 2021, there are people that don't agree with technology advancing like it is. Chips and phones, new programs to facilitate work... not everyone likes it. Realistically, something like the anti-techs would happen in our far future.'" She took some inspiration from the theory that technology will someday take over the world with its' fast development and increasing intelligence. She wanted to "give engineers a bit of a pause" and hopefully influence people to "hold their horses, because we can't go too far in such little time". She also considers the possible rebellion against technology, given that robots are already taking away people's jobs in the present.

She says she wants this series to be "exciting, adrenaline-inducing, bone-chilling, and mind-blowing". She considers it her best action/sci-fi series so far. Her purpose is to introduce many characters from different worlds and lifestyles, and have the readers fall in love with every one of them. She imagines her readers to "laugh, cry, scream, cheer, and marvel at the 'epicness' of the storyline".

The book will be premiering on Wattpad on October 20th, 2021.

Logline
Tristan Clarence has a great life; he’s on the high school baseball team, he has a great family, a beautiful girlfriend, and a great university waiting for him. There isn’t much in his life that he would change. But everything changes when their best technology, the AI Humanoids, suddenly spiral out of control and start massacring people.

Now Tristan is alone with his sister Sophie, and his parents, twin brother Thomas, and other sister Heather are missing. How will they survive the robot apocalypse?

Plot
The story begins in 18-year old Thomas Clarence's perspective as he and his family are shopping in a clothing store called Party Gras at a mall. He is with his three younger siblings; Tristan, his twin brother, Heather, his younger sister, and Sophie, his youngest sister and Heather's twin. He is closest to Heather, despite her usually unlikable persona, and Tristan is closer to Sophie, who is the sweeter of the girls.

Heather and Thomas go to a larger store called Timmins' to shop. Suddenly, the robots go haywire and start attacking people along with every other robot in the mall, thus ensuing an apocalyptic chaos throughout the city.

The story jumps back two months earlier in Tristan's perspective, when he and his twin have won a baseball game with a home run. His girlfriend, Corrie McMann, celebrates with them along with Thomas's girlfriend, Tammy Beavers. After they graduate virtual high school, they go out to dinner with their family and their girlfriends' families to celebrate. In the restaurant, a few robots malfunction and are stopped by SecurityBots, a type of AI Humanoid designed by HumanTech. Some time later, Tristan, Thomas, and Corrie go to visit Pontiac Tech University, where they plan to follow their careers and attend school in-person for the first time, being that most people use SchoolStation to attend classes. On campus, a group of anti-tech activists protest and harass the tour group. At the same time, the humanoid guiding their tour malfunctions and attacks one of the prospective students.

For the summer, the family goes to visit Trevor and Edie Renner, the kids' uncle and aunt, who live in New Age County. When they go to a mall to shop, the humanoids malfunction and launch an all-out attack, causing chaos. Tristan and Sophie manage to stay together, but are separated from their parents and siblings. They are rescued by the U. S. Army and taken to a temporary shelter, where they learn combat and weaponry, and their uncle and aunt find them there. The camp is besieged a week later, and during their evacuation, their uncle dies and Tristan fails to save their aunt. Sophie blames him for not listening to her when she asked him to wait for her. The rescue truck is attacked and they are forced to survive out in the open. They are later captured by other survivors and taken to a base, where they discover more Army soldiers and survivors, and they decide to stay there. They meet Lisa, Arnold, Bette, and Graeme.

Tristan displays his leadership and combat skills on a supply run, where they encounter a mutant, earning the camp's trust. Sophie grows worried, since he has a history of becoming tyrannical when placed in a leading position. True to her word, he starts becoming more selfish and leaves survivors behind during attacks, garnering resentment from his sister, who grows more distant with him. She accuses him of cheating on Corrie with Bette, who flirts with him, and he doesn't approve of her talking to a boy named Isaiah, who defended her from Tristan when he was pushing her too hard in training. Sophie's resentment for him grows with every selfish act he commits as a leader.

Some time after Christmas, the soldiers notice supplies going missing and review security footage with the group leaders, including Tristan. They find footage of Isaiah sneaking in, but don't label it as solid evidence; however, Tristan sees it as the perfect opportunity to throw him out, and accuses him openly in front of Sophie. She confronts him and calls him a murderer, triggering him. He shoves her as a result, accidentally pushing her into a workout machine that leaves a fatal head wound, and she dies. Isaiah leaves camp to avoid killing Tristan out of anger.

Tristan nearly suicides out of guilt for his sister's death on New Year's Eve, but is stopped by Bette. They later discover that Graeme was stealing supplies with a group. Tristan forgives him and they lock him up as punishment. Gradually, he starts to be a more selfless, sympathetic leader and grows closer to Bette. However, he has no romantic interest in her.

Some time later, a group of survivors is brought to the base, and Tristan finds Corrie among them, who has partial amnesia from a head wound and cannot remember the last 9 months after the invasion began. Lotis, an Australian member, tries to return Corrie's memories by modifying a machine the Army uses to "wake up" mentally influenced soldiers, but fails. Bette mistreats her out of jealousy and pulls a prank on her by pouring orange juice on her while she is sleeping, not knowing Corrie has a severe citrus allergy, and causes an anaphylactic shock. She confesses her true feelings to Tristan and apologizes, then decides to leave camp.

Two months later, the group continuously tries to bring back Corrie's memories, but only get brief flashbacks. A confrontation between the people and the leading sergeant provokes the protective barrier to be momentarily deactivated, alerting nearby enemies, and a mutant attacks the shelter along with robot infantry. Corrie is injured in battle and remembers everything, but dies before she can tell Tristan what happened. He is then 'eaten' by the mutant and taken away, but is rescued by another group when they destroy the mutant, and they take him to a makeshift base at an airport, where he meets Tina Fairchild.