Book Review: Revolution 19 by Gregg Rosenblum

Twenty years ago, the robots designed to fight our wars abandoned the battlefields. Then they turned their weapons on us.

Only a few escaped the robot revolution of 2071. Kevin, Nick, and Cass are lucky —they live with their parents in a secret human community in the woods. Then their village is detected and wiped out. Hopeful that other survivors have been captured by bots, the teens risk everything to save the only people they have left in the world—by infiltrating a city controlled by their greatest enemies.

Revolution 19 wasn’t exactly anything new but it does do some things a little differently and it was enjoyable.  The best way to describe it is The Chronicles of Narnia meets The Terminator, a bizarre mixture but one that kind of works.

Revolution 19 was bizarre for other reasons to.  It seemed that for every good point there was also a negative to counteract that and vice a versa.  For example, I really loved that this was a book about 3 siblings who were all equally important to the story for various reasons.  It is a welcome change from the ‘I am an island’ singular hero we often see in YA dystopia.  But the issue with there being three heroes was that in a book of this length there was just not enough time to get to know them as individuals.  I knew their names, what they were into, how they are different but not what makes them tick.  In the end it meant that I didn’t connect to them as much as I would have liked to, which in turn meant this book lost some of its emotional impact.

Another amazing thing about this book was the robots.  They are so superior to humans, so advanced and perfect.  There were a few moments where they had real depth.  I felt like they truly believe that what they are doing is for the best for all.  There were also moments where I thought they might have the ability to feel emotions like fear and pity.  And there was a hint this maybe, somehow these robots wanted to be human.  The problem was there was just ‘hints’ and ‘ideas’ and ‘clues’.  They were never explored or explained which is a real shame.  I hope that if this series continues it is something that will be looked at more closely because it has the potential to be really interesting.

The storyline was full of amazing action scenes; I read it in one evening because it fairly gripping and easy to read.  But when I got to the end I had to ask myself what the point was.  It seemed to me that not much had changed from the beginning to the end.  They went through a lot of stuff but for no real purpose.  I thought, based on the name, that there would be a Revolution but in the end that was only a hint as well.

All in all Revolution 19 is a fast and fairly enjoyable read if you like action, it did not quite live up to what I hoped it would be but if there is a sequel I would happily read it.

3 stars

Published January 8th 2013 by Harper Teen.  A free copy was provided for review. Image courtesy of Goodreads

Review by Kate Phillips