Robopocalypse is summer reading in Champaign, Illinois

I was at the Champaign Public Library a few weeks ago and saw that the local public school has Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse on its list of summer reading. What a treat for local high school students who select it!

Wilson is Cherokee (enrolled) and has a new book due out, by the way, titled Amped. Kathy Ceceri of Wired said "Wilson has a voice and style very much like Stephen King. But unlike King, Wilson also had the chops to base weird things in his stories on science." I liked Robopocalypse and look forward to Amped.

ROBOPOCALYPSE by Daniel H. Wilson

A friend wrote to me yesterday to tell me about Daniel H. Wilson's Robopocalypse.

I looked it up and am blown away by the story and the author, too. It is a run-away hit in the adult market and Steven Spielberg has got the rights to turn it into a movie. I'm going to get it as soon as possible. I think it has the potential to cross-over and be a big hit in the young adult market, too.

Here's why I'm so psyched about it:

Wilson is Cherokee. A tribally enrolled Cherokee, that is, who grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma (regular readers of AICL know that I write a fair bit about claims to Native identity). Here's an excerpt from an interview from the Amazon page:

One of the most interesting robot battling groups in the book is the Osage Nation in Gray Horse, Oklahoma. You are part Cherokee and grew up in Tulsa. How did your upbringing shape the residents and setting of Gray Horse in the book?
In 1889, the United States government took Indian Territory away from Native Americans and gave it to settlers. Nevertheless, there are still dozens of sovereign Native American governments operating in Oklahoma. These mini-nations have their own governments, police forces, hospitals, jails, and laws – all while co-existing with the US government. Growing up as part of the Cherokee Nation, I always felt that even if the wider world were to crumble, the nucleus of these tribal communities would hold firm. That’s why in Robopocalypse the Osage Nation keeps operating as a bastion of humanity in the face of a total government meltdown. 

And here's a video of Wilson talking about the book. About halfway in, he starts talking about sovereign nations.

Regular readers of AICL will get why I'm so excited. I look forward to reading Wilson's book.