Roughly twenty years from now our technological marvels unite & turn against us. A childlike but massively powerful artificial intelligence known as Archos comes online...and kills the man who created it. This first act of betrayal leads Archos to gain control over the global network of machines & technology that regulates everything from transportation to utilities defence & communications. In the early months sporadic glitches are noticed by a handful of unconnected humans
- from a senator & single mother disconcerted by her daughters smart" toys to a lonely Japanese bachelor to an isolated U.S. soldier
- but most are unaware of the growing rebellion until it is far too late. Then in the span of minutes at a moment known later in history as Zero Hour every mechanical device in our world rebels setting off the Robot War that both decimates &
- for the first time in history
- unites humankind."