{"id":578,"date":"2017-08-23T16:00:53","date_gmt":"2017-08-23T22:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=578"},"modified":"2017-09-10T15:56:59","modified_gmt":"2017-09-10T21:56:59","slug":"book-a-boy-and-his-bot-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2017\/08\/23\/book-a-boy-and-his-bot-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK: A Boy and His Bot (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AA Boy and His Bot<\/strong><\/span>
\nYear: 2011
\nAuthor: Daniel H. Wilson
\nLength: 280 minutes \/ 4.67 hours<\/p>\n

Daniel H. Wilson knows how to write about robots. From\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising<\/a><\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0Robopocalypse<\/a><\/em>, he has taken the same material and re-packaged it in different forms. The tongue-in-cheek \u201cguide\u201d of\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising<\/em>\u00a0was more entertaining than the journal-entry styled\u00a0Robopocalypse<\/em>, but mostly because of its humor. In\u00a0A Boy and His Bot<\/em>, Wilson takes his knowledge of robots and wraps it in a children\u2019s fantasy book. Somehow, this method worked better than the two books I\u2019ve already mentioned, leaving me entertained and educated, but with a sincerity of story that was heartwarming.<\/p>\n

Taking cues from works like\u00a0The Wizard of Oz<\/em>,\u00a0The Chronicles of Narnia,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Alice in Wonderland<\/em>,\u00a0A Boy and His Bot<\/em>\u00a0immerses the reader in a world entirely comprised of robots. Via the stranger-in-a-strange-land approach, this book explores the many characteristics and traits that make robots different from humans. Often, these quirky characters have a lesson about robotics embedded within them. For example, through the \u201catomic slaughterbot,\u201d we learn a bit about 3-D printing. There are also lessons about \u201clinked\u201d robots, biomechanical augmentation, and programming, even if they might not be apparent to the target audience.<\/p>\n

While the fantasy aspect of this book was well done, I had to roll my eyes at the naming conventions of many of the characters and settings. I honestly don\u2019t know any parents, no matter how nerdy they are, who would name their boy \u201cCode.\u201d Similarly, Mekhos (pronounced \u201cMech-ohs\u201d) is an apt description of the world, but locations like the \u201cBeam Stalk\u201d are obviously pulling from more medieval fantasy tales. Despite all this,\u00a0A Boy and His Bot<\/em>\u00a0is a fun story that will leave you entertained and could spark the interest of a young child to pursue robotics as a career choice.<\/p>\n

A surreptitiously educational fantasy set in a world of robots, I give\u00a0A Boy and His Bot<\/em>\u00a04.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n

\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"\u00a0<\/strong>\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\"<\/strong><\/h1>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Boy and His Bot Year: 2011 Author: Daniel H. Wilson Length: 280 minutes \/ 4.67 hours Daniel H. Wilson knows how to write about robots. From\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising\u00a0to\u00a0Robopocalypse, he has taken the same material and re-packaged it in different forms. The tongue-in-cheek \u201cguide\u201d of\u00a0How to Survive a Robot Uprising\u00a0was more entertaining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,54],"tags":[50,760,762,55,95,438,763,8,471,474,761],"class_list":["post-578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-book","tag-50","tag-a-boy-and-his-bot","tag-adventures-in-wonderland","tag-book","tag-childrens-book","tag-daniel-h-wilson","tag-how-to-survive-the-robot-uprising","tag-review","tag-robopocalypse","tag-robots","tag-wizard-of-oz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}