Review: Fast-paced, exciting YA adventure
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2013
Darrin Grimwood's DESTROY ALL ROBOTS is a dizzying adventure story aimed at Young Adult readers obsessed with video games and Transformer-style non-stop action.  In the year 2040, fifteen-year-old robotics whiz-kid Toby Badernoch enters his robot creation, Eve, in a televised reality show called "Destroy All Robots."  The premise of the show is a knock-down drag-out fight on a secluded tropical island between an army of robots controlled by an evil roboticist called "the Toymaker," and a legion of robots controlled by contestants vying for a ten million dollar prize.  Toby, along with his best friend Caitlin Steel, is one of eight teams of contestants, and he's convinced Eve can help him best the other players, beat the Toymaker's robotic army, and make it first to the secret lair hidden somewhere on the island.  If he can achieve this, he will win the money, which could help him find the cure for his older brother's fatal illness.Keep in mind that this is a reality TV show - not everything is what it seems.  It becomes clear fairly quickly that no one can really be trusted, and all of Toby's hopes and dreams are threatened when things quickly fall apart.  The other contestants in the competition are an odd blend of cartoonish caricatures, including a pair of fiendish dentists right out of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, a trio of hard-drinking biker chicks, and a slimy garbage collector with short man syndrome (he's the first to jump on the conspiracy theory bandwagon).  The characters divide themselves into "good guys" and "bad guys" pretty quickly, and there's never much doubt about where everyone stands or whom we should be rooting for.  The show's producer, Marty Shultz, is one exception; he reminded me a lot of KING KONG's Carl Denham (or maybe JURASSIC PARK's John Hammond), who was willing to risk the lives of scores of people for the chance at media fame and fortune, but he's not quite a "bad guy" - maybe just misguided!  There is also a continuing nod to THE WIZARD OF OZ (including an adorable robotic Scotty dog that would give Toto a run for his money!).DESTROY ALL ROBOTS is well written, fast paced, and full of enough cliffhangers, action scenes, and thrilling violence to delight any teenage reader.  As for the robots, they are a crazy blend of 1950's-style hulking masses of metal, and sleeker, more modern robots.  Eve is of the sleeker variety, and she can actually speak (which sets her apart from her competition).  The evil Toymaker's army is made up of video-game-style robotic creatures that challenge the good guys and the bad guys alike. If you're familiar with the video game "Destroy All Humans," you'll have a good idea what the conflict here is like.  If it's all a bit black-and-white, Toby and Caitlin are still likeable and interesting characters, and the hint of real affection between them foreshadows romance yet to come.  This is clearly the first of a series (don't expect a real ending here), which is a negative for me - I'm not a fan of the slew of serialized novels being churned out these days.  But I'm not the target audience (and I haven't been for more than a few decades), so I'll bow to the current trend.There is a bit more to DESTROY ALL ROBOTS than just robots, fighting, and violence.  Grimwood is asking us whether the ends justify the means, and that's a question today's teens need to ponder.  Toby's motives in entering this deadly competition are noble - he wants to save his dying brother.  But are noble motives enough to justify the mayhem that erupts in the course of this novel?  By the end, the answer won't be easy.  I recommend this to teens - and especially boys - who are fans of action-oriented science fiction and video games.  Please be advised that the novel is on the violent side, although I wouldn't describe it as graphic.  The dentists, particularly, are sadistic monsters![I borrowed this book from the Kindle Lending Library, thus no "Amazon Verified Purchase" tag appears with this review.]