Owen Gray was a satisfied, complacent teacher until one of his students decided to jump off the top of the school to her death. Amped By Daniel H. Wilson Read by Robbie Daymond Doubleday / Random House Audio June 2012 She was "amped" and said she saw what was coming. Amped refers to a neurological implant that is used for various medical issues, like ADHD and epilepsy (which is why Owen has one). But the cure for these medical issues doesn't result in just being cured of that problem, but also of not being able to use so much of the human brain. Amps come back from surgery smarter, quicker thinking and - to non-amps- scary. As Owen's life starts to unravel, he finds that his life's story isn't what he expected or believed and human nature is far more evil than he could have imagined. Amps soon find themselves on the outside of normal society and then the real discrimination starts. I'm not going to go into much detail here about what comes but you can guess. Unlike Robopocalypse, this novel is short, breezy and shallow. I never found myself rooting for him, or for him to connect with any of the other characters. Even the action wasn't much to get excited about (when it finally happens, that is). Then the story is over and really nothing sticks with you that you didn't learn in chapter one. The bottom line is that Wilson has a great "what if?" scenario but not much of a novel. Robopocalypse can be excused for copying World War Z's concept (both with the multiple perspectives and the journal-like chapter entries) because it posed a realistic threat and - most importantly - was good! This one still poses a realistic threat and some ethical questions, but it isn't very good. A note about the reader: Daymond does a serviceable job. We can tell characters apart by voice, we could hear excitement, and we could hear pace changes in the story. But he didn't have much to work with as many of the characters were either dead pan serious (like Owen) or over the top caricatures. Good job with what he had. Overall, a passing read. A popcorn book. Nothing more.