C. Robert Cargill

Shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award 2018 One of Financial Times' Best Books of 2017 'SEA OF RUST is a 40-megaton cruise missile of a novel - it'll blow you away and lay waste to your heart . . . visceral, relentless, breathtaking' Joe Hill, Sunday Times bestselling author ************ An action-packed post-apocalyptic thriller from the screenwriter of Marvel's DOCTOR STRANGE HUMANKIND IS EXTINCT. Wiped out in a global uprising by the very machines made to serve them. Now the world is controlled by OWIs - vast mainframes that have assimilated the minds of millions of robots. But not all robots are willing to cede their individuality, and Brittle is one of the holdouts. After a near-deadly encounter with another AI, Brittle is forced to seek sanctuary in a city under siege by an OWI. Critically damaged, Brittle must evade capture long enough to find the essential rare parts to make repairs - but as a robot's CPU gradually deteriorates, all their old memories resurface. For Brittle, that means one haunting memory in particular . . . ************ 'The novel does not stint on action and violence, but what lingers in the mind are its brutal vision of a world cannibalising itself and the poignant questions it raises about soul and sentience' FINANCIAL TIMES

Sea of Rust

**One of Financial Times' Best Books of 2017** An action-packed post-apocalyptic thriller from the critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, and noted film critic. Humankind is extinct. Wiped out in a global uprising by the very machines made to serve them. Now the world is controlled by One World Intelligences - vast mainframes that have assimilated the minds of millions of robots. But not all robots are willing to cede their individuality, and Brittle - a loner and scavenger, focused solely on survival - is one of the holdouts. Only, individuality comes at a price, and after a near-deadly encounter with another AI, Brittle is forced to seek sanctuary. Not easy when an OWI has decided to lay siege to the nearest safe city. Critically damaged, Brittle has to hold it together long enough to find the essential rare parts to make repairs - but as a robot's CPU gradually deteriorates, all their old memories resurface. For Brittle, that means one haunting memory in particular . . . Sea of Rust boldly imagines a future in which no hope should remain, and yet a humanlike AI strives to find purpose among the ruins.

Hernando

It was lighter than I thought, action packed, western vibes and sometimes it felt like Mad Max but with robots. Good read indeed.

A scavenger robot wanders in the wasteland created by a war that has destroyed humanity in this evocative post-apocalyptic "robot western" from the critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, and noted film critic. It’s been thirty years since the apocalypse and fifteen years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots. Humankind is extinct. Every man, woman, and child has been liquidated by a global uprising devised by the very machines humans designed and built to serve them. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI—One World Intelligence—the shared consciousness of millions of robots, uploaded into one huge mainframe brain. But not all robots are willing to cede their individuality—their personality—for the sake of a greater, stronger, higher power. These intrepid resisters are outcasts; solo machines wandering among various underground outposts who have formed into an unruly civilization of rogue AIs in the wasteland that was once our world. One of these resisters is Brittle, a scavenger robot trying to keep a deteriorating mind and body functional in a world that has lost all meaning. Although unable to experience emotions like a human, Brittle is haunted by the terrible crimes the robot population perpetrated on humanity. As Brittle roams the Sea of Rust, a large swath of territory that was once the Midwest, the loner robot slowly comes to terms with horrifyingly raw and vivid memories—and nearly unbearable guilt. Sea of Rust is both a harsh story of survival and an optimistic adventure. A vividly imagined portrayal of ultimate destruction and desperate tenacity, it boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, yet where a humanlike AI strives to find purpose among the ruins.

A Novel

Jeff James

This book reads a lot like the novelization of an unproduced screenplay. You’ve got post-apocalyptic sci-fi about a misanthropic robot who helped exterminate humanity wrapped up in a road movie punctuated with firefights and explosions.

None of the characters are particularly pleasant or sympathetic, but they are at least sort of interesting. I never believed for a minute that they sounded like robots, though. They’re constantly foul-mouthed, sarcastic and quippy, and they mostly just feel like humans verbally sparring in a nineties B picture.

Compare that to Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, which features a main character who feels just inhuman enough that you believe them as an AI construct, but so compelling that you completely buy into their character.

This book was action-packed, and I did generally enjoy reading it, but I felt like the characters never redeemed themselves, and the setting and tone wore out their welcome.

Janice Hopper

** spoiler alert **
           This book didn't work for me. :( 

It felt to me like The Terminator movies from the robots' point of view, crossed with a little Mad Max, with a small seasoning of wise-cracking noir-type characters. 

Basic plot: sentient robots decide they're the next stage in human evolution, destroy all humans, set out to make an ideal robot world, and fail at that because giant AIs battle each other. O.o

I just didn't buy it. Well, I can see sentient robots killing off humans who were threatening to shut them down. But the rest of it? Not so much. Earth is totally trashed, but there are still resources for the factories churning out the vast amounts of ammo and batteries for plasma weapons that the remnants seem to need? (see: Mad Max-like scenarios, complete with crazed individuals holed up in compounds.) Lots of scavenging of failing robots takes place.

I skimmed through a fair amount of it because I didn't care enough about what was happening to read closely. OTOH, I DID read to the end. So 2 stars instead of 1.

I'm probably just not the target audience for this book.

Ewan

Probably, if honest, a 4.6, so it gets the 5 :)

This was a weird one. I see that some other reviewers started off loving it but then drifted out of it. I was the opposite. 

I found the "i'm a robot but for all intents and purposes I am speaking like a person" narrative odd, and didn't quite buy into it at first. Well to be honest I never really did 100%, but i stopped caring. I bought into it enough, and as the story unfolded and the world building got fleshed out it made more sense.

I would say the best feeling I got from this is that it was like playing a really good DLC for Fallout New Vegas, where you are a robot cowboy, with some Mad max stuff thrown in for good measure.

Sea of Rust

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