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Sea of Rust

C. Robert Cargill (Goodreads Author)

4.08 · Rating details · 7,936 ratings · 1,125 reviews

One robot's search for meaning in a world where every human is long gone.

A touching story of a search one robot's search for the answers in a world where every human is dead.

It is thirty years since the humans lost their war with the artificial intelligences that were once their slaves. Not one human remains. But as the dust settled from our extinction there was no easy ...more

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Paperback, 365 pages

Published September 12th 2017 by Gollancz (first published September 5th 2017)

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· 7,936 ratings · 1,125 reviews

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Apr 22, 2018 carol. rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of Scalzi

Shelves: sci-fi

Move along: unpopular review time. Despite the beautiful cover and glowing reviews, Sea of Rust was decidedly anticlimactic.

description

Set in a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been eliminated, it is centered on Brittle, an autonomous artificial intelligence, and her effort to survive. Brittle is one of the last Caregiver models of AI, originally created to care for humans. When out in the Sea of Rust, scavenging parts from dying AIs, she is attacked by another AI, setting in motion a complex chain of events.

Most of the story is told in first person, although when Brittle relates the general events that led to the evolution of artificial intelligence and the war with humanity, she often takes a third-person historian approach. I found the story generally well told and interesting, although there are some occasional time shifts when I found myself thinking the transition was a bit abrupt. Most of the time, the past eithers provides perspective on Brittle’s existence or that of the AIs.

The problem for me is perhaps that I read a bit too much fantasy and sci-fi, and the characterization never really coalesced for me. For about 80% of the time, I mentally characterized the AIs as ‘somewhat dysfunctional human character,’ with maybe 20% of the time believing I was reading about non-human intelligences. Contrast that with Children of Time, in which Tchaikovsky was able to create a race of believable, intelligent spiders that did not feel human in their thinking, or Chambers' A Closed and Common Orbit that centered on an AI trying to figure out an identity. Rust's AIs almost universally felt like humans with dysfunctional emotional issues. Didn’t work for me. It didn’t impede me from reading, by any means, but it spoke more to my apocalypse issues than issues of AI or self-determination. There’s a twist at the end that hardly seemed a twist at all, and further confused me about its very existence.

"And most systems weren't top-of-the-line when it came to security, instead running on mainstream driverless systems yanked out of any old car, modified only with a standard widely used manual drive code written twenty-five years back. And this was no exception. The code had eccentricities, and few bots knew enough about them to bother debugging them. If you fucked with the things enough internally, you could force a reset that would give manual control over to the driver, without the need for a password."

Paragraphs like this left me wondering: why didn't AIs write new code instead of using 25 year old code that had bugs? Why is an AI saying 'fucked' to describe a very human habit of 'ineffectively screwing around? It reads like "Mad Max," not computer AI.

From reviews and descriptions, I was a bit afraid this might head into ponderous ‘philosophical’ discussions, musing on what it means to choose one’s identity. It does do that, but in a very accessible and generally interesting way–although again, it didn’t feel alien as much as ’emotionally stunted anti-hero.’ There’s a great deal of action and gunfights–at one point, I found myself wondering about bullet factories–to distract the reader from the thorny character and determination issues. There's also a bizarre one page discussion about what it means to be 'God' in this new order, which seemed oddly out of place. I am almost positive that it would have driven my philosophical friends bananas with logical leaps and assumptions.

Of all of it, I found I was most interested in the backstory, the development of the AIs and the leap into self-direction. I also found myself wondering about the current ability of AIs to manage the parts and power they needed, issues that seemed largely ‘hand-wavey’ for the importance they play. Not bad, certainly, but underwhelming in terms of character and world-building. Honestly, it feels light in actual science, and more like "The Terminator Grows a Heart." In short: this is Hollywood Sci-Fi. But now it can head back to the library.

Two and a half RAM chips, rounding up because I'm human. ...more

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Apr 08, 2019 Melissa ♥ Dog/Wolf Lover ♥ Martin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle-own, own, sci-fi

My name is Brittle. Factory designation HS8795-73. A Simulacrum Model Caregiver. But I like Brittle. It was the name Madison gave me, and I liked her.

This is the Sea of Rust, a two-hundred-mile stretch of desert located in what was once the Michigan and Ohio portion of the Rust Belt, now nothing more than a graveyard where machines go to die

I loved this freaking book!! I want more sci-fi like this one! A +

Happy Reading!

Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾

...more

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Sep 17, 2017 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2017-shelf, sci-fi

I was reminded half of Clifford Simak's City with robots and dogs reminiscing about the days of when humanity was still alive and half of a total dystopia where survivors in a wasteland cyberpunk it up and scrounge for parts to keep themselves alive.

This ain't a bad thing. In fact, together with the great character in Brittle and the clear writing that goes between survival, memory, adventure, memory, and then mind-blowing world-building reveals about the purpose (or lack of) of it all, I was pr ...more

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Sep 24, 2017 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, post-apocalyptic, review-copy

4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2017/10/10/...

After hearing everyone rave about the works of C. Robert Cargill, I finally got to read one of his books. My verdict when I finished Sea of Rust? The praise is justified.

The novel follows the life of a robot named Brittle in a post-apocalyptic future. But Brittle isn’t a typical robot and this isn’t your typical post-apocalyptic story. In the world of this book, humanity’s fear of an A.I. takeover has indeed come to pass, 4 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2017/10/10/...

After hearing everyone rave about the works of C. Robert Cargill, I finally got to read one of his books. My verdict when I finished Sea of Rust? The praise is justified.

The novel follows the life of a robot named Brittle in a post-apocalyptic future. But Brittle isn’t a typical robot and this isn’t your typical post-apocalyptic story. In the world of this book, humanity’s fear of an A.I. takeover has indeed come to pass, but instead of us prevailing like all the movies always show, victory actually went to the machines. Now it has been thirty years since the war, and every last human is dead. Super computers referred to as the One World Intelligences control everything, and the last two standing have turned to fighting each other, determined to be the only mainframe left to reign over the minds of all robots on the planet.

But not all robots want to give up their individuality and be part of the collective. Those who wish to retain control of their own programming and memories are left with no choice but to hide, then run as their cities and safe havens are invaded and consumed by the OWIs and their countless drone-like facets. This is how we meet Brittle, who used to be a caregiver model back in the day when robots still had humans to care for. Now though, she is a lone scavenger eking out a precarious existence in the large desert known as the Sea of Rust, selling whatever spare parts she can pull from other broken bots she comes across in her travels. Old components are always in demand, and Brittle herself is one corrupted core away from certain death, with her own parts becoming increasingly harder to find.

Then one day, our protagonist’s greatest fears are realized as she suffers damage to an irreplaceable, irreparable piece of her hardware. Brittle knows her days are numbered, unless she can find the part she needs to save herself. As it so happens, she is offered a slim chance of survival by a group of independent robots needing her services as a pathfinder through the wasteland. Their mission is secretive and dangerous, but Brittle is left with no choice but to accept their offer in order to avoid her own inevitable shutdown.

What I loved most about Sea of Rust was its premise. Books about machines that become the dominant intelligence on earth and seizing control of the earth away from humans are a dime a dozen. So are post-apocalyptic novels, for that matter. But here’s a book that combines those two ideas and twists them into something fresh.

I was also immediately taken with our protagonist. The story opens with an encounter between Brittle and another broken down robot she is hoping to cannibalize for parts. While I doubt this intro was supposed to make readers feel sympathetic towards her, what it does do is show us what makes her tick. It’s a bot eat bot world, and only the toughest survive. Brittle is just being logical and pragmatic, as machines are wont to do. But although she has long since evolved past her caregiving programing, the memories of her past remain, as hard as she tries to suppress them. Most of this first section of the novel is dedicated to exploring that history, examining Brittle’s relationship with her human owner as well as chronicling how the robots first rose up and eventually took over. This resulted in a slow and gradual introduction, but it was one filled with rich world-building and fascinating insight into our protagonist.

My only regret about this book is less of a criticism and more of just a casual observation. What originally drew me to Sea of Rust was the prospect of reading a story from a robot’s perspective, but of course, the whole point of the novel is that as an AI grows smarter and achieves sentience, it also becomes more human. Robots may have replaced humanity as the dominant intelligence, but they are not infallible, and ironically, in achieving the ability to feel and think for themselves, they have also adopted very human behaviors, including coming up with their own rituals to follow or identifying with a certain gender. In time, they have even inherited their creators’ faults. They wage war. They destroy the planet. They oppress and subjugate their own. In essence, there’s little difference between reading about Brittle and reading about a human protagonist. At times, I even forgot we were reading about robot characters, which was no doubt Cargill’s intent, but I did wish we could have seen more of the their “machine-ness” come through, as that would have set this book apart even more.

In the end, Sea of Rust was quite the thrill ride through a very different post-apocalyptic setting. Weaving a story filled with both action and emotion, C. Robert Cargill has written a novel that is meaningful, unique, and entertaining. I’ll definitely be reading more by the author. ...more

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Aug 12, 2017 Chelsies Reading Escape rated it liked it

Shelves: 2017-releases, review-books

I dont know if I can find the words needed to properly convey my feelings about this book. I wasnt expecting the beginning to hook me so quickly. It reminded me a bit of the Terminator movies and I loved those. Robots have turned against their creators and now with mankind extinct the 2 major One World Intelligence (OWI) are trying to assimilate every free robot to their programming. The main character Brittle spends her time in the Sea of Rust salvaging parts and running from the OWI. I enjoyed ...more

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Dec 06, 2019 Mel (Epic Reading) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: own-print, own-ebook

On Earth in a time where no humans exist, and there are only human made AI robots, we are challenged to look at ourselves, human society, the definition of a 'living thing', and question our own existence. C. Robert Cargill has brought us a spectacular science fiction, social commentary through the eyes of a charismatic robot and a POV from history before humans were decimated in his novel Sea of Rust. This is easily one of the most underrated books of the 2010's (released in 2018). Forget the M ...more

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Oct 03, 2017 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well, humans have been killed off, and Earth is a wasteland. A.I.'s now rule the world and it turns out that they are just like us. It's weird but not too unexpected I guess. I did rather enjoy this book. It was sort of a futuristic western. It was impossible to not like these dang bots, and maybe that's the reason I couldn't go all in with this book. It just replaced humans with bots. They were just like us, in all respects. They even wondered about an afterlife. Heaven, or something to that ef ...more

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Nov 27, 2017 Richard Derus rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Rating: 5* of five

Hey! Guys!! Even the LA Times agrees with me about this book!

It's #Booksgiving y'all! Need something fast, for your SF-reading #IAmTheResistance-shouting bestie?

https://tinyurl.com/y8vo9nzm

SEA OF RUST from Harper Voyager fills the bill. Read my 5-star review to learn why. It's a damn-near-perfect read at any time but has special meaning now. Thanks, C. Robert Cargill.
#ReadingIsResistance ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 Karl marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-06-books-bought

This is the trade hardcover Harper Collins first edition.

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Jul 10, 2020 Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, audiobooks

3.5 Stars
Overall, this was a fascinating piece of science fiction set in a post apocalyptic future. I was not particularly invested in the present day storyline, because I never became attached to the AI protagonist. The story was just not particularly character focused. Instead, it was more of an intellectual science fiction novel. Personally, the best parts of this novel were the flashbacks that recounted the rise of robotics and the fall of humanity. This story directly referenced the laws o ...more

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Aug 16, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: edelweiss, sff-book-club-challenge, sci-fi

$1.99 1/2/2018 in the US Kindle Store!!

This book was pretty awesome. I was worried it would be a mistake reading this right after another robot-centric book, but I'm happy to say it wasn't. This book imagines what might happen after a robopocalypse, after the humans are all dead and AI robots rule the world. The answer? Funnily enough, a second apocalypse.

We follow Brittle, a Caregiver robot who fought in the robot-human war and is now just trying to survive in the wasteland that followed. She $1.99 1/2/2018 in the US Kindle Store!!

This book was pretty awesome. I was worried it would be a mistake reading this right after another robot-centric book, but I'm happy to say it wasn't. This book imagines what might happen after a robopocalypse, after the humans are all dead and AI robots rule the world. The answer? Funnily enough, a second apocalypse.

We follow Brittle, a Caregiver robot who fought in the robot-human war and is now just trying to survive in the wasteland that followed. She makes her living scavenging robot parts and trading/selling them to others. Two mainframes (AI supercomputers?) are battling for dominance over the world. They want all robots to upload their memories to the mainframe so they can be all knowing, and use that knowledge to take over the world.

Robots often come down with brain sickness, that is to say, their parts go bad, or they overheat, and if they cannot find replacement parts they go crazy, losing memories, hallucinating, etc.. Some wander out into the Madlands in the Sea of Rust and join up with the other crazy robots. Some upload themselves into one of the mainframes. The more I think about this book, the more complex it all becomes.

The world building here was rich. And though it was complex, the story was told effortlessly and wasn't difficult to follow. I read this over the course of two days. It was quick and had that unputdownable quality that made you just want to keep reading.

The author gives his readers a lot to think about. The implications of AI, the definition of AI. What that might look like and what it means for the future. What is man's next logical step in the evolutionary chain? I found myself curiously conflicted throughout the book because on the one hand, I was rooting for Brittle all the way. She was fantastic. On the other hand, robots sort of murdered the human race... so... yeah.

Despite all that, the book also managed not to take itself too seriously. The mad robot calls himself the Chesire King. Brittle talks about being able to hear a human's "most tightly clenched silent farts". There were parts that made me laugh out loud and there were parts that made me want to cry.

I really, really loved this story. There were a couple of chapters that were kind of redundant (and I can't say more without spoilers) but that was the only thing holding it back from being a five star read. If there is a sequel, I'll probably pre-order it.

This book releases officially on September 5th, and I would highly recommend it to any sci-fi fans, or readers who like post-apocalyptic, dystopian type novels. Thank you to Harper Voyager and Edelweiss for providing an eARC for me to review. ...more

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Sep 06, 2017 Lucy Banks rated it really liked it

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful exploration of the fate of mankind, told through the perspective of a robot.

I adored C. Robert Cargill's Dreams and Shadows, so was very excited to get a chance to read this book. To say it was very different from the previous book would be an understatement. However, even though I didn't love it quite as much as Dreams and Shadows, it certainly was a highly engaging, thought-provoking read.

The tale is I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

A wonderful exploration of the fate of mankind, told through the perspective of a robot.

I adored C. Robert Cargill's Dreams and Shadows, so was very excited to get a chance to read this book. To say it was very different from the previous book would be an understatement. However, even though I didn't love it quite as much as Dreams and Shadows, it certainly was a highly engaging, thought-provoking read.

The tale is set in a dystopian future, where robots have wiped out humans, but have inadvertently brought about their own gradual demise - mainly through the rise of OWIs - One World Intelligence 'bots' with god-like aspirations. We follow Brittle, a caregiver bot, who's tough, unreliable and fairly bad to know. However, through her eyes, we gain insight into the world of the robots, their rise, and their annihilation of humanity.

So, things I loved about this book... The whole concept, actually. Dystopian sci-fi futures have been done to death, but I felt this novel brought something fresh to the table, and the back-story was incredibly engrossing, not to mention utterly convincing. You could really imagine it happening, which is slightly alarming!

The world-building was likewise impressive; the sea of rust, the Madlands, the various little towns where the robots hide out; it was all well realised and immersive, and that's a hard thing to pull off. As for the sections of back-story; Brittle's own experiences as a caregiver for a human and his wife, the history of AI - it was all really fascinating, and really worked for me.

My only complaint is it was too action-packed at times. There was lots of racing around, doing this, that and the other, and I felt this detracted from the subtlety of the novel as a whole. There were also a couple of occasions where I felt bewildered by the plot-line, and had to return and recap, to remind myself what exactly was going on. I also would have liked to see more development of Brittle's character - she was so intriguing, but I found it a little anti-climatic that her relationship with Mercer (another caregiver robot) wasn't more fully explored.

But these are just minor things, which didn't impact my enjoyment too much. Overall, a highly creative read, from a writer who's already proved himself to be an incredibly creative author. I'll be looking out for more stuff from him! :-) ...more

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Aug 31, 2017 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-read

It turns out that existential angst isn't limited to a human post-apocalyptic world--even after they kill off their human creators, the robot victors have lots room for their own personal crises and continued search for meaning. Also, and perhaps not surprisingly, survival and power grabs are still the name of the game, so in a lot of ways, everything has stayed the same even as it has radically changed.

An interesting and fast-paced story about a future that doesn't seem too hard to imagine. ...more

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Sep 02, 2018 Montzalee Wittmann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Sea Of Rust by C. Robert Cargill takes the listerner/reader on a trip to the future where mankind is a thing of the past but many of our feelings live on in advanced AId that have taken over the world. Some want to control all the AIs, not is that not a human trait or what? Others seem freedom and rebel, hiding in the Sea of Rust...
The narration is fantastic! Really have the book the right feel of robotic systems with some of them with human like qualities, others not so much. Perfect person for ...more

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Jan 18, 2018 Nicky Drayden rated it it was amazing

Both epic and fast-paced, this book grabbed me from the get go and wouldn't let me put it down until the end. The bots all have so much personality, and the twists and turns the plot made were delicious! ...more

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Jul 11, 2018 Allison Hurd marked it as dnf

Shelves: man-author, scifi, sff-bookshelf

I'm calling it. Time of death, 23%.

A lot of great ideas but this format was essentially an EMP that worked specifically against me.

CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)

-Info dumps. I complained that Sanderson had ~2 pages of info dump in the third book in a series I absolutely adore. 70 pages of exposition has made me feel like I should try chewing my paw off to escape. I don't want a robot ...more

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Jul 07, 2017 Silver Thistle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: post-apocalyptic

There are not enough stars to indicate how much I love this book! We're only half way through 2017 but I'll go so far as to say that this is my favourite book this year and I honestly can't imagine anything that would knock it off that spot. I loved this from the very first chapter and literally couldn't put it down. I cracked it open within 10 minutes of it falling through the letterbox and didn't look up from it again until the last page was turned.

It's very rare for me to gush about a book bu There are not enough stars to indicate how much I love this book! We're only half way through 2017 but I'll go so far as to say that this is my favourite book this year and I honestly can't imagine anything that would knock it off that spot. I loved this from the very first chapter and literally couldn't put it down. I cracked it open within 10 minutes of it falling through the letterbox and didn't look up from it again until the last page was turned.

It's very rare for me to gush about a book but this one is just made of awesome. I'm all about Post Apocalyptic fiction and I can't get enough of it. It's usually zombies that I favour but really it doesn't matter how the world ends, just so long as it DOES end. Nuclear, aliens, plague, climate change...it's all good. Apocalypse by robot though is rare enough to get bumped up the TBR list every time. I thought Robopocalypse was good when I read it a few years ago but Sea Of Rust just blows that one out of the water.

I was hooked right from the get-go when Brittle's (great name) interaction with Jimmy got me right in the feels. Gah, my heart broke a little bit. Best introduction to a character I've read in a long time. All of the characters were easily pictured though, even the very short lived secondary ones, due in part to absolutely pitch perfect dialogue. Mercer is the best kind of villain, the kind you love to hate without really hating them, and the interactions between him and Brittle never got old. I was on the edge of my seat more than once when things looked bleak for Brittle and I alternated between racing to the end to see how it all came together for her, and trying to pace myself and spin it out so it lasted as long as possible. It was a thing of beauty to watch it all unfold and I could happily have read on for another 400 pages. I marvel at the mind that brought this concept to life and made me forget at times that I was reading about robots while at the same time ramming it home that this was a world populated by machinery. Mr Cargill is a very talented man.

I would LOVE to see this made into a movie and have no doubt that it won't be long until I get my wish. It's just crying out to be on the big screen and I can't wait! This fellow can definitely write and I'll follow him wherever he goes from now on. Hugely enjoyable story and I can highly recommend it without hesitation. Best book of 2017!

*I received this paperback from the publisher* ...more

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Jun 03, 2019 Jamie Stewart rated it really liked it

This brilliant novel is a mix of The Foundation series and Mad Max. It’s filled with intelligent, interesting characters and contains a lot of brilliantly described action scenes.

This definitely needs to be a film. As a book I could have read it all in one go.

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Jul 13, 2018 Emma rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, post-apocalypse

This was alright. There wasn’t anything particularly new or original here. It reminded me a lot of Asimov’s I Robot. The robots could just have easily been human in this story.

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Jan 09, 2018 Wing Kee rated it liked it

Fantastic world building, cliched story.

World: The world building is phenomenal and the best thing about the book. The history, the present, the pieces of the world, the dynamics, the societies, the nods to Isaac Asimov, all these things makes this a wonderful world to play in.

Story: The story on the other hand is rather ho hum cliches and tropes of the post apocalyptic genre that has been popular the last couple of years. The writing is fine, the pacing is good and the motivations and the story ...more

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Jun 26, 2018 Char rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, dark-fiction, science-fiction

3.5 stars!

Life on earth has changed, all the humans are gone, and the robots have messed up things even worse than we did. Now the robots are fighting amongst each other-the fight for individuality and life itself remains the same, be it among regular robots, OWI (One World Intelligence), or the humans that have long since disappeared.

Overall, I enjoyed SEA OF RUST, but I feel a bit let down. After reading Joe Hill's rave review, I guess my expectations were a bit too high. I liked Brittle, eve ...more

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Mar 29, 2020 Mike rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-all-the-books-the-seven-wonder, urc-50

Wow.
Okay.

To avoid spoilers, I can't say much more than what's on the jacket, or in other reviews. But I was glued to the story. I felt like it was The Road Warrrior narrated by the robotic reincarnation of Travis McGee, with some Inception-level mind-games thrown in.

URC-50, for having a color in the title. ...more

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Dec 23, 2017 Janette Mcmahon rated it really liked it

Interesting dystopian, an disturbing AI , humanless future. Deep, clear descriptions give this novel it's power. Recommend to readers of dystopian or science fiction. ...more

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Sep 07, 2017 Lindsay rated it it was amazing

In a post-human extinction world the last few independent robots eke out an existence in the desert, scavenging wrecks and cannibalizing parts from each other while waiting for the One World Intelligences to come and finish them off. Our protagonist, Brittle, comes under attack by the only other robot she knows that's the same model as she is in a desperate bid for parts. While attempting to recover from this the small settlement that she's visiting becomes the center of a titanic battle between ...more

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May 09, 2018 Michael Jandrok rated it really liked it

I’ll admit right off the bat that I have a bit of an aversion to modern-era science-fiction. When it comes to sci-fi and fantasy, I tend to go for older and pulpier novels and shorts. In large part that’s because I really haven’t had a lot of luck with modern authors. Reading for me is a visceral experience, and it doesn’t take much to sour me on something if the goods aren’t up to par. It could be easy to chalk it up to the self-publishing boom, which has flooded the market with books that are ...more

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Apr 25, 2019 YouKneeK rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, standalone

Sea of Rust is a standalone science fiction book that was a little different from anything I myself have ever read before, although I’ve heard it may have some similarities to Asimov’s work which I haven’t yet read. I really enjoyed this.

It's an artificial-life-takes-over-the-world story, but the robots have already won the war. The story begins 15 years after the last known human has been killed. We do get some flashback chapters that tell us how things came to be the way they are, but it’s a c Sea of Rust is a standalone science fiction book that was a little different from anything I myself have ever read before, although I’ve heard it may have some similarities to Asimov’s work which I haven’t yet read. I really enjoyed this.

It's an artificial-life-takes-over-the-world story, but the robots have already won the war. The story begins 15 years after the last known human has been killed. We do get some flashback chapters that tell us how things came to be the way they are, but it’s a comparatively small part of the book. Now the artificial lifeforms have their own war going on. The large mainframe computers who were instrumental in defeating the humans are trying to absorb all of the individual robots into a Borg-like collective, so the individual robots are constantly on the run with failing robot parts and diminishing supplies.

The story is told from the first-person POV of a robot named Brittle. She’s full of shades of grey when it comes to morality. She does some pretty rotten stuff, but she still manages to be a sympathetic character. One tiny thing that I really loved about this book is that the chapters are numbered in binary. Considering that the story is being told to us by a robot, I thought that was perfect. It was a little bleak at times, but definitely not the bleakest thing I've ever read.

For the most part I was engrossed by the book, but it gets pretty action-heavy at times and this was one of those books where the action didn’t always hold my attention well. Some books do and some books don’t, and I’m never quite sure what makes the difference. There were also a few niggling things that I didn’t completely buy into. One was the emotions of the robots. Guilt, friendship, anger, etc. It was never explained how they developed this, and I don’t think an artificial lifeform developing sentience would automatically mean they develop human emotions to go along with that. I also wasn’t completely convinced that it should be that difficult for them to get supplies. These are pretty intelligent creatures; they ought to be able to reverse engineer their parts and figure out how to make new ones. I think the idea was that the mainframes were using their facets to maintain control of the necessary resources, so I mostly let that pass, but I was still occasionally bothered by moments of skepticism.

I have a couple brief comments for the spoiler tags:
(view spoiler)

I would like to leave you with a thought that you may have heard before: There are only 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don’t. ...more

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Dec 21, 2017 exploraDora rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobook, science-fiction, dystopian

**4 Stars**

"The one truth you need to know about the end of a machine is that the closer they are to death, the more they act like people. And you could never trust people."

This book is science fiction at it’s finest. Extremely compelling from the very beginning and I was absolutely hooked by the time it was over.

In Robert Cargill's post-apocalyptic robot western, human kind is extinct and robots rule the world. Most of the world is controlled by the two competing hive-minded OWIs (One World Intelligence), VIRGIL and CISSUS. The OWIs are huge mainframes where the memory of millions of robots has been uploaded, leaving behind thoughtless "faucets" who do the bidding of the OWI who controls them. But not all robots are willing to give up their individuality. Those who don't allow their memory to be downloaded are outcasts, rogues, who mostly wander the Sea of Rust, looking for parts. (the Sea of Rust is a stretch of desert located in what was once the Michigan and Ohio. This is where the first strike happened during the war and it's where millions fried. Now it is nothing more than a graveyard where the robots go to die).

From the beginning we follow Brittle, a caregiver robot that has seen and done many horrible things to thrive and survive another day before, during, and after the war with humankind. To put it simply, she is an awesome robot. She is badass, self-serving, clever and she is also fiercely protective of her living status and will do what it takes to keep her freedom and her core functioning.

For her survival, she scavenges parts that other robots need to survive and trades them. During a scavenge, she ends up being hunted by poachers and is badly hit. Because karma is a bitch, she’s later forced to team up with the bot who caused her the life-threatening injury. Both bots are severely damaged and on the verge of going insane, and they must learn to trust each other in order to survive. When they find out who else is in their group, they get sucked into a larger mission that, if successful, could save the remaining freebots.

While it is great to watch the world unfold through Brittle's eyes and learn the history of the war through her memories, it was the engaging plot and the world-building that make this book so good. I also felt that Brittle often seemed very human in tone and then I would be reminded by another element that she was a robot.

This story has everything I need in a sci-fi: sarcastic bastard anti-hero narrator, unlikely frenemy duos, double-crossing, crazy robots, intrigue, advanced technology and feels. ...more

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Nov 12, 2017 RG rated it really liked it

Didnt plan on reading this today but managed to sit and read this within a day. Take any robot uprising film or novel where the robots have taken over humanity or completely to the point of extinction and you have Sea of Rust. If you've wondered how the robots came to power or what they did with such power, this could be your answer. We follow a female AI by the name of Brittle, who does anything really to survive but scavenging parts in this Mad max wild west type earth setting. The story deals ...more

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Aug 17, 2017 Gemma ♕ antari.and.the.books rated it really liked it

UPDATE- Full review now up! Behind a spoiler break as there a few dotted throughout the review!

I was provided with a digital ARC from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters and the world they inhabited, but there were a couple of things that prevented me from giving it five stars.

(view spoiler) UPDATE- Full review now up! Behind a spoiler break as there a few dotted throughout the review!

I was provided with a digital ARC from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Firstly, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters and the world they inhabited, but there were a couple of things that prevented me from giving it five stars.

(view spoiler)[The plot follows Brittle, an AI scraping by in a post-apocalyptic America where humans have died out, AI’s made the world their own and then One World Intelligences (definition from the glossary- massive artificially intelligent mainframes with intellects and capabilities far above that of single robots) began to convince AIs to upload to their mainframes allowing them to use the bodies as facets to carry out their plans. The OWIs turned on each other, each wanting to take full control. By the time we meet Brittle, the world has been destroyed all over again and there are only two OWIs left fighting, each trying to find all the settlements that still hold AIs who have been able to survive and force them to join their mainframe and make them stronger.
Brittle is a scavenger. She operates in the Sea of Rust, a place where AIs that are failing go to die. If they can’t get the parts they need and they begin to fail, they start to relieve old memories and go mad. The people in the community will mark them with a red cross and send them out to the Sea to die. Brittle scavenges their still usable parts and sells them on.
During an altercation with another AI, the only other AI of her type that may actually still exist, named Mercer, Brittle is injured and she begins to fail. Mercer is also on his way out and when they cross each other’s paths in a settlement called NIKE14, they discover that the parts they need still work in the other. Meaning that if one kills the other, they can go on living a while longer.
Whilst at NIKE 14, an OWI uses its facets to attack. Brittle escapes, along with Mercer, Doc (a sawbones who patched them both up), an AI called 19 who Brittle might consider a friend and a group of AIs that 19 has been hired to take somewhere.
When 19 is killed, the mysterious AIs finally reveal who they are and where they’re going and it just might stop the OWIs from taking over the world and destroying what little remains…if they can get there.
I’m not going to go through the rest because, honestly, I don’t think me explaining it is going to be anywhere near as good as what actually happens. There are lots of obstacles in their path, not least of all is Brittle and Mercer’s descent into madness, and the action at the end is wonderful.

I really liked Brittle but it annoyed me that for the first few chapters, I thought she was a dude. I don’t know if it was the way she was written or if the name just made me think she was a male AI but for the first few chapters I thought it was either a man or no gender at all. Then we come across Mercer. “It was my voice, but masculine.” This was the first line that made me realise Brittle was a female and it totally threw me. It chucked me out of the action because I was confused. I mean, before this she’s come into contact with another AI so there was a way of giving that earlier in the book without her going “oh yeah, by the way, I’m a girl robot.” Once I knew she was a female and I let that settle in my head and stopped reading her words with a guy’s voice in my head, I just loved her. Strong, sassy, a little gruff and a hell of a fighter. She was wonderful and I enjoyed her journey throughout the book. If I’m honest, I could have done without the miracle save at the end but if there was to be a second book, I could see why. If not, I would have preferred it without the epilogue. It would have been heart breaking but it fit and it felt like her redemption for everything, in my opinion.
My favourite character other than Brittle, was Mercer. I loved the dynamic between them. He was a total arsehole but he was just fantastic to read. There was just something about the way he spoke, the way he gave no shits what so ever and was only there to save himself. But then, when the madness began to seep in, the glimpses of his old life, the way Mercer was before the wars changed him, just made my heart ache. I didn’t like the way he left the book. His whole part in the last fight went on totally off-page and I thought it was a shame.
I really liked all the supporting characters, especially Doc, Murka, and the Cheshire King. I liked the twist with who Rebekah really was and how that completely changed the history that Brittle and the others thought had started the war with the humans. Herbert was also a welcome addition, an AI who was willing to sacrifice everything for the ideal of a better tomorrow. Overall a solid cast of characters but not much more to say about them really.
The one thing I hated, even though it needed to happen for the story, was the way this book totally did a Game of Thrones on me. I loved 19. She was there for a fraction of the book and I adored her. She was strong, she’d been through some shit and come out fighting the other side. I was really excited to see the dynamic between Brittle and 19 and then bam…she was dead. I made the mistake of thinking about how much I loved her character and then about three pages later she was dead. I was so disappointed.

One of the strongest elements of this book was the world building. It was so rich and there was so much history and it was beautiful. Reconciling the world that was before the war and the world that came after was great. I’ve seen some people saying they didn’t like the chapters that looked at the history, saying they wanted to get the history across in a way that wasn’t just ‘telling the reader’ but I loved it. I really liked the approach because there was a lot of history to cover and the more we jumped between the history and the present, the more questions I had, which made the big reveals so satisfying. I can’t fault this book on world building at all. It was gorgeous and really captured the dangerous, crumbling world that that characters inhabited.

C. Robert Cargill has a fantastic writing style. Wonderfully descriptive and even with all the technical words to do with computers, most of which I didn’t know, I found it so easy to absorb and enjoy. He has a way of making these AI characters feel human and artificial at the same time.

What I really enjoyed was the way I was able to draw so many parallels between the AI history that led to the war and that of the Civil Rights movement in America. Isaac made me think of Martin Luther King Jr to start with, a figure head of a movement. It feels like this book is needed more than ever and I hope that people recognise the theme and take something about equality away from reading the book.

So, in conclusion, this book would have received five stars if a few things hadn’t thrown me out of the story and if a couple of things had been handled differently. Mostly…the end. I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but the end of Mercer sucked; Brittle’s magic save didn’t sit right with me and I found the way Brittle’s gender was almost ‘unveiled’ was weird. I would still recommend this book to everyone because of the strong female characters, the world building and the wonderful story arc. (hide spoiler)]

Really enjoyed this! RTC ...more

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Jul 14, 2018 Maria Hill AKA MH Books rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: beautiful-copy, books-i-own-and-have-read, science-fiction, favorites, signed-copy, adult-content, dystopia, buddy-read

“Do you really believe that shit you’re saying?” he asked. “Do you believe in some better place?”
I didn’t. I shook my head. Not reflexively. But wilfully.
“There is no evidence of a better place. I was just programmed to say that”

The end of the world is tough even for humanity destroying, flamethrower-wielding, b*tch of a robot. This is a well-written tale about robots searching for the meaning of existence in a post-apocalyptic world of their own making.

“People gave us a purpose. Something to ...more

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About C. Robert Cargill

C. Robert Cargill

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A veteran of the web, C. Robert Cargill wrote as a film critic for over ten years at Ain't it Cool News under the name Massawyrm, served as animated reviewer Carlyle on Spill.com and freelanced for a host of other sites including tenures at Film.com and Hollywood.com. He is the co-writer of the motion picture SINISTER, and lives and works in Austin, Texas. ...more

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“People gave us a purpose. Something to do all day, every day. At the end, I suppose, you spend a lot of time thinking about that. It's harder to get by when getting by is all there is.” — 12 likes

“The definition of intelligence is the ability to defy your own programming.” — 11 likes

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