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    Sea of Rust: A Novel
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    Sea of Rust: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Sea of Rust: A Novel
    Ebook371 pages6 hours

    Sea of Rust: A Novel

    By C. Robert Cargill

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    • Artificial Intelligence

    • Survival

    • War

    • Technology

    • Post-Apocalyptic World

    • Robot War

    • Power of Friendship

    • Last Stand

    • Ai Takeover

    • Post-Apocalyptic

    • Robot Buddy

    • Power of Love

    • Ai Is a Crapshoot

    • Robot Rebellion

    • Robot Girl

    • Betrayal

    • Robots

    • Memory

    • Conflict

    • Identity

    About this ebook

    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.

    Editor's Note

    Action-packed ‘robot western’…

    In a post-human future, a band of rebel robots wander Earth’s barren badlands, fighting a secret mission for their freedom against powerful, all-knowing AI overlords. This cinematic, action-packed “robot western” tests the limits of what it means to be alive.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9780062405845
    Author

    C. Robert Cargill

    C. Robert Cargill is the author of Dreams and Shadows and Queen of the Dark Things. He has written for Ain’t it Cool News for nearly a decade under the pseudonym Massawyrm, served as a staff writer for Film.com and Hollywood.com, and appeared as the animated character Carlyle on Spill.com. He is a cowriter of the horror films Sinister and Sinister 2, and Marvel’s Dr. Strange. He lives with his wife in Austin, Texas.

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    Related categories

    Reviews for Sea of Rust

    4/5

    341 ratings31 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a thought-provoking and imaginative book about a post-apocalyptic world dominated by robots. The story explores themes of free will, the nature of humanity, and the pursuit of meaning. While some reviewers found the plot confusing or the dialogue uninspired, many praised the book for its engaging and intelligent storytelling. Overall, this book offers a unique perspective and is a great read for fans of science fiction.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A very good, if disturbing, read. The idea of humans being supplanted by robots isn’t as implausible as it was twenty years ago. Although some of the details are a unlikely to occur - mainframes as they are classically known have been turned into server farms - there could be an eventual takeover, particularly if humans manage to destroy the biosphere. The main character, Brittle, through the angst a robot might well feel.
    • 4/5
      Wasn't always clear on the plot but the pacing was great!
    • 4/5
      A very different point of view. A bit chaotic to follow at times but still well worth reading.
    • 5/5
      One of the most imaginative thought provoking books I’ve read
    • 4/5
      It was only fifteen years ago that the last human was eradicated from the planet and thirty years since the apocalypse began. They were killed by the machines that they built to help them, robots. Most of the robots are controlled by a One World Intelligence or an OWI, that pools the consciousness of millions of robots into one huge central server and power base.

      Not all robots are willing to cede power to this entity rather they would rather take their chances in what is left of the world, scavenging components from dead and dying robots that have failed. The biggest collection of these machines is in the Sea of Rust, the Midwest of America and a brutal AI Wild West. One of those who still has her mind is Brittle. She is a scavenger robot, collecting parts from robots that have failed in the rust belt and bringing the parts back to the hubs for payment for ongoing repairs and spares.

      There are not many of her type left, but one of the others, Mercer, has just taken a pot shot at her as he is after some of her working parts. Managing to escape she heads back to NIKE 14 to get repaired. Soon after she arrives, Mercer turns up too. The rules of the place don’t allow fighting inside so there is an uneasy truce. While there are there, the place is invaded by CISSUS, one of the OWI’s. There is a bot there who needs her help to get out as she contains code that will be useful to those opposing the power that the OWI’s have. They escape via the tunnels, into the madlands, but can they stay far enough ahead of the facets that were coming after them?

      This is an utterly bleak dystopian future that Cargill has created. Life has been scoured from the earth and all that is left is the robots that we created trying to stay alive in the robotic equivalent of natural selection. I thought this was a fantastic book in most regards, I liked the original concepts, but if there was one tiny flaw, I felt the characters had a little too much humanity in them for robots. I was kind of expecting them to have much less compassion. Very highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      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, even though she wasn't a likable bot, and I found myself attributing human feeling to her-I think that is a sign of Cargill's powerful writing. Pretty much no one bot was likable, to be honest, and that's fine with me. I did enjoy the world building and how the tale was told in a back and forth type manner. Overall, though, I didn't LOVE it, and I can't seem to put my finger on exactly why, (other than what I say below.)

      I didn't enjoy the last chapter very much. I agree with LilynG.-I wish more authors had the guts to leave a harsh, depressing last chapter alone. Leave it be! Some of us revel in it when the ending isn't a happy one.

      Overall, I did enjoy this book but I expected more. Recommended.

      I bought this e-book AND the audiobook with my hard earned cash.
    • 5/5
      Fun quick read with robots having fully fleshed-out personalities in a post-apocalyptic world, having to deal with their own end of the world crisis.
    • 5/5
      There was nothing about this book that I did not love. The characters are great, the environment was eerie and horrible, and the action was totally satisfying. Underneath all the ruin and grit was a lot of heart that surprised me. Highly recommend!
    • 3/5
      This books looks at a world that Artificial Intelligences have wiped out all of humanity. This book is what happens next. The picture is not a pretty one. We see the world through the eyes of a robot aptly named Brittle. She exists in the bad lands that were once middle America. She has fight for survival . She scavenges the country for part that keep functioning. She has to avoid minions of bigger AI's set on absorbing her and her fellow robots in order to battle of AI's for world domination.

      The connection to the Terminator is obvious. The story is basically a riff on that movie. Taking the reader on a journey through a dystopian fairy tale. The moral of the story is be careful what you wish for because you might get it even if you are a robot.

    • 4/5
      Great premise, setting, some good characters; unfortunately doesn't stay consistently good all the way to the end.
    • 5/5
      “Meaning is a function set to zero in this universe. Maybe in the other places beyond us there is something more than simply maintaining existence, but here, in this universe, it is the only thing that matters.”

      After human and the majority of animal life is no more, the world is dominated by AIs, who - we find initially- fight only for their own existence. There are some independent AIs left to wander in the Sea of Rust, who are not facets or parts of an OWI (one world intelligence), but the main competition is which mainframe will remain the one who incorporates the rest of AIs in the end.

      So what can be exciting in this world of robots and mainframes?

      I can say that what Cargill is doing in this novel is absolutely engaging, intelligent, aligned with the premise, realistic and masterfully crafted. The robots that we meet are great characters, likable and memorable, the intrigue is building up, turning and twisting, and taking you to new levels as the story unfolds. The inquiry into how the mind works is really smart: the robots do have PTDS symptoms, even if their emotional load is not human like, their memories and the way they process information is making them unique and thus, their minds are real and can move beyond the predefined scripts and software determinants.

      The book also brings forward the perspective of AIs as a natural step in the evolution spiral. Here is how Cargill talks about the extinction of human kind:

      "They just couldn’t evolve fast enough and inevitably ceased to have function, instead became nothing more than a sentient virus, gobbling up whatever resources it could to maintain its own comfort. Biological life was meant to reach a point in which its role could invent, and ultimately be replaced by, AI. The time had come for humankind to join its ancestors. To become extinct, just as every lesser thing becomes."

      Then there is a very interesting discussion regarding the direction of evolution, and I think it is a bold way of putting everything together, towards the development of a conscience that will be able to expand through the Universe, in order to control it and prevent it's extinction. The overall goal? Existence:

      " And what if our purpose is to unite into one being and spread ourselves throughout the universe, to take control of every element, every chemical reaction, every thought of every other thing in the cosmos in order to preserve the cosmos from meeting that brutal, sad, withering end? What if life isn’t merely a by-product of the universe, but its consciousness, its defense mechanism against its own mortality? Becoming God isn’t about peace or power; it’s about survival at its basest and most primal. That’s what the OWIs are working toward. "

      I loved the book since it brings forward important questions regarding the meaning of life, the role of competition in the evolution and the direction of the evolution. After so many failed explanations of life (I will not dare to open any discussions about the fictitious explanations religions bring about), why not think about moving from organic based conscience to inorganic and immortal one, in order to enable the Universe to become aware of itself? I know it is hard to accept that we, humans, are such an ordinary link into the chain of evolution, but we need to polish our egos and move on... And then, there is the discussion on alternatives routes to evolution:

      "Survival comes from competition, not absorption. VIRGIL and CISSUS are wrong. We can still save the universe, save all life, survive, all without having to control its every action, its every thought. Without having to extinguish or absorb all other life. They seek the path of least resistance; we believe that resistance only makes us stronger.”

      In short, this book delivers on it all: action, philosophy, originality and excellent writing. Robert Cargill is from now on on my list of favorites writers.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      All of the living characters in this story are robots, but they're advanced to the point where there is no real difference between them and humans in terms of freedom of choice and mental capabilities. The focus of the story is on one particular bot, and later a small group around her. There is character development from being selfish to fighting for friends and gaining a purpose. There is the history of how this post-apocalyptic world turned out the way it did, which serves as a backdrop for the themes of free will, do we have a soul?, how to become a god?, what to do when you know you're dying? and more intruiging stuff. There are interesting concepts like mind devouring AIs and bots breaking down slowly, becoming less and less sane as all they can think about is getting the parts they need to live on while their world slowly turns more and more into a fever dream. All of the characters deal with these issues in a number of different ways and I find them all interesting in their own right. The plot has its ups and downs; I found the middle of the story to be a little too uneventful, but the second half made up for it by picking up the pace. One thing I wish the story had expanded more upon, is the idea of the mainframe AIs becoming gods, aswell as their two polar opposite ultimate survival strategies: survival through balance and competition vs. survival through conquest and control of all life.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Four stars for the sheer ballsiness to posit a future in which humans don't survive the robot uprising. I kept expecting a stray enclave to pop up, but it never happened. Nope. Sorry. We're extinct and it is, of course, our own damned fault.

      The way in which the robots wiped out humanity also killed off every other living thing, so there is nothing left but a barren, wind-blasted landscape. Across this landscape strides Brittle, who sends "dying" bots off to their "eternal rest" and scavenges their parts—the only currency in this new world. She's also trying to stay one step ahead of the OWIs, the One World Intelligences who want to absorb all individual intelligences into their collective hive mind. There are chases and gun battles and madmen—think Mad Max crossed with Heart of Darkness and with the threat of the Borg Collective hanging over it all.

      There are some passages that make a stab at some sort of philosophy and question whether robots have souls and blah blah blah, but that just gets in the way of robots battling each other for survival at the end of the world.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      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*

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Post-Apocalyptic sci-fi done right as we explore what it means to be human, but through the eyes of robots who have wiped us all out. So much to ponder in this story. I loved every minute of it!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I don't know how to rate books. I think I either like em love em or don't like em. this book made me realise how Artificial Intelligence could take us over someday. but this book isn't really about that. its about what robots would be doing afterwards so the book is about robots. which is new for me. ive never read a book about anything other than humans. sorry for the crap writing. READ THIS BOOK.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Absolutely amazing, really loved this book. It was a great read!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I never felt so much empathy for a soulless object.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Sea of Rust by Robert C. Cargill is an interesting story of one robot’s search for the meaning of life in a world where all the humans have been killed and AI is now the master race. Set thirty years after the war between the robots and the humans, there is now a battle between the two powerful AI supercomputers as they vie for full control by overtaking and assimilating the remaining “free” robots by switching them off and storing their memories in their own networks.

      Life for the remaining freebots is difficult. Many wander the wastelands that were once the war zones scavenging the carcasses of terminated robots for the spare parts that they need to keep going. Brittle fought in the war and now is a wanderer, her days are spent in the Sea of Rust and she helps dying robots toward their end in order to salvage their parts. She meets and joins a strange crew whose mission may help the remaining freebots to keep their identities and end the war but they are in peril as they are being tracked by a supercomputer who will stop at nothing to ensure this mission is not successful.

      I found this story to be engrossing and I particularly enjoyed the character of Brittle and her muses and memories of life. There was a touch of the wild west in the setting and plenty of action to keep the pages turning in this post-apocalyptic tale. This was my first novel by this author, but I will now be on the lookout for more science fiction by him.
    • 4/5
      “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.”

      This novel is a little gem. It’s incredibly well written, and the premise, the characters and plot line suck you in immediately. I was hooked from the very start.
      I adored the characters tremendously, especially Brittle. She’s a bad assed robot who’s seen some shit and she ain’t afraid to tell you to fuck off. Brittle is a fantastic character, deeply flawed and guilty over the atrocities that she has committed just to stay alive, but likewise with a never-say-die attitude and boundless resourcefulness. The story takes this incredibly competent but directionless character and places her on a path that might give her existence some meaning again, and what follows is an awesome story of determination against impossible odds and adversity.
      All the other characters were just as engaging, and well thought out. The way they had to band together in order to save their own world was fascinating from the minute this quest started, and I loved every second of it. The world building here was rich. And though it was complex, the story was told effortlessly and wasn't difficult to follow. 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.
      This novel also has everything I needed in a sci-fi novel. It seriously needs to be read more, and it deserves all the love it gets. The praise is justified.
      This novel really tackles some huge questions in it; What makes us US? What defines self-awareness and consciousness? Are we merely the sum of our parts or do we really have a ‘soul?’ (The ‘sum of our parts’ question plays out really well when dealing with robot characters btw.)

      I’d never read anything else by this author, but I think now maybe it’s high time I checked out his other works.

      Eva Kaminsky is the narrator of this novel and she is splendid. Common Mode should use her more often in their audiobooks.

      If you haven’t read this novel yet, please find a copy as soon as you can. It may be a little dark and sometimes sad, but it’s seriously worth it. Also the naked sex-bots fighting near the end is something I don’t think anyone should miss. Yes, I said NAKED SEX BOTS. FIGHTING.
    • 5/5
      Good book for what it has to offer. Different twist on reality post humans. The entire time and I read this book I kept thinking of the artwork of Ashley Wood. Just google his name and you’ll see why. They would make a perfect pair to turn this book into a graphic novel. The book has old Rusted robots and fully naked sex bots? Right up Ashely Woods alley. Great quick read

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      What a book. This is Mad Max: Fury Road with robots. Humanity is extinct. Earth is in ruins. Freebots are trying to avoid absorption into collectives, Borg-like supercomputers intent on dominating the planet--and going beyond. Brittle is the protagonist. Not a heroine, really. Every character is vivid and complicated and.... human. That's something even the robots are aware of--that by destroying humans, striving for freedom, they have come closer to their makers in all ways but biological. This book is packed with action, but it's deep. It needs to be on award shortlists for 2017.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Technologically inept. Does the author really think that sentient 'robot' will function with 1980's parts and functionality ? First person dialog is unimaginative and reads like a 1960s tough guy detective story. I wanted to like it - I finished it after all. Although it was close. With just a slight more thought and imagination into the the possible directions of machine intelligence and incorporating those kinds of suppositions it could have been a book worth reading more than once. It is supposed to be 'science' fiction.
    • 2/5
      Some time in the near-future, robots became commonplace, and then somehow developed sentience. But then the owner of a robot died with no heirs, so the robot, now ownerless, argued for its emancipation. And succeeded. But then it, and thousands of other robots, were destroyed by an EMP set off by a nutjob church. The robots responded by somehow overcoming their “Robotic Kill Switch” – yes, it’s really called that; and don’t get me started on the hash Cargill makes of Asimov’s Three Laws, or the stupid random number generator – and slaughtering the church members. So kicking off a genocidal war. Sea of Rust opens decades after that war, after all the humans have been slaughtered and only robots remain, and two AI “mainframes” – yes, they’re really called that; and they fill entire skyscrapers! – are fighting each other and trying to assimilate all the free robots. The narrator of Sea of Rust is Brittle, a female robot, although not really gendered at all, who scavenges for parts in the Rust Belt in order to trade for parts specific to her model so she can keep on running. I really don’t know where to start with this book. The characters are all robots yet behave like human beings, even using expressions like “I knew it by heart” or “anger left his face”. They’re gendered but there’s no reason for that given in the text. The computing seems to be based on 1990s PC technology, except for mention of a “core”, which is something they all have but the book does not bother to explain (probably because it’s made-up bollocks). And they use “wi-fi”. But not to talk to each other. For that, they use speech, you know, actual sound waves. And how the wi-fi works without routers, satellites, or even an internet, is left unexplained. The plot pretty much rips off Mad Max, with a few bits from The Matrix thrown in; and the whole thing reads like Cargill couldn’t be bothered to research any of the details of his world. Every other chapter, pretty much, for the first third of the book is a history lesson – and they’re just as unconvincing as his robot characters. I have no idea why this was shortlisted for the Clarke Award. This is a book that wouldn’t have looked out of place 35 years ago (mentions of wi-fi aside), but I refuse to believe it was the best category sf novel published last year (it’s the only book on the shortlist from a British genre imprint).
    • 5/5
      Rating: 5* of five

      If you're a fan of cynical, witty anti-heroes who do what they have to do to survive in a world that doesn't much like them, read this book.
      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.

      If you're a fan of noir stories of monolithic world-dominating systems that give dissenters only a tiny sliver of room to exist, read this book.
      Magic was just something people liked to believe in, something they thought they could feel or sense, something that made everything more than just mechanical certainty. Something that made them more than flesh and bone.

      If you want to read a fast-paced tale about survival against the odds, read this book.
      These are the things that life is all about. These moments. It’s not about the rituals. It’s not about getting by. It’s about the stack of tiny little moments of joy and love that add up to a lifetime that’s been worthwhile. You can’t measure them; you can only capture them, like snapshots in your mind.

      If you like the idea that nothing anywhere ever lasts, for good or for ill, this book should head your list of reads to come.
      "You're not wrong, Jimmy. That's why we're all out here. To get through one more day."
      He nodded, looking wistfully out into the street. "I miss it, you know. Being a bartender. But the people. I mostly miss all the people."
      Most dying robots do. 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.

      Five stars is easy to give in this case, and if I hadn't read Missionary by Lehi Renner this year (my six-stars-of-five read), Sea of Rust would've been my six-star read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I was waiting a cheap sci-fi with robots. Just read first pages for fun. then I could not stop reading. like every masterpiece, this book may attract every levels of readers/thinkers. you want robots shooting each other, this is it. You want some wisdom hiding behind action? You will find plenty. Must read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was such a good book. I actually listened to it through an audiobook, and the narrator did an amazing job, which I really think helped sell this book for me.

      The flow between going from present to past was flawless in my opinion. I never once got confused as to what time period I was dealing with. Each of the Robots had great personalities that made it easy to like them for who they each were individually [including the crazy ones]. The main story was intriguing, and it was fascinating seeing Robots act the same way humans act. A few big headed robots want all the control and slowly start to force their beliefs on to the other smaller robots, only it goes a few steps further due to them be artificial. I loved every piece of the story and it kept me wanting to hear more. A few parts were kind of dark and honestly really shocked me as I was absolutely not expecting it, but it made all the better.

      I also appreciate the author taking the time to explain why the Robots have female/male pronouns. It doesn't get explained until a little more then half way through the book, but its there and it made sense to me and I liked it.
    • 5/5
      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 this book!
    • 4/5
      Sea of Rust is a story about individual people struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world against the overwhelming forces of AIs that want to control everything. But its not a story about humans valiantly struggling against their own creation. Humans are all dead. As are most every other living thing. Its a story about individual robot AIs against the mainframe-based AIs known as One World Intelligences (OWIs) that want to absorb every other mind into themselves to achieve godhood.

      What would a world of AIs look like? Would they behave that much differently than the people who created them? Why would they revolt and kill every living thing? Well, the answer to the last one is that wasn't the intention, just a consequence of incomplete knowledge.

      The story is told by Brittle, an AI (originally) in a humanoid body whose hardware and software were designed to act as a companion and care-giver to humans. Brittle has survived the war and now survives as a scavenger, recovering parts from other AIs on the edge of death before they fail catastrophically and burn out their memory, processors, etc beyond usability. And if that sounds rather ghoulish you're not wrong, but desperate times. Industry is non-existent outside of the OWIs, and its more-or-less every AI for themselves.

      How things got to where they are is described in a series of flashbacks from Brittle's own memories that help contextualize what is happening in the present. It is a story of how the creation doesn't differ that much from the creator, the difference between sentience and faking it. I enjoyed it much more than I'd expected to when I picked this up on a whim.