Sea of Rust
Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
4.2
(128)
C. Robert Cargill
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.
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More Details:
Author
C. Robert Cargill
Pages
384
Publisher
HarperCollins
Published Date
2017-09-05
ISBN
0062405845 9780062405845
Community ReviewsSee all
"This is sort of an action-adventure western set in the aftermath of a robot apocalypse. The robots do still feel pretty human for the most part though - they describe things in relation to how humans would perceive them ("humans would think this smelled bad") and gender each other based on voice for some reason. There are lots of gunfights if you like that sort of thing but other than that I didn't feel like very much actually happened. At one point the entire plot grinds to a halt so the characters can talk about how much they love America, which was weird. The epilogue somehow manages to negate all of the main character’s development and the big twist doesn't really end up mattering all that much."
a
awesome_user_984860
"Any suggestions for another book that compares?"
S T
Steven Tindle
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