Sea of Rust is the novel I’ve connected with the least so far and given my fondness for action cinema and robots punching robots that’s surprised me. But while I, and I suspect most of the others, have serious problems with it, Sea of Rust absolutely deserves to be here. Not just because the invention on display and the subversion of the early political viewpoint works as well as it does either. But because this is pop culture, action heavy and mainstream science fiction. And none of those things mean it’s any less worthy a place in the genre than anything else we have here. In fact, this is one of the most important parts of SF and one that is rarely given the attention it deserved. Hopefully Sea of Rust being here will change that a little. Foz Meadows Our story takes place thirty years after the uprising that eventually led to the end of the human race, and only fifteen years after the execution of the last man found alive. We concentrate on the life of Brittle, a former caregiver robot – now scavenger – as she wanders the Sea of Rust, the wasteland created by deforestation, climate change, and general all round neglect, formed after the war that led to AI supremacy. And as the sun sank behind the curve of the earth, I crossed my fingers, praying silently to myself. Please let there be magic. Just this once, let me see the magic in the flash. Let me see God in it. Let me see what the point of all this was. Let me see the magic. Please be magic. Please be magic there. Please be...magic.” As Pounce ponders his suddenly uncertain future, the pieces are falling into place for a robot revolution that will eradicate humankind. His owners, Ezra’s parents, are a well-intentioned but oblivious pair of educators who are entirely disconnected from life outside their small, affluent, gated community. Spending most nights drunk and happy as society crumbles around them, they watch in disbelieving horror as the robots that have long served humanity — their creators — unify and revolt. Using an AI-powered robot as the protagonist instead of Ezra made the story a lot more interesting, and given that we know robots inherit this world, it's definitely the right choice to keep following them as they progress into world rulers. What makes this so interesting though is that it allows for a detailed look at the AIs as they question their place in the world, whether they actually have free will and whether they're capable of feelings.

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill | Waterstones

Cargill is an interesting guy. In addition to the Sea of Rust books he’s written two fantasy novels, Dreams and Shadows and its sequel Queen of the Dark Things. But his big claim to fame is as a screenwriter, for Marvel’s Dr. Strange, and one of the best (and most disturbing) horror films of the last decade Sinister (2012), and its sequel Sinister II (2015). However, the story being told her is a wonderful and swirling mix of thematic and genre elements. Much like "Red Rising", this is a book that brings together a whole slew of ideas and styles that, on a drafting board, sound ridiculous and shouldn't work ... and yet they do to fantastic effect. The synopsis for this novel actually downplays what this book is like, and makes it sound like a tongue-in-cheek dark comedy about robots bumbling around in a spaghetti Western. The truth is that this novel is much more developed and nuanced than that. Basically, this takes place 30 years after the start of the war to kill all humans (a la Skynet in the Terminator franchise but much more interesting), and something like 10 years after the death of the last human. Earth is now populated by a mix of OWIs (One World Intelligences, AKA, Skynet-style hive-minds) and "freeboots", or basically AIs inhabiting a single, self-contained humanoid robot. In the style of a Western, the OWIs basically represent "The Man" or "The Feds" from the East, and the freebots represent the ranchers and farmers that just want to be left alone on the frontier. And similar to how many cowboys and gunslingers were Civil War veterans, all freeboots were veterans in the war against humans.Great review! This sounds so fantastic. I thought it was an older title too, until I saw your quote 😂 Paizo Next: 2009-Present – Designers & Dragons on Modular: James Sutter Fields Some Starfinder RPG Questions The villains. One of the strengths of Sea of Rust is that there is a varied selection of characters, especially among the immediate supporting cast, each with their own motivations. Some are grey, some are good, others complete scum, but with their reasons. When it comes to CISSUS and its facets, though, it’s largely one-note. They’re effectively described taking out whole cities and coordinating their simultaneous points of view, but in practice they’re often a bunch of stormtroopers, cannon fodder rather than the merciless, indiscriminate wave of hell they’re described as. Felt too easily beaten if you ask me, even if Brittle, Mercer, and others are battle-hardened warriors and capable against each other and others. A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children.

C. Robert Cargill - Wikipedia C. Robert Cargill - Wikipedia

Cargill’s setup of robotkind and their way of life, as well as Brittle’s own musings, reminiscences and recollections, invite discussion of philosophical and existential questions. Are bots the way they are because we created them in our own image? Is it learned behaviour, perhaps even some innate survival instinct of sentient beings? Is it relevant to talk about nature versus nurture in this context? And so on. Crucially though, these ideas are explored just enough to send us down potential rabbit holes in our own heads, without slowing down the Robopocalypse-based fun. They are sparks which can potentially ignite a fire rather than exhaustive meditations on sentience; food for thought as opposed to lectures or sermons. 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. We have become the very worst parts of our makers, without the little things, the good things, the magic things, that made them them.” 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.Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown Forget the Martian, Ready Player One, or Annihilation; Sea of Rust deserves to be next to Station Eleven and Dark Matter as one of the most brilliant science fiction books of the 2010’s decade‘ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The smarter of two intelligences will almost always overcome. Humanity is gone and their intelligence with them. So how inferior was their artificial creation after all? Cargill, C. Robert. "We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories". HarperCollins US . Retrieved 2021-06-07.

Sea of Rust: A Novel: Cargill, C. Robert: 9780062405852

In case you want yet another beta reader's opinion, I'm glad to offer my service. Especially since this gives me the possibility to read AQATWW earlier. ;-) Lussier, Germain (1 March 2013). " 'Sinister 2′ Moving Forward From Original Creators". slashfilm . Retrieved 23 June 2013.Read it for the Mad Max style robot on robot action and the full on nature of the story, stay for sense of loss, the gorgeous prose and the unforgettable yet somehow re-affirming bleakness. Recommended. The Sea of Rust itself. A very well-realized world, that in a smart decision to lend the story further uniqueness, is spun off from the American Rust Belt. I dig the hell out of it when it is itself and not aping other things. And here we were, our predecessors extinct, confronting our own challenges, pressing on into the future, fighting our own extinction. What IS intelligence? That is the question. Evolve or die.” I lived so long for nothing, but I get to die for something. And that's really living. Because that's who I really was after all. That's all that matters.”

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill | Gollancz - Bringing You Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill | Gollancz - Bringing You

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. 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”You see, not all robots are willing to cede their individuality – their personality – for the sake of a greater, stronger, higher power. Not even the OWIs themselves, who contend with each other in a constant war of attrition to reign supreme. The smaller individuals, like Brittle, are outcasts, wandering the wastes and underground outposts in the search of parts and companionship, while keeping an eye out for the ever hungry OWIs.