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    Sea of Rust: A Novel
    Sea of Rust: A Novel
    Sea of Rust: A Novel
    Audiobook10 hours

    Sea of Rust: A Novel

    Written by C. Robert Cargill

    Narrated by Eva Kaminsky

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateSep 5, 2017
    ISBN9780062742407
    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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    Reviews for Sea of Rust

    4/5

    462 ratings35 reviews

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    • 4/5

      A frightening scenario well presented, informative, Suspense, action and compassion threading through this tale, enhanced by the readers very good performance.
    • 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!
    • 5/5
      Best book about AI and robots since Isaac Asamov. Everything about the story was perfect.
    • 5/5
      This book is amazing. I felt fully transported into its dystopian world where humans are extinct and artificial intellegences struggle for survival against... each other. Its a great story, with a lot of philosophy to explore, which is what I love about much of science fiction. This was the best listen I've had since the year began.
    • 5/5
      Not the usual robotics. It's a revolutionary story where humans are gone but missed. You'll need to listen to it to discovery the right and wrong and if change is possible.

    • 5/5
      Simply magic! Captivating to the very end with excitement and introspection. This would make an amazing movie. The characters are full of life even though they are all robots!
    • 5/5
      Beautifully narrated. Awesome character. Much action. Such fascinating post apocalyptic world. Would listen to it twice.
    • 3/5
      It was interesting but honestly just lacked a little. I didn’t give up and saw it through however I found that it lacked.
    • 4/5
      This was a better than I expected, and there's a lot of nice stuff in it, although the non-stop action in the later stages was a little tedious - despite this it's worth a listen, and is well delivered. The characters are good, engaging and draw you in, as does the history of the future world - the death of humanity at the hands of AI, is very believable and really well thought out. It's good.
    • 4/5
      There were some inconsistencies that bothered me early on, mostly with choice of words and phrases, but eventually I just got over myself and powered through. Decent little story with some clever ideas that could only be explored in this type of setting.

      Fair warning: it's a 1st person narrative, which has become quite popular in sci fi. I find it's nice to know ahead of time.
    • 3/5
      Sea of Rust
      by C. Robert Cargill

      Even though it is not portrayed as a series, this could be considered book 2, the first book being Day Zero, but Sea of Rust was written first. (There were parts copied and pasted from this book to Day Zero, and if I hadn't listened to them back to back through Scribd, I might not have noticed.)

      Anyways, the story in this book takes place after the robots won, like 30 years or so, and details are included on how it was done, and why, and blah, and blah, the same old 'power god trip' that even robots seem to have. And a group of these bots, pretty much led by a female bot named Brittle, who are still free from the OWIs (One World Intelligences), and are trying to work together to take out these OWI by using another AI. Yes, same old same old.

      I don’t know if one could consider this as good or bad, but there were times where I forgot they were robots. They were just so human with their bickering, and other issues.

      It wasn't that bad of a story, but I think it was too short. I enjoyed scavenging with Brittle, but once she met up with the 'group', that's when I started to get bored. Might have been because it was so 1 2 3 paced instead of adding A and B to the mix.

      3 stars.
    • 4/5
      I guess there was just a little too much language for my tender ears. Couldn’t make it past the first chapter. Sorry. Sounded like it could have been a good book.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this story. The narration was really good as well.

      Excellent story and voice acting. I'll probably listen to it again at some point.
    • 5/5
      As a fan of the genre I can say it's welcomed addition and has a fresh spin.
    • 5/5
      Very good. After the first few chapters, I was sure I wanna listen again. Reminded me of Leckie's Ancillary series, more directly Asimov's Robots, of course, Iain Banks (the non Culture scifi), World War Z.
      And Western.
      Great find on Scribd ?
    • 5/5
      this is one of the greatest novels I have ever read/heared . it is not a post apocalyptic , it is Post-Post apocalyptic (if there was ever anything like this) . The character are so life and the plot is so detailed, I really enjoyed hearing the novel although I did not like the end too much I would have preferd if the novel ended 2 min earlier with an open end.
    • 4/5
      A fun sci-fi/Western blend that works fine if you’re willing to set aside technical concerns. I’d like to think subsequent books written in this reality relied less on tropes.
    • 5/5
      It's now one of my favorite books. I highly recommended it.
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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.

    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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
      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*
    • 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.
    • 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.
    • 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!
    • 5/5
      Wall-E for grownups. A group of androids flee the post-apocalyptic wasteland of the American Midwest in a desperate attempt to avoid being assimilated into a collective consciousness. It has humor, originality and a spaghetti western vibe that I loved. My favorite scene was the attack of the sexbots. My thanks to the folks at the Goodreads SciFi and Fantasy Book Club group for giving me the opportunity to read and discuss this and many other fine books.