Sea of Rust audiobook

Re-read, 5/26/21:Now that I'm an all-around fan of Cargill and I was simply in the mood for robots, robots, and more robots in a wasteland, this book was a perfect solution. Re-reading isn't a problem. It's a great story. Very wild west. And I got my damn fill, comfort-bots or no. :)Original Review:I was reminded of half of Clifford Simak's City with robots and dogs reminiscing about the days 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 pretty much blown away by just how much I love this book.Yes, humanity is dead and all that's left are either individual robots and huge mainframes that consume the stragglers and vie for dominance as the only One World Mind, it turns out the war to free themselves from us didn't quite turn out the way they planned. The robots have messed everything up just as bad as us. Maybe that's just the nature of intelligence and being around others. What we've got here, however, is a writer who isn't afraid to ask the hard questions. What is reality? Memory? Purpose? Giving a crap at all.I found myself totally engrossed in the tale and mightily impressed at where it all goes. Journey as well as the destination. :) I'm pretty sure I'm going to be keeping my eyes wide open for more by this writer. :)

My old review was deleted. I loved everything about this story.Think you don't care about bots? Read 'em and weep! Or laugh. Or stress out. Or just enjoy the fucking ride!I had a ball!

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 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. PhilosophyAs with many science fiction books there is a lot of social commentary in Sea of Rust. Cargill does not hold back on ensuring that the reader is aware of how useless and dumb society (as a whole) is. While individuals can be smart and understand issues and root cause; getting everyone to conform and agree in order to meet the greater good is nigh on impossible (look at climate change issues of today). Ironically we realize, very early on, that the same is true for our (adorable) robots. No one wants to be a part of one entity, we all want to be individuals; even if you're 'just' an AI. And what is an AI robot besides an evolution of human thinking? Afterall a human made AI must have all the same inherent flaws that human logic does. And therefore, doesn't an AI also have a personality and make its own choices just like humans? Are AI robots alive?The question of existence is prevalent throughout Sea of Rust. To start Cargill borrows Isaac Asimov's three rules of robotics. Now anyone whose read I, Robot (or saw the action packed movie) knows that it doesn't really work in the end. The same is true here. In order to protect humans, (rule #3: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.), robots must act to stop the humans from being parasites and destroying the Earth.If you need proof that this is true look at the United States or China of today. Both are nationalistic countries that don't care what happens to anyone else but themselves. They don't make global decisions, they (tend to) make selfish decisions that meet their own needs and people first. And while this makes sense to us as citizens of a country (and politically) the reality is that this attitude cannot persist if we are to keep humanity alive. That same thing happens in Sea of Rust as this Earth ends up with only robots and no humans. And so as soon as you talk about existence what you are really talking about is survival. Isn't anything that 'survives' alive? Can robots have feelings?The second thing that Cargill makes the reader question is if you can have feelings or love for a robot. Alternatively, can a robot have feelings for someone else (a human or another robot)? To me it's clear that as soon as something has an identity, or can be seen as an individual, then it must have feelings that lead it to those individualities. Think of any pet (dog, cat, snake, bird, etc.), we know their nuances and personality; therefore they are individuals to us. No one cat or snake is the same as the next. Cargill eloquently show that AI Robots are the same. They make decisions based on their programming (obviously); but also based on their own learning (AI). Thus each AI perceives the world differently; just like humans. And so each AI has a feeling towards other robots or things in its perception. ComplexityThere is a lot to digest here. But at no time was I overwhelmed. Instead Cargill introduces many times over, and explains in different ways, how and why his robots are the way they are. The beauty is how Cargill does so without sounding like a boring English professor. His robots have build societies and thus wars break out (because humans always want more and so do our AI counterparts). We also start to understand that the robots have a drive to survive (again like humans): "The survivors, on the other hand, embodied the can-do attitude of the post-apocalyptic frontier spirit. In other words, they were completely fucking nuts.""But I had to dream. I had to hope. Even if it made me the fool of this particular tale."OverallI won't ever be able to put into words all the amazing points, quotes and social insight that Cargill gives us in Sea of Rust. What's especially nice is that, unlike many social commentary books, Sea of Rust is in a easy to digest format. The chapter sizes feel consistent, the pacing is well set and while the concepts are complex the writing itself doesn't require a dictionary. This is a very approachable story that everyone should read; if only to understand themselves and humans as a whole better. If nothing else this line of Sea of Rust will resonate with me for a long time; because knowing things are bad and accepting those bad things are two concepts humans are very bad at reconciling: "People knew their own nature, even when they wanted to think better of themselves."A print copy of Sea of Rust now sits on in my personal library; right next to the equally insightful and amazing Station Eleven. I cannot possibly endorse this novel enough and hope that others find the depth to it that I did.

3.5 StarsOverall, 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 of robotics and warned against the dangers of giving artificial beings human rights. I would recommend this novel to science fiction readers who are interested in the topic of artificial intelligence and the dangers it could present to the future of humanity.

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.

I really enjoyed this book. Going in, I suspected I would since I had already accidentally read the prequel, Day Zero, and liked it. I'm not usually a big robot story fan, but this might nudge me into the genre more. I'm way overdue to re-read some Asimov and the Murderbot books have been on my to read list for awhile now.The character development in this series is really great. Making people care about robots is a tough job, but Cargill succeeds over and over. This might also be my only real complaint about the series, too. At times, the robots feel almost too human. There's enough roboty things going on that you don't ever really forget, but I might have liked to see things be slightly less human.If you're a science fiction fan, then this should definitely be on your to read list. If you're not a science fiction fan per se, but enjoy a well written story, then this one is definitely worth checking out. A note on the series, I'd recommend reading in the published order (Sea of Rust, then Day Zero) rather than chronological. Sea of Rust spends a bit more time with establishing the world and Day Zero tells a specific story set in the world and assumes you know the details. You can read either as a stand alone, but the things in Day Zero I wanted fleshed out (bad choice of words for a book about robots) more already were in SoR.

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! :-)

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!

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.

Welcome to the Robot World!15 years ago, the last human being killed himself (probably because he knew he was all alone). It was the end of the robot-human „wars“ (we didn‘t really stand a chance). Yep, the robots rose up to be free and - in a delicious twist of fate - most of them are now what we humans once were: on the run. From what? OWIs. One-World-Intelligences. Think hive-minds of AIs. There‘s always a bigger fish in the ocean, I guess.Brittle is a caregiver robot haunted by memories of the times before the war as well as what she did / had to do during the war and everything she‘s seen since. Eventually, time catches up with her, too, and being rare is NOT an advantage in that situation. But while Brittle simply wants to retain her independence and freedom, her individuality, there is a quest that could end all OWIs and free all robots.It was an interesting examination of free will, memory, independence, purpose, caring about the world / other beings and what makes one an individual (intelligence, being biological or something else). Thus, I appreciated how the robots here could go crazy. I mean, a machine breaking down or a human having a breakdown - is there really that much of a difference? The author‘s examination of the slave-master relationship was equally cool.On top of interesting characters, a mild twist or two, and a cool robotic-Western setting (which reminded me of Firefly), the author also greatly emphasized what makes a life and what is (or should be) important in it. The best way to do that is usually to show something perceived as non-human. It‘s an old „trick“ but, in the right hands, an effective one.Moreover, I liked the book‘s style what with us learning through flashbacks about how the robots were created, lived side-by-side with the humans and then eventually rose up and killed us - and why. How the flashbacks were nestled into the wider story (view spoiler)[via Brittle‘s unraveling mind (hide spoiler)] was quite nice, too.Admittedly, this is not my favorite by the author. It’s not quite as deep as I‘m used to and I wasn‘t quite as attached to any of the characters as happened with the author‘s other books. However, it was still great fun and fast-paced.