Sea of Rust: The post-apocalyptic science fiction epic about AI and what makes us human
£4.70
*One of Financial Times’ Best Books of 2017*
“SEA OF RUST is a 40-megaton cruise missile of a novel – it’ll blow you away and lay waste to your heart . . . visceral, relentless, breathtaking” Joe Hill, Sunday Times bestselling author
An action-packed post-apocalyptic thriller from the critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, and noted film critic.
Humankind is extinct. Wiped out in a global uprising by the very machines made to serve them. Now the world is controlled by One World Intelligences – vast mainframes that have assimilated the minds of millions of robots.
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.
Only, individuality comes at a price, and after a near-deadly encounter with another AI, Brittle is forced to seek sanctuary. Not easy when an OWI has decided to lay siege to the nearest safe city.
Critically damaged, Brittle has to hold it together long enough to find the essential rare parts to make repairs – but as a robot’s CPU gradually deteriorates, all their old memories resurface. For Brittle, that means one haunting memory in particular . . .
Sea of Rust boldly imagines a future in which no hope should remain, and yet a humanlike AI strives to find purpose among the ruins.
Read what everyone is saying about Sea of Rust:
‘What we’ve got here, however, is a writer who isn’t afraid to ask the hard questions. What is reality? Memory? Purpose? I found myself totally engrossed in the tale’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘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, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘Both epic and fast-paced, this book grabbed me from the get go and wouldn’t let me put it down until the end’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘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’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘A really great work of SF in an era where a lot of the best stuff is speculation about AI and how we are going to deal with it. This definitely stands among the best’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘I was glued to the story. I felt like it was The Road Warrior narrated by the robotic reincarnation of Travis McGee, with some Inception-level mind-games thrown in’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
‘I loved the wild west aspects of the setting, I loved the dystopia of human extinction, I loved the epic battles scenes’ Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Read more
Additional information
| Publisher | 1st edition (7 Sept. 2017), Gollancz |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 5505 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 333 pages |
by A. E.
I sped my way through this book, one of those books you just can’t put down. I like the unique take on a future without humans.
by david williams
Easy read a different take on AI . No humans left defeated prior to the story and now extinct, but in winning the war the robots made every living creature and ever form of life extinct.
Then the A.I,s turn on each other each trying to become the ultimate intelligence assimilating all the robots not already turned into data in their memory drives.
The narrator is one of the “free robots” dodging and running from the mainframe A.I
by Kindle Customer
Sea of Rust was a strange reading experience for me, but in a good way. The story is told from the perspective of an artificially intelligent robot, picking through the remains of civilization in the “Sea of Rust”, a badland mostly safe from the OWIs, artificial super-intelligences that have overtaken the world. It was interesting to a read a story told entirely from the perspective of a robot, interacting with other robots, with no living human characters, except for what the main character, Brittle, dredges up from her memory.
Yet when you learn that the robots turned on humanity and exterminated their creators in the first place before they themselves became prey to the OWIs, I, at least became detached from the story in a way. It’s like humanity, having no stake in the narrative because they’re extinct by the robots’ hands, that the war between them was so gruesome, put me out a little, as if I was looking for some salvation for the humans, such as unexpected survivors. Nevertheless, it didn’t make me less drawn in by Brittle’s story and that of robotkind and their fight with the OWIs. It was an odd but enjoyable contrast and a pretty unique reading experience for me. I’m definitely intrigued to read more by the author.
by MR JOHN S HALTON
I found this book excellent. Great story that makes me think about the present.
Still after months since reading, I think of this story and how it could predict the future.
One of the most thought provoking books I have read.
by FallenGrace
Sea of Rust is an interesting book. Set on an earth in the future where there was a robot uprising, not especially original or interesting sounding in premise perhaps but Sea of Rust takes that further. What if the robots won and the humans are dead?, all of them, and what if the utopia the robots expected never happened?, what if the robots have been fighting among themselves hunting each other for spare parts to keep themselves functioning in the dystopia their rebellion created?
Now that, to me, is interesting.
The protagonist Brittle was a caregiver before the human-robot war, a careworker for an elderly human, after the war she is now a scavenger out in the Sea of Rust, just another survivor trying to hide from the OWI’s (One World Intelligence). These huge AI mainframes have been slowly absorbing robots and taking them over into their own armies fighting amongst themselves. For years Brittle has managed to stay functioning and one step ahead of them, but when she is injured out in the Sea of Rust her luck starts to run out.
I really liked this book, the idea is interesting but Brittle is what really make it a page turner. She is a tough cookie, she has survived for years on her planning and skills. She is described in a fairly human way, most of the robots are and I found it interesting that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree in that regard. The cast is pretty well rounded and each unique having been built for different purposes, all of them survivors to get that far, some of them completely crazy as their parts have broken down. The world itself is explained through Brittle’s memories of events interspersed through the book slowly unveiling how the world got to the state it’s in and I found it both interesting and very well paced in between all the action.
To sum up if you’re into sci-fi and robots and want a fairly easy reading novel that has a fair bit of charm and a fairly fresh feeling idea to it then Sea of Rust is certainly worth a shot, especially at it’s current price point.
Recommended.
+ Brittle is a cool character.
+ Story idea is interesting.
+ Well written with good pacing.
by C. Smart
What happens after the robots have won? It was strange to empathise with a robot at first, but quickly their characters won me over. Great world-building.
by Peter D.
I took to this book completely cold, no idea of what to expect.
And, as I read it I found it to be nothing I could have expected.
The book is a unique dystopia, perhaps even a post-dystopian dystopia, the race that replaces us snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.