Sea of Rust

Starred review from September 4, 2017
In Cargill’s effective postapocalyptic thriller, robots inherited the Earth after slaughtering their human progenitors; decades later, they in turn are imperiled, as the massive AIs that control the world seek to stamp out and assimilate the last of the individual units. One holdout is Brittle, a skilled scavenger who makes her living by selling parts of robots reaching the end of their operational lifespan. Damaged and dying, hunted by the implacable forces of an all-knowing enemy, and haunted by the memories of what she did during the war against humans, she joins a desperate band of refugees who set off through danger-filled badlands in search of a better future, a quest that forces her to confront her own mortality, guilt, and drive to survive. Cargill (Queen of the Dark Things) effectively takes a grim look at a war-torn future where our nonhuman successors face complex moral dilemmas, exploring what it means to be alive and aware through the trials and tribulations of Brittle and her allies. This action-packed adventure raises thought-provoking and philosophical questions. Agent: Peter McGuigan, Foundry Literary + Media.

August 15, 2017
Cargill (Queen of the Dark Things, 2014, etc.) takes readers to Earth's post-human future in which robots struggle to survive and remain free of their own robot overlords. The last human died 15 years ago at the end of the human-robot war that arose from a robot uprising. The robots fought for their freedom, but it was short-lived: now the world is dominated by One World Intelligences, massively powerful AIs bent on absorbing individual robots into their ever growing hive mind. North America is the battleground for two OWIs, VIRGIL and CISSUS, with unclaimed territories shrinking every year before the OWIs' expansion. As the OWIs have seized the means of production, the robots who remain must trade, fight, and scavenge for parts to keep surviving. One such scavenger is Brittle, a former Caregiver robot haunted by memories of the war and the fates of the humans she once served, first as a nurse and then as a friend. All Brittle wants is to retain her independence and keep ticking, but some of her vital parts are failing, and Caregiver robots are rare--rare enough that the only other one around, Mercer, wants Brittle's parts, too. An attack by Mercer locks both robots into a race for time, and an attack by CISSUS drags Brittle, Mercer, and other bots into a tense secret mission that may end the OWIs' hungry rule--if our heroes can survive explosions, plasma cannons, four-oh-fours (robots who have gone entirely insane), betrayal, and their own deterioration.Innovative worldbuilding, a tight plot, and cinematic action sequences make for an exciting ride through a blasted landscape full of dying robots.

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June 1, 2018

Robots are sentient and humanity is extinct. Without humans to muck everything up, perhaps the world will finally become a paradise. But it turns out robots and other artificial intelligences are no better at peace, respect, or conservation than we were. Worse, not only has a lack of spare parts resulted in robot cannibalism, but the world's surviving supercomputers battle for the minds of every sentient machine on the planet. VERDICT Though brutal, the journey through this postapocalyptic world feels like the greatest of ensemble Westerns as outlaws and misfits band together for their chance at survival.

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