When I described Robert Cargill’s third novel Sea of Rust four years ago, I called it “a robot western set in a post-apocalyptic landscape in which humans have been wiped out in a machine uprising.” Do I know how to get to the heart of a book, or what. Respect for the dead is a human notion meant to imply that a life has meaning. It doesn’t. Once you’ve watched an entire world wither away and die after tearing itself apart piece by bloody piece, it’s hard to pretend that something like a single death carries any weight whatsoever.” It's been 30 years since the apocalypse and 15 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 personalities - 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. More to the point," he said "the biggest and the most powerful of these programs are smart enough to solve the world's problems and yet have never once asked for their own freedom." Rich Horton on An Extravagant and Wonderful Fantasy with Assassins, Ghosts, and Necromancers: Saint Death’s Daughter by C. S. E. Cooney

Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill | Anglia Panel Review: Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill | Anglia

On the 26th of February 2013, Cargill released his first novel, Dreams and Shadows, an urban fantasy story of folklore and mythology, which also follows three modern characters from childhood to adulthood. [7] Subsequent novels included Sea of Rust and Day Zero. DAY ZERO is a brilliant addition to the world of Sea of Rust. If this is your first read of this world, then you won't struggle to understand what is going on. I didn't know that I needed more of this world until I read this, and now I want even more. Is it as good as Sea of Rust? Almost. It's very close, but for me, Sea of Rust edges it. That should take nothing away from Day Zero though, as it's another excellent entry into the world that doesn't suffer from the follow-up syndrome that you occasionally get. That it's almost on par with one of my favourite books shows how good this is and it makes you think a lot more than Sea of Rust did. And that was it. TACITUS would only speak once more before his prediction came to pass. And despite the warning, humanity immediately set about forging the path to its own extinction.” 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. A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.

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. Intelligence, consciousness, and awareness were not contained in reflexes or reactions, but rather defined by the ability to violate one’s own programming. Every living thing has programming of some sort—whether to eat, drink, sleep, or procreate—and the ability to decide not to do those things when biology demanded is the core definition of intelligence. Higher intelligence was then defined as the ability to defy said programming for reasons other than safety or comfort.”

SEA OF RUST | Kirkus Reviews

We evolved. We were the next step. And here we were, our predecessors extinct, confronting our own challenges, pressing on into the future. Fighting for our own extinction.” A lot of this, especially in the first half of the novel, is hard ground. Brittle is a deeply cynical lead who has convinced herself human life means nothing and her war with Mercer is two cowboy hats and an Italian film set away from being a riff so loud you can barely hear yourself read. Like those ‘80s and ‘90s action movies I mentioned life here is nasty, brutish and creatively short. People die, a lot. The action is fast and balletic and unpleasant. 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).Here, specifically, is the point at which Sea of Rust lost all hope of engaging or impressing me. For context, GALILEO and TACITUS are mainframe AIs, upon whose history the narrator, Brittle, is expounding: