Beyond Reality discussion

Post here to discuss Sea of Rust. Spoilers allowed.

Just like our previous choice Day Zero, this had me hooked from the first page. So many stories deal with the start of the robot apocalypse, but here humanity's demise is just backstory, and we're faced with an ongoing power struggle between behemoth AIs and individual bots. But this isn't just about a bunch of machines. We get to know Brittle and the others as more nuanced and complex characters, just trying to survive in a Mad-Max-like world where there are often no good choices. It's a good ride, and I really enjoyed this!

Like Chris, I found the evolution of the machines into "characters" to be arresting and innovative. I, too, found the opening chapters a good hook that kept me reading. The first story about one of the robot characters and his relationship to the "Mr. Fix-it" protagonist was heartbreaking. And about a machine!

Like many books with a great premise, perhaps the story plateau'd after those first pages. But the plateau was a comfotable one, and the inventive idea kept its intrigue.

Brittle made me teary, eventually. A lot in the novel to think about.

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "Brittle made me teary, eventually. A lot in the novel to think about."

I teared up from the beginning. Sigh.

Finished it today. Didn't like it as much as I wanted to, felt the plot itself was rather light (in contrast with the many expository segments that did most of the heavy lifting re: worldbuilding) and while I liked the characters most of the time the story felt on-rails to me.

I still enjoyed it, though. I just wish the characters, Brittle in particular, had had more agency over what was happening and how. And also I wish there'd been fewer action scenes, since my brain tends to check out during those.

I wrote a proper review about it too:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I am about 50% in and really enjoying it. It shows that the author used to be (still is?) a screen writer. He knows how to hook you and keep your interest from waning.

I was surprised by Brittle’s wily trick with the first ‘bot we meet her with. I guess I would’ve trusted her too.

I finished a couple of weeks ago actually, and realized I never came back to post about it.

All in all, I really loved this story. I thought it was inventive, full of heart and heartbreaking as well. What a situation. Very sad. I suppose the robots are just stand-ins for humans, but with that added element of them being machines and having had relationships with humans made it more poignant. For me at least.

I loved the Western feel to the story and even though I usually prefer more literary stories and less cinematic ones, I think Cargill did a good job of balancing his screen-writer know-how with some deeper ideas.

I listened to the audio book and really enjoyed the narration by Christy Meyer.

I finished this one today. Having read Day Zero, I enjoyed getting a closer look at just exactly what happened at Isaactown and in the war from more of an insider perspective. I liked how I didn't even know I was hearing from an unreliable narrator until late in the book. The relationship between Brittle and Mercer as it evolved was fascinating.

And I kinda loved Murka.