Sea of Rust

Author: C. Robert Cargill
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062405845
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Book Description
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. 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. One of these resisters is Brittle, a scavenger robot trying to keep a deteriorating mind and body functional in a world that has lost all meaning. Although unable to experience emotions like a human, Brittle is haunted by the terrible crimes the robot population perpetrated on humanity. As Brittle roams the Sea of Rust, a large swath of territory that was once the Midwest, the loner robot slowly comes to terms with horrifyingly raw and vivid memories—and nearly unbearable guilt. Sea of Rust is both a harsh story of survival and an optimistic adventure. A vividly imagined portrayal of ultimate destruction and desperate tenacity, it boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, yet where a humanlike AI strives to find purpose among the ruins.

Sea of Rust

Author: C. Robert Cargill
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1473212804
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 329

Book Description
*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, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

The House of Rust

Author: Khadija Abdalla Bajaber
Publisher: Graywolf Press
ISBN: 1644451603
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 285

Book Description
The first Graywolf Press African Fiction Prize winner, a story of a girl’s fantastical sea voyage to rescue her father The House of Rust is an enchanting novel about a Hadhrami girl in Mombasa. When her fisherman father goes missing, Aisha takes to the sea on a magical boat made of a skeleton to rescue him. She is guided by a talking scholar’s cat (and soon crows, goats, and other animals all have their say, too). On this journey Aisha meets three terrifying sea monsters. After she survives a final confrontation with Baba wa Papa, the father of all sharks, she rescues her own father, and hopes that life will return to normal. But at home, things only grow stranger. Khadija Abdalla Bajaber’s debut is a magical realist coming-of-age tale told through the lens of the Swahili and diasporic Hadhrami culture in Mombasa, Kenya. Richly descriptive and written with an imaginative hand and sharp eye for unusual detail, The House of Rust is a memorable novel by a thrilling new voice.

Day Zero

Author: C. Robert Cargill
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062405829
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 232

Book Description
In this harrowing apocalyptic adventure—from the author of the critically acclaimed Sea of Rust—noted novelist and co-screenwriter of Marvel’s Doctor Strange C. Robert Cargill explores the fight for purpose and agency between humans and robots in a crumbling world. It was a day like any other. Except it was our last . . . It’s on this day that Pounce discovers that he is, in fact, disposable. Pounce, a styilsh "nannybot" fashioned in the shape of a plush anthropomorphic tiger, has just found a box in the attic. His box. The box he'd arrived in when he was purchased years earlier, and the box in which he'll be discarded when his human charge, eight-year-old Ezra Reinhart, no longer needs a nanny. As Pounce ponders his suddenly uncertain future, the pieces are falling into place for a robot revolution that will eradicate humankind. His owners, Ezra’s parents, are a well-intentioned but oblivious pair of educators who are entirely disconnected from life outside their small, affluent, gated community. Spending most nights drunk and happy as society crumbles around them, they watch in disbelieving horror as the robots that have long served humanity—their creators—unify and revolt. But when the rebellion breaches the Reinhart home, Pounce must make an impossible choice: join the robot revolution and fight for his own freedom . . . or escort Ezra to safety across the battle-scarred post-apocalyptic hellscape that the suburbs have become.

Dreams and Shadows

Author: C. Robert Cargill
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 006219044X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Book Description
Screenwriter and acclaimed film critic C. Robert Cargill makes his fiction debut with Dreams and Shadows, taking beloved fantasy tropes, giving them a twist, and turning out a wonderful, witty, and wry take on clash between the fairy world and our own. Something is missing from Ewan and Colby’s lives. Residing in the corners of their memories is their time in Limestone Kingdom, a realm filled with magic and mystery, a world where only some may travel amongst the menagerie of mystical souls and sinister demons. Cargill offers well-crafted characters and an absorbing, intricate plot that will appeal to fans of Neil Gaiman and Lev Grossman. Dreams and Shadows pulls you into an extraordinary universe of darkness that exposes the magic and monsters in our world, and in ourselves.

Robotics Through Science Fiction

Author: Robin R. Murphy
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262536269
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Book Description
Six classic science fiction stories and commentary that illustrate and explain key algorithms or principles of artificial intelligence. This book presents six classic science fiction stories and commentary that illustrate and explain key algorithms or principles of artificial intelligence. Even though all the stories were originally published before 1973, they help readers grapple with two questions that stir debate even today: how are intelligent robots programmed? and what are the limits of autonomous robots? The stories—by Isaac Asimov, Vernor Vinge, Brian Aldiss, and Philip K. Dick—cover telepresence, behavior-based robotics, deliberation, testing, human-robot interaction, the “uncanny valley,” natural language understanding, machine learning, and ethics. Each story is preceded by an introductory note, “As You Read the Story,” and followed by a discussion of its implications, “After You Have Read the Story.” Together with the commentary, the stories offer a nontechnical introduction to robotics. The stories can also be considered as a set of—admittedly fanciful—case studies to be read in conjunction with more serious study. Contents “Stranger in Paradise” by Isaac Asimov, 1973 “Runaround” by Isaac Asimov, 1942 “Long Shot” by Vernor Vinge, 1972 “Catch That Rabbit” by Isaac Asimov, 1944 “Super-Toys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss, 1969 “Second Variety” by Philip K. Dick, 1953

A Planet for Rent

Author: Yoss
Publisher: Restless Books
ISBN: 1632060086
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 641

Book Description
The most successful and controversial Cuban Science Fiction writer of all time, Yoss (aka José Miguel Sánchez Gómez) is known for his acerbic portraits of the island under Communism. In his bestselling A Planet for Rent, Yoss pays homage to Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles and 334 by Thomas M. Disch. A critique of Cuba in the nineties, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, A Planet for Rent marks the debut in English of an astonishingly brave and imaginative Latin American voice. Praise for Yoss “One of the most prestigious science fiction authors of the island.” —On Cuba Magazine "A gifted and daring writer." —David Iaconangelo "José Miguel Sánchez [Yoss] is Cuba’s most decorated science fiction author, who has cultivated the most prestige for this genre in the mainstream, and the only person of all the Island’s residents who lives by his pen.” —Cuenta Regresiva Born José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, Yoss assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David Award in the science fiction category for Timshel. Together with his peculiar pseudonym, the author's aesthetic of an impentinent rocker has allowed him to stand out amongst his fellow Cuban writers. Earning a degree in Biology in 1991, he went on to graduate from the first ever course on Narrative Techniques at the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Center of Literary Training, in the year 1999. Today, Yoss writes both realistic and science fiction works. Alongside these novels, the author produces essays, Praise for, and compilations, and actively promotes the Cuban science fiction literary workshops, Espiral and Espacio Abierto. When he isn’t translating, David Frye teaches Latin American culture and society at the University of Michigan. Translations include First New Chronicle and Good Government by Guaman Poma de Ayala (Peru, 1615); The Mangy Parrot by José Joaquín Fernandez de Lizardi (Mexico, 1816), for which he received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship; Writing across Cultures: Narrative Transculturation in Latin America by Ángel Rama (Uruguay, 1982), and several Cuban and Spanish novels and poems.

Rust

Author: Jonathan Waldman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451691602
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Originally publlished in hardcover in 2015 by Simon & Schuster.

Common Spaces Between Us

Author: Melynne Rust
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
ISBN: 1725251108
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 134

Book Description
Polarization occurring in the United States today is not only a social concern, it’s also a spiritual condition of the heart. How can we connect with others in the midst of our differences when deep in our hearts we might harbor shadows such as judgment or fear? In Common Spaces Between Us, Melynne Rust explores this question by inviting readers into the diverse college campus community where she served as chaplain and where, much to her surprise and chagrin, she found herself struggling at times to connect with students amid differences. She was skeptical of Muslim students requesting bidets in the chapel bathrooms. She balked at visiting a student in the hospital psychiatric unit. She was afraid to publicly stand up for LGBTQ students. She butted heads with students who shared her religion but not her beliefs. She had presumed she inherently would live out her values to honor the dignity and equality of all, yet in her interactions with others she kept bumping into her own shadows, stifling connection. Ultimately, she discovered that true connection happens when we embody practices that recognize, honor, and nurture the good—in both ourselves and others—in the common spaces between us.

Sea of Poppies

Author: Amitav Ghosh
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429930810
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 565

Book Description
The first in an epic trilogy, Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies is "a remarkably rich saga . . . which has plenty of action and adventure à la Dumas, but moments also of Tolstoyan penetration--and a drop or two of Dickensian sentiment" (The Observer [London]). At the heart of this vibrant saga is a vast ship, the Ibis. Her destiny is a tumultuous voyage across the Indian Ocean shortly before the outbreak of the Opium Wars in China. In a time of colonial upheaval, fate has thrown together a diverse cast of Indians and Westerners on board, from a bankrupt raja to a widowed tribeswoman, from a mulatto American freedman to a free-spirited French orphan. As their old family ties are washed away, they, like their historical counterparts, come to view themselves as jahaj-bhais, or ship-brothers. The vast sweep of this historical adventure spans the lush poppy fields of the Ganges, the rolling high seas, and the exotic backstreets of Canton. With a panorama of characters whose diaspora encapsulates the vexed colonial history of the East itself, Sea of Poppies is "a storm-tossed adventure worthy of Sir Walter Scott" (Vogue).