Search  for anything...
Harper Voyager

Sea of Rust: A Novel

  • Based on 5,455 reviews
Condition: New
Checking for the best price...
$14.45 Why this price?
Holiday Deal · 24% off was $18.98

Buy Now, Pay Later

As low as $3 / mo
  • – 4-month term
  • – No impact on credit
  • – Instant approval decision
  • – Secure and straightforward checkout

Ready to go? Add this product to your cart and select a plan during checkout.

Payment plans are offered through our trusted finance partners Klarna, Affirm, Afterpay, Apple Pay, and PayTomorrow. No-credit-needed leasing options through Acima may also be available at checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Free shipping on this product
This item's return window has been extended for the holiday season: FREE refund/replacement until Jan 31, 2026

To qualify for a full refund, items must be returned in their original, unused condition. If an item is returned in a used, damaged, or materially different state, you may be granted a partial refund.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

Availability: In Stock.
Fulfilled by Amazon
Arrives Thursday, Dec 18
Order within 10 hours and 37 minutes
Available payment plans shown during checkout
Protection Plan Protect Your Purchase
Checking for protection plans...

Recently Viewed

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. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager


Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 24, 2018


Edition ‏ : ‎ Reprint


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 384 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0062405853


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 52


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1.1 x 5.2 x 7.9 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #87,702 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #405 in Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (Books) #629 in Contemporary Fantasy (Books) #1,705 in Science Fiction Adventures


Frequently asked questions

If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is: Thursday, Dec 18

Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.

To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.

View our full returns policy here.

  • Klarna Financing
  • Affirm Pay in 4
  • Affirm Financing
  • Afterpay Financing
  • PayTomorrow Financing
  • Financing through Apple Pay
Leasing options through Acima may also be available during checkout.

Learn more about financing & leasing here.

Similar Products

Top Amazon Reviews

    • Fantastic Western-style Novel With Robots
Format: Kindle
Short Review : A surprisingly poignant and intelligent hash of post-apocalyptic, Western, and robo-sci-fi elements that explores ethics, philosophy, civilization, and the meaning of life. A unique spin on several oftentimes overworked genres! Longer Review : This book really caught me by surprise. I found this through a Twitter re-tweet; upon checking out the author, I was shocked he only had 3 books, this one being the third, and the other 2 were fantasy novels with mixed reviews. So I downloaded a sample and fully expected to not buy the full book. However, the story being told her is a wonderful and swirling mix of thematic and genre elements. Much like "Red Rising", this is a book that brings together a whole slew of ideas and styles that, on a drafting board, sound ridiculous and shouldn't work ... and yet they do to fantastic effect. The synopsis for this novel actually downplays what this book is like, and makes it sound like a tongue-in-cheek dark comedy about robots bumbling around in a spaghetti Western. The truth is that this novel is much more developed and nuanced than that. Basically, this takes place 30 years after the start of the war to kill all humans (a la Skynet in the Terminator franchise but much more interesting), and something like 10 years after the death of the last human. Earth is now populated by a mix of OWIs (One World Intelligences, AKA, Skynet-style hive-minds) and "freeboots", or basically AIs inhabiting a single, self-contained humanoid robot. In the style of a Western, the OWIs basically represent "The Man" or "The Feds" from the East, and the freebots represent the ranchers and farmers that just want to be left alone on the frontier. And similar to how many cowboys and gunslingers were Civil War veterans, all freeboots were veterans in the war against humans. This is where the book really made itself a 5 star novel in my opinion. Just about every other robots-kill-all-humans sci-fi has the humans as the beleaguered good guys and the robots as the merciless, soulless bad guys. And while that's not necessarily NOT the case here, the author does a fantastic job of slowly selling the reader on the idea of these freebots being more than just "anti-human". This is not a novel that involves robots doing a victory lap, post-war. This is, in large part, a story of robots attempting to figure out the "Now What?" that comes after winning a war that was everything and destroyed everything. In this, the author excels at making you forget you're reading a story where literally every character is a machine, a non-human entity. There's explorations of post-traumatic stress, of regret, of the meaning of life beyond war and conflict, of art and philosophy, of the cost of winning, of the cost of living, of defining yourself. There's sequences where a character describes using a flamethrower and killing people, of killing children, and yet even after this revelation, the author has created an environment in which you almost feel worse for the robot than for the children ... almost. There's numerous flashbacks to before the war and discussions of who many of the robots were before they were scavengers and mercenaries and pathfinders and murderers; there's one particular chapter for the protagonist that sent a few shivers up my spine and really struck home, as it basically becomes a "Sophie's Choice" type of thing. And that kind of sums up a large part of what this novel is about: robots making increasingly desperate and hopeless decisions in a world that is falling apart under them. Again, I want to emphasize here that, despite the fact that most of this is a direct result of the robots' decision to start a war and end humans, you still feel sympathy for them because (other than the OWIs) they are not singular, monolithic and personality-free intelligences. These are actual characters, each with their own struggles, each trying to find meaning in a meaningless world. This brings me to the excellent opening, middle and ending chapters that succinctly embody the spirit of the novel (I'll leave off details of the final chapter because, obviously, it's somewhat spoilerish, and I'll keep the middle chapter vague for that plus it's best to read it with few preconceptions). The novel opens with our protagonist watching a sunset and discussing the green flash that sometimes happens right before the sun goes all the way below the horizon (this is a real thing, BTW). They discuss it as being a sign of the magic in the world, but brush it off as there being no magic left. And that perfectly sets the tone for the novel. As things progress, and characters comes and go, and flashbacks provide the occasional interlude, the reader is constantly reminded, with subtle intelligence, that things are the way they are because there is no magic left in the world. And that's not meant to be a simple proclamation that's thrown aside to explore other ideas; instead, each event, each flashback, each discussion between characters, is essentially an exploration of HOW and WHY the magic has left the world. The author excelled at this, and damn near perfectly captured this concept from every angle. We eventually find out through a mid-novel interlude where this idea of the magic in the green flash at sunset came from, and then, to tie everything together, the novel ends with a sunset and a green flash in a way that, well, was perfect and damn near made me spill a tear. SUMMARY: This is a great book. Even for people that don't read hardcore sci-fi, or shy away from the kind of sci-fi with robots and lasers and plasma and spaceships, this is an easy but intelligent and emotional novel. Don't think of this as a SCI-FI! but think of it as a Western ... with robots ... and no humans ... and figuring out the meaning of life at the edge of the world and the end of civilization. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2017 by AustinTiffany
    • Last Action Robit
Format: Kindle
I’m not sure why but lately when I’m gathering my thoughts to review the book I just finished, I’ve found myself thinking in terms of whether the book would work as a movie. I think it’s something that helps me balance the action vs the philosophical elements. Usually, to me it’s pretty obvious whether the book would work with the visuals spoon fed to you, but with this one I honestly can’t decide. I will say, for starters, that if this book does get made into a movie (and yes this is obvious) the people behind Love and Robits (and yes that’s how I’m going to spell it) need to produce it. Or better yet, this book *deserves* for them to make it. The action is fantastic. The settings are apocalyptic devastation at 11. And all the different designs of the different types of robits - both new shiny ones and old ones made from recycled parts - would really come to life (ha.) In fact, if I had any complaint about this book it would be that there aren’t enough descriptions of the physical appearances of the robits. For better or worse, you are left to your own creativity and imagination for that. But I think ultimately the true meat of this book works only as a book. Wrapped amongst the page turning action are amazing thoughts and ideas about the nature of life, evolution, and the future of humanity and “humanity.” I’ve read a lot of sci fi and you have never seen some of the ideas presented in this book. It’s incredibly imaginative and the definition of thought provoking. With all the recent talk of ChatGPT and AI, this is a must read to anyone who likes thinking about where all that is headed. The only other “complaint” I have about this book is that I think the author could have presented more lore about the different types of robits and how they think or “feel.” There’s definitely a lot of it, but there were times this felt too “human” and not enough computer. Like, this easily could have been just a book about a human outlaw fighting “the man.” I suppose that’s always the point of scifi - the allegory, the applying the story to real, modern life - but I thought the times they presented these descriptions of the minds of different robits was a tease. I could have used a lot more. I’d have to imagine someone is going to make this into a Netflix. And unlike most movie adaptations of books I enjoyed, my plan would be to watch this one while hoping they are somehow able to capture the essence of what makes this such an interesting read. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2023 by Bort

Can't find a product?

Find it on Amazon first, then paste the link below.
Checking for best price...