

In a Borg like move the dominant supercomputer decides to assimilate all robots to pool all of their power together, and in essence this is the “big bad” of Sea of Rust. When the robots win the war (that was fought in the past) a number of supercomputers take over and battle against themselves. What the robots haven’t figured out of course is that their lives are as futile, especially in a world where no spare parts are being created. Through flashbacks the reader is introduced to a world where robots have become sentient beings and worked out that humans are a waste of resources, they are only destined to die. This is what makes them agree to take part in a journey to where it all began, when the robots decided to go to war with humans. While the story is at first personal to Brittle, the battle with Mercer for the parts they each hold make both willing to take risks to survive. When another similar robot hunts her down and they damage each other in battle, the two are pushed into a partnership that will change the world for all robot kind. Brittle is one of these scavengers, but is running out of parts to keep herself alive. The Sea of Rust is a place that robots go to die, though there are some scavengers who use the wastes as a place to collect parts that can either be used or sold on.

What happens though when humans are extinct and robots are left to live in a society together, will it be peaceful? That is the question answered in Sea of Rust by C. Robots taking over the world is one of those dystopian fantasies that we always seems to obsess about.
