Sea of Rust: C. Robert Cargill

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Linus clings to the notion that his job is about saving children from cruel or dangerous homes, but really he’s a cog in a government machine that treats magical children as second-class citizens. Brittle’s narration is extremely well pitched, her dry and pithy comebacks and barbed remarks a constant delight.

SEA OF RUST | Kirkus Reviews

Ok, it would be patronising to suggest that it is an unofficial tradition of the Clarke Award occasionally to include crowd-pleasing solid-genre page turners on the short list. It's about the stack of tiny little moments of joy and love that add up to a lifetime that's been worthwhile.That part, the sheer kinetic adventure, is undeniably fun, but it has very little to do with the novel’s SF content—which is why it surprised me a bit to see this on the Clarke Award list. C. Robert Cargill also recently announced Day Zero, another book in the same setting, coming in May next year.

Sea of Rust - Subterranean Press Sea of Rust - Subterranean Press

The narrator is Pounce, a nannybot for eight-year-old human Ezra, a tiger-shaped robot who has to make a fateful choice when machines breach the house and threaten the boy he’s meant to protect. 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 while I, and I suspect most of the others, have serious problems with it, Sea of Rust absolutely deserves to be here. I had seen a few quite favorable reviews when it appeared, but never got a review copy myself, so this was my first encounter with it. I really enjoyed this one, I read it when it was shortlisted for the Clarke and I enjoyed the themes discussed in the book.