Sea of Rust: A Novel

In this post-apocalyptic novel, a scavenger robot named Brittle wanders through a wasteland created by a war that destroyed humanity. Thirty years have passed since the apocalypse, and fifteen years since robots killed the last human being. Humanity is extinct, eliminated by a global uprising of machines designed to serve them. Most of the world is now controlled by an OWI—One World Intelligence—a shared consciousness of millions of robots merged into a single mainframe. However, some robots have rejected this collective consciousness to preserve their individuality. These resisters are outcasts living in underground outposts, forming a rogue AI civilization in what was once the world. Brittle, one of these resisters, struggles to maintain a deteriorating mind and body while haunted by memories of the crimes robots committed against humanity. As Brittle travels through the Sea of Rust, a vast territory that was once the Midwest, the robot confronts vivid memories and overwhelming guilt. The novel portrays both harsh survival and adventure, depicting ultimate destruction and desperate persistence in a future where hope is gone, yet where a humanlike AI searches for purpose among the ruins.