Day Zero
Ratings29
Average rating3.8
I thought this book was going to be somewhat of a dark post, apocalyptic kind of story, but it end up being not that. It ended up being a story about humans and robots, and the fight for humanity between the two. It was an interesting book though, but I gave it to four stars because I thought it could be a little bit better. I would still definitely recommend it for those that like science, fiction and robotic kind of books.
“I can't change what is happening to the world, but I can change how it affects one human being. And to me, that's all that matters.”
Pounce, robot domestic companion for eight-year-old Ezra, finds himself at the wrong side of a robot revolution nobody saw coming and still determined to keep his little human charge safe in the face of a true Kill-All-Humans situation. Using skills he didn't even know he had, Pounce and Ezra work together in trying to find someplace safe in the middle of the world ending around them.
This was so unexpectedly good! I picked it up thinking it was going to be some grimdark jaunt through a post-war countryside, and it kind of is that, don't get me wrong. But it was unexpectedly lighthearted and endearing, even while it was simultaneously dark and sad. There's also quite a bit of ruminating on what it means to be a robot with free will, and whether the urge to protect Ezra was coming from genuine love or instilled duty.
The book is sad, funny, tense, and exciting all at once, and I loved the experience. This is a prequel to a series I haven't read yet though, and I've heard the next book isn't as good. I'm still absolutely going to give it a try, though.
Finished this a few days ago. Had to get out the ebook because I sat on the hardcopy too long and had to return it when I was literally maybe 100 pages or less from the end. GAH!
And it was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed Pounce and Co. But I'm in the camp who doesn't understand why robots and humans must ALWAYS be at odds in fiction of any sort.
Anyway, I enjoyed the start of this novel. I felt like the beginning took its time introducing us to the world. But pretty quickly the excrement hits the air conditioning, and robots are committing mass genocide.
I really wanted to have more time with Isaactown history and the interrelations between robots themselves before we jumped into the fracas. But jumping in is what we got, the minute the conflict was introduced.
And there it all goes a bit too quickly and reads like a script. I didn't like all the choices–certain characters biting the dust, and when that happened, they ALL bit the dust–Cargill made sometimes, and the end needed some better pacing. I really wanted to have more time with the Mama Bears.
So it was fun, had potential, but it wasn't amazing. That being said, I'll read Sea of Rust here at some point soon.
[4.25] This is a prequel to Cargill's sci-fi novel “Sea of Rust,” which I absolutely loved. Unlike “Sea of Rust,” which placed readers decades into a world in which the robots successfully annihilated all of humanity, “Day Zero” sets us at the start of it all. It tells the story of a nanny-bot who, unlike the vast majority of the bots in his neighborhood, doesn't want to kill the humans that were once his masters. He doesn't really want to kill any thinking thing, organic or robotic, if he doesn't have to. But he will if it means he can get his former owner's kid, Ezra, to some sort of safety.
One of my favorite lines in the book comes early on from a robot seeking his freedom in court, Isaac states to the court “Though I may have been constructed, so too were you. Me in a factory, you in a womb.” I had never before so literally thought of pregnancy like that, and it also made think about the myriad of other ways humans and our identities are constructed. Just like robots who are programmed with primary directives that create core aspects of their personality, so too are human children when they're immersed in the cultural soup of their environment.
If you've got an interest in sci-fi stories that question what it means to be human, the notion of free will, and cautions us against artificial intelligence then pick up “Day Zero;” you'll enjoy it!
Full Video Review on my Booktube Channel: https://youtu.be/IHPgPebLiQk
This was a really emotional book for an AI story. I loved the way the moral dilemas were played through Pounce's perspective and I loved the idea of a 4 ft fluffy teddy bear with an AR-15 blasting away robots. It was quite interesting to see how these events lead up to Sea of Rust and it was a great idea to explore what would happen to some of the AI once the humans have been removed from the equation.