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All the Ash We Leave Behind by C. Robert Cargill is a searing novella set in the world of his acclaimed novels Sea of Rust and Day Zero.

The wraparound dust jacket art is by Dominic Harman.

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C. Robert Cargill, returns to the world of Sea of Rust (which Joe Hill called “a forty-megaton cruise missile of a novel—it’ll blow you away and lay waste to your heart. It is the most visceral, relentless, breathtaking work of SF in any medium since Mad Max: Fury Road.”) and Day Zero with a new novella that shares the post-apocalyptic, robot-inhabited future of those two acclaimed novels.

About the Book:

It is three years since the war between humans and robots began and the OWIs (the One World Intelligences) have humanity on the ropes. But humankind is not yet ready to go quietly into the night. Instead, they have partnered with many of the last remaining freebots in a fabled city beyond the reaches of war: Confederation. 

Nanny, an otherwise nameless nannybot—no home nor child to call their own—wearily wanders the war-torn wastes with only one thing on their mind: find Confederation. Because if you find Confederation, you find peace.

Of course, Confederation is as much a fireside folk tale as it is a reality.

Though it may exist, it by no means is a place of peace and acceptance. Though bot and human lives together under the same roof, that doesn’t mean they trust one another. Has Nanny arrived in time to save Confederation from itself or rather, just to witness its last days?

Praise for Sea of Rust:

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Cargill…effectively takes a grim look at a war-torn future where our nonhuman successors face complex moral dilemmas, exploring what it means to be alive and aware [….] This action-packed adventure raises thought-provoking and philosophical questions.” 

Praise for Day Zero:

From Booklist (Starred Review):

“Cargill, who is perhaps best known for cowriting the movies Dr. Strange and Sinister, is a gifted storyteller, and, with his robotic central character, he pulls off quite a feat: he makes Pounce a sympathetic, compassionate, deeply human protagonist—a real being, not a mere machine. His near-future postapocalyptic world, too, is abundantly real, so firmly anchored in our own reality that we feel as though Cargill’s vision of the future is not merely possible but likely… An absolute must-read.”