Review: All the Ash We Leave Behind

All the Ash We Leave Behind by C. Robert Cargill
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novella is set in the "robopocalypse" universe of Day Zero and Sea of Rust, and timewise, falls between the two: five years after Day Zero's first day of the apocalypse and twenty-five years prior to Sea of Rust. Our protagonist and narrator is a tiger-shaped nannybot who just calls himself "Nanny" at the beginning (although in the very last sentence of the book, we find out his name is Pounce, the hero of Day Zero). Nanny/Pounce is roaming the ash-choked waste following the war, trying to find a mythical hidden human- and robot-inhabited city called Confederation.

He does find Confederation, but as is to be expected, there is a lot more going on here under the surface, most of it nasty. The hidden underground city is run by two Mayors, one human and one robot, and it is on the verge of exploding. The Mayors are Brother Luke (human) and Brother Tony (bot) and they are leading a multi-religious cult in Confederation, trying to defuse the tensions between human and robot that are obviously rising to the surface.

Along the way, Nanny/Pounce picked up and returned a runaway, a young girl named Celeste, and in gratitude the Mayors ask him to stay. He is the spitting image of another nannybot, Confederation's deceased founder Gabriel, and they are hoping to use Nanny to shore up the city's defenses and keep the peace. Nanny accepts their offer because it gives him a purpose again; the child he was guarding during the first years after the war is now gone. Complications arise immediately: Celeste is murdered, apparently by a bot, and the tensions in the town boil over. In the middle of all this comes word that their existence has been revealed and they are being invaded, and the final chapters involve Nanny's frantic attempt to save some of the town's children from being killed.

The main thing you need to be prepared for with this story is the utter, complete bleakness of the world. There is nary a shred of hope to be found; the robots and the giant AIs are clearly winning, and Nanny knows that soon humans will be extinct. But in rediscovering his purpose, he commits to saving these kids and keeping them alive, and he leads them out of Confederation.

These children are not long for this world. I know that. Thinking any different would be fooling myself. But I will keep them alive as long as I can. Give them a reason to live every single day that they draw breath. And I will do it because I have to. So I have a reason as well. It is my purpose. It always has been and always will be. Fuck free will. Fuck fate. Fuck any discussion about what I chose of this life and what was thrust upon me with my wiring and programming. I am what I am. And I'm okay with that now. And I will serve that for as long as I live.

If you can handle the grimness of this story, it certainly is worth reading. It's also as long as it needs to be--I don't think many readers could bear it if it was a full-length novel, for example. Nanny/Pounce is a good narrator, and there are some exciting fight/action scenes. Just go into this knowing there really isn't a happy ending, and you won't be disappointed.

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