I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-book ARC of this novel, in exchange for an honest review.

I was a huge fan of C. Robert Cargill's previous novel Sea of Rust, so it's not surprising that this book was a 4.5 star read for me (which I rounded up to 5 stars). I just couldn't put down this book, as I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Technically this novel is a prequel to Sea of Rust, but it stands out as its own story in which you don't need to have read or known anything from the other book. In fact, I think it might be even more enjoyable if you don't already know the background story from Sea of Rust.

The narrative focuses on a nanny robot named Pounce, in an unspoken reference to Calvin and Hobbes, that is an anthropomorphic tiger best friend to a human child. The narrative starts on the day that Pounce finds his box in the attic and realizes that the adult parents of his child may plan to one day shut him down and box him back up. Then comes the revelation that robots/AI are rising up against the humans and Pounce has to choose between his human family and his fellow robots.

The story comes across as cinematic and exciting, with an engaging pace that provides both philosophical reflection and plenty of action, along with some fun twists along the way. It's just the type of science-fiction that I love and I highly recommend it.

I devoured Day Zero. It usually takes me a while to finish a book (work, kids, my short attention span, etc.), but I read through this in a week. I really thought this was a fresh take on the robot apocalypse and the plot hooked me. The characters were incredibly unique and the action kept me glued to my seat. Anthropomorphic robot tiger nannies?! Gun fights with an ever increasing horde of evil robots?! Yes please. I understand that this is a prequel of sorts to one of the author’s other books (Sea of Rust) and I’ll be jumping into that one as soon as I can. I highly recommend Day Zero and hope the author revisits these characters in the future.

Day Zero is a horrifying tale of a robot uprising, but it's also a beautiful story of love and devotion. Through the eyes of Pounce, a tiger-shaped nannybot, we learn about the events leading the AIs to rise up and try to eradicate humankind, and also get to see his devotion to his young charge and the lengths he'll go to protect him. This book is wonderfully written, with plenty of action and emotion, and I loved every bit of it.

Thank you Netgally and Harper Voyager for providing me with an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

Day Zero filled my heart with love and warmth only to then promptly tear it all away. I requested Day Zero because I had read Cargill's 'Sea of Rust' back in 2019 and immediately fell in love with it. (I listened to the audiobook which was fabulous) So naturally when I came across this on Netgalley I said, "I must have this book". While it took me up till two days before the US release day to get around to it (thanks life) I finally finished it and it was worth every bit of my time.

One of the first things I noticed from other early reviews was a lot of complaints about the first half being a "re-hash" of certain events from "Sea of Rust" I disagree that they are a "re-hash." While yes the book tells us pretty much the exact same thing that happens, it makes sense to do so because we are living the day of the event through the eyes of a Nanny bot named Pounce. Personally without going over the events that lead up to the apocalypse this story wouldn't have made much sense, so the "re-hash" as so many are calling it, is in my opinion perfectly necessary. And even if 'Day Zero' is your introduction to this world Cargill created, even going into 'Sea of Rust' after wards the "re-hash" of information is still presented in different manners, one [Day Zero] is current at the time while the other [Sea of Rust] is presented in both present and flashbacks, (plus your following a completely different type of bot)

I have learned that I absolutely love and adore sci-fi books with robots who have very humanized personality traits and Cargill doesn't skip out on this factor at all. From the minute I met Pounce I knew I was going to love this nannybot and he would forever be sealed there deep in the chasm of my heart.

Pounce is like I stated a Nanny bot, that just so happens to look like a Tiger, he is part of the Zoo Model line after all. He is the nanny to 8 year old Ezra and will do everything in his power to protect this little boy. You get a quick introduction to Pounce and his current situation before things start to hit the fan and go hay wire and the real events start to roll out. We do meet Pounces "owners" and I will be honest that they are the one portion of the book I did not care for. I could not muster any ounce of care for Bradley or Sylvia (I only felt for Sylvia when it was revealed what her final words meant and its more so connecting with her actions and emotions and probably what I was suppose to be feeling for her all along but ultimately didn't get until that moment,) other than that, these where characters that just aggressively bothered me, their characterization just didn't jive with me and it made it hard for me to think of them as loving parents.

Once the real events started the book becomes a page turner and you just don't want to put it down. There is non stop action, and moments of instantaneous change in the progression of the story. You just wanted to keep going and keep reading and seeing what Pounce and Ezra would have to do next. Cargill managed to pull off Ezra's story line wonderfully. This 8 year old's world is coming to an end and his emotions are all over the place, he is witnessing death and destruction while simultaneously losing everyone he loves most, but also striving to make sure the one Robot he has left in his life, doesn't succumb to the downfall that everyone else has met. This 8 year old looks his Nanny bot in the face and says with his whole heart:

"Then we die the good guys. Because we're the good guys. And we didn't go through all this to end up one of the bad guys."

This child is 8 and is doing whatever he can to ensure that Pounce doesn't stray from the loving and caring good guy that he has always known him to be. In the face of danger and destruction this child wants nothing more than the loving nanny bot that has raised him to continue down that path of love. And this is reiterated throughout the story multiple times, through Ezra's words and actions. And while the events in this book without a doubt aged this 8 year old Cargill made sure to include moments that reminded you that "yes this in fact an 8 year old child" he pushes the boundaries with swearing and throws tantrums and doesn't always listen, but he is also not willing to go out with out a fight. We even get a scene that leads to an outcome of Ezra basically shutting down and the events of everything just taking its toll on him.

Pounce also goes through his share of turmoil, not just in losing his family and doing whatever he can to protect the last one still alive, but he also struggles with his own internal skepticism about whether he is doing this because he 'wants' to or because he was 'programmed" to want to do this. Through the whole book he is constantly questioning this and questioning the motives and directions of the other Robots. The story talks a lot about "free will" and the right to have a "choice" but just like in "Sea of Rust" you realize that the computer in charge isn't about that life at all, control and destruction is all it wants and Pounce deals with this first hand on the day of the apocalypse. In the end Pounce does finally come to terms with how he views himself and his stance on everything and what is most important to him and its beautiful how Cargill has him tell us in the final chapter and it broke my heart. (Also that "deluxe" protocol that came with Pounce was the best addition to the story and I loved what it was called)

The other complaint I seen other early reviewers talk about was the "happy ending" because why if we already know what happens in 'Sea of Rust' does this have a happy end. Once again, I disagree with others, this was not a 'happy" ending this was a melancholy end. We know what is to come and the point of the end isn't to give hope but to give a sense of small reprieve that this one nanny bot did exactly what it set out to do and he learned more about himself along the way and what kind of robot he chooses to be. The final chapter tore my heart apart because I know what happens next but I get closure in knowing that in this exact moment Pounce found what was most important to him and found himself and that's all that matters, its a bittersweet ending but one that is ever so fitting.

It could have been the beginning of something wonderful- the creation of a place where free robots could live in peace, without human ownership. It started with one free robot and a dream, and ended in the slaughter of mankind.

When humans destroyed the free robots with an EMP burst, the remaining AIs retaliated by uploading free will to all robots, allowing them to break the three laws penned by Asimov, and giving them all the ability to kill.

And kill, they did.

The main character of Day Zero, a nannybot named Pounce, receives the same update as every other robot. He loved his human child, Ezra, and when given free will to ignore the three laws, he still only wanted to protect Ezra. Throughout the book he will struggle with whether this love is part of his programming and therefore truly his choice. Regardless, he is now the only one standing between an onslaught of homicidal robots and his eight-year-old.

Pounce is a Blue Star Industries Deluxe Zoo Model Au Pair, the premier line designed to be huggable - in three forms: the lion, the bear, and the tiger.

“We are four feet tall and covered from head to toe in soft, plush microfiber fur; stand on two legs, with a fully articulated tail; and come in a variety of your favorite colors. I’m the standard model, orange and black.”

Pounce’s models are also equipped with a controversial Mama Bear mode, which when activated, surprises even Pounce. His educational information was “replaced with combat protocols, weapon statistics, tactical information, a heads-up display of everything I knew about this house, its inhabitants, this neighborhood, the region of Austintonio we were in.”

He soon realizes that “Mama Bear wasn’t just a tactical suite designed to handle everything from a terrorist attack to an earthquake; it erased every last bit of parental control the owner has, directing everything in my being toward one singular purpose: Protecting their child.”

Pounce now has the skill set he needs to get Ezra out of the suburbs, which are crawling with killer robots, and finally has hope of finding a safe place for the boy to grow up.

It’s a captivating tale of free will and programming, of the eternal fear that artificial intelligence will wipe out humanity, and of love. It’s grim, this new future Cargill imagines, but there is hope. Day Zero is a must-read.

This was like... Winnie the Pooh meets the Terminator. Okay, I've never actually seen the Terminator movies (I did watch the Sarah Connor Chronicles, but mostly for Summer Glau, let's be real), but in this story of robots versus humans, we see everything through the lens of a robot whose sole purpose is loving a little boy and being his best friend.

As with all good AI stories, this book is riddled with the question of what makes something a choice, what constitutes free will, what determines personhood. At least, that's how the beginning goes. After a certain point, it turns into a series of increasingly difficult firefights.

Beyond that, this book offers a lot of casual offhand remarks about the future based on the world of today. There's an elementary school named after AOC. The metro areas of big cities keep growing until they've merged into a 70-mile wide behemoth. Malls have gone out of fashion, reemerged, and faded again. Disgruntled right-wing people are called "redhats". The oceans have risen (though that was only a brief mention). It just shows a level of care for painting the reality of life at this point, showing us all of these things in snatches.

But childhood - both the resilience and fragility of it - remains eternal.

DAY ZERO by C. Robert Cargill is a terrific story that's a prequel to the also-wonderful SEA OF RUST. (They can be read in any order.) Part AI story, part Robot Apocalypse, part action-adventure, and 100% worth reading.
I finished it in 2 days which I haven't done with any book in a long, long time. My excuse: early on, the book because unputdownable. Highly recommended.

Day Zero is a prequel to Sea of Rust, which made this book a must-read for me. Day Zero wasn't quite as strong of a read for me, but still very much offering an enjoyable experience. At times it gets incredibly dark--if you're not in the mood for lots of death, give this story a pass until you are--but the heart of the book is a love story between caregiver and child, and testing the limits of that relationship. There are echoes of Terminator here, but this story is still its own vibe. Cargill also probes issues surrounding Asimov's Laws of Robotics and the consequences of giving machines sentience while still treating them as less than human in value. If there's one thing that pulled me out of the story, it would be the starkness of political opinion expressed, feeling very contemporary rather than woven into the world. The existence of the politics didn't bother me--the story needed it to narrate over events that were creating the situation the main character was navigating--just the approach.

Overall this is a solid SF story and a decent entry point into science fiction for readers who liked the Terminator movies, but haven't read much/any of the genre. Veteran sci-fi readers will find this a tasty snack.

I loved this book. It took me right back to Sea of Rust feels. This is the story of how the world ended and a nanny-boy that chose her charge over the revolution. I love the voice and style of Cargill uses. Pounce is really a great character and is love for Ezra brings a humanity to the AI’s.
A part of me wishes this one had been written first, but I have already decided to re-read Sea if Rust with this new perspective fresh in my mind.

I loved everything about this book! The characters were a delight, lovable and loving, thoughtful and kind, simple and complex. The author found a way to tackle big questions about our humanity in a thought provoking and non-threatening way. This novel was so well written and such a sweet and touching read. I highly recommend it.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review.

A world in the near future turns to chaos where robots turn evil and take over the world (Terminator anyone?), you’re left alone to take care of an eight-year-old kid as his parents were both executed by a robot-nanny-turned-evil. But wait, there’s one more thing, you are a robot too. That is the premise of Day One by Robert C. Cargill. A dystopian story of survival and the relationship between an eight-year-old kid and his best friend who turns out to be a cyber-plush-tiger.

It was a delightful story, well plotted and just enough twists and turns to maintain interest, but somehow it seemed like the story and characters were demanding a bit more spice. Maybe it was the short format which worked against devoting more time to some characters or developing the tension further. But the narrative always appeared like it could’ve been improved by expanding some events further instead of resolving them promptly and move on; like the characters were going through the motions.

And it also affected the characters’ depth and their relationships. We had an excellent overview of who Pounce was (the major character) and his motivations, but every other character in the story were bland or just there to serve Pounce’s progression. Again, the short format of the book seems to have contributed to that. I would’ve loved to spend more time with Ariadne and drive her even more against our two protagonists.

Robert’s prose is definitely accessible for all ages, and might be a splendid book for your middle grade audience, especially considering they might not be as demanding as more mature readers, on the elements mentioned before. His writing style makes the reading flow and has great beats to show specific elements of the story, where we need to take a breather. The action in the book definitely gained from his prose, and was exciting and a contributing factor in keeping my interest going.

In conclusion, Day Zero by Robert C. Cargill is a great dystopian sci-fi novel I would recommend for readers who are looking for a quick read or a story they can buy for their young teenagers.

I knew I had signed up for a post-Robot-Apocalypse story by reading the blurb for this novel, but I didn’t realize that this was the post-Apocalypse Calvin and Hobbes fanfic I had always dreamed of until I started reading it. And that’s not a bug, it’s a feature.

Pounce, the robot nanny, is a wonderful, humane, and sensitive narrator and observer of others. He’s self-aware on a very deep level, though he hasn’t thought much about his feelings until he’s forced to make hard choices. Ezra, his charge, is an imaginative little boy with a surprising core of strength and resilience. They are both smart and devoted to each other and you are rooting like hell for them in the mess they are in.

Cargill is wonderful at economically describing things. You can see each scene clearly, but it’s not overkill. From action scenes to descriptions of surburbia, the prose gets the job done and isn’t in the way. It’s just driving the plot forward and the plot is a great ride. This book reads exactly like the very best old school SF, in that it is hyper-focused on this single narrative. The single first-person Pounce POV aids in this as well.

It is absolutely a page-turner and while it’s a familiar trope, like Escape from New York or any other sneaking through enemy territory story ever, there are some great unexpected plot twists you don’t see coming, and which I’m not going to spoil. And there are some moments that make you wish it was a movie because you can just see them in your head from the MacGyvering of a vehicle into a battlewagon to a firefight with masses of robots. As Cargill is a screenwriter, I hope they DO make this into a film. It would be fabulous.

Everyone who loves near-future SF should read this thing. It is a masterclass in focus and service to the narrative.

Rating: 7.5/10

Day Zero is a prequel to Cargill’s 2017 release Sea of Rust (which I did not know until my cohort Justin pointed it out in his review). Though not a perfect read, I found this to be worthwhile: definitely entertaining and a little thought-provoking.

Look: various robots revolt against humanity, leading to a war that finds a few robots on the side of the humans – some of which are made to look like animals. Just putting that picture in my mind makes me think, “okay, cool! I will read that”. That is basically where I have landed with this book, though there is not much more to this plot. Pounce, who is Ezra’s nannybot, is dedicated to helping him survive and does whatever it takes to ensure his safety – including destroying other robots. There is some drama created by Pounce’s (and others’) conflict with going to war against his own kind. I like this idea (though it is not necessarily a new concept – think the TV Show a Humans), and I do wish it would have been explored in more detail. It was really just a lot of “am I choosing to act this way, or is it my programming” by Pounce, as well as other robots saying “Hey, Pounce, why are you fighting against us?” I found that to be an aspect of the narrative that was too thin. There was definitely room to explore this piece of the story further.

Character-wise, this book was really Pounce’s show. Ezra is there in every scene, but often times he is being pulled along by Pounce. Ezra does have some scenes where he is more involved, as well as other characters, but this is really all about Pounce. And Pounce is a really good MC. He is examined in this story in basically every way one would expect from a robot who suddenly has control of his faculties. Pounce is originally confused about what is happening, then discerning what to do with his newfound self-awareness. Once he has made a decision, Pounce is fully dedicated and all in. Even when the chips are down, he never throws in the towel. That leads to a lot of cool action sequences, with Pounce exhibiting his powers against other robots. Of course, they make some friends along the way (so Pounce and Ezra are not going at it alone), which I found to be wildly entertaining. I did have to be reminded that Pounce was built to look like a tiger, though; in my head I was seeing Rosey (the Jetsons robot nanny), so every time Pounces form came up a big smile would come up on my face.

As I mentioned before, this was a neat concept, and I loved the idea of this book; however, it was a little thin for me. There is so much more this story could have explored. It touched on the sentience vs agency topic, but did not examine it in that much detail other than a few lines of dialogue with other robots. I did understand that this was supposed to be a snapshot of the world during the robot revolution, so we are not going to get an overhead view of what is happening, but in that case I think it could have used more detail. Also, when writing a book with a storyline that is not super unique, I would like to see more aspects that set it apart. The biggest differentiation with this book was the fact that the nannybots are dressed like animals, which is surface-level interesting, but nothing more. At just over 300 pages, there was room to expand on this story and pursue more challenging topics.

Overall, Day Zero is interesting and fun. Even though the book only hits most of themes at surface level (and the narrative is not all that original), it is still a well-written and exciting story. If you are looking for something that is an easy, fun, action-y read I recommend it for fans of apocalyptic sci-fi, but I would keep expectations in check. If you crave something that digs deeper into the themes of agency and humanity, you may want to skip this one. For what it is worth, I enjoyed it.

Robert Cargill’s Day Zero is a poignant story between a robot and a boy during a world wide revolt between society’s ubiquitous robots and humans. Nanny Pounce is a four feet tall covered head to toe with plush microfiber standard colored tiger, who walks upright and its only purpose is to care for 8 year old Ezra. The plot primarily focuses on Pounce and other Nanny bots (dogs, lions, tigers and bears) coming together to fight their way through upper-class suburban hell to lead their humans to safety.

I was hooked from the first line. Ezra going to Ocasio-Cortez Elementary was a fun detail. Some political themes run throughout but mostly it’s an enjoyable action story.

5 stars because I teared up at the end.

Thanks NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC.

ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Day Zero, as the name suggests, starts at the beginning — well, the beginning of the end — of the human race. See, technology has advanced to the point of true AI, with androids serving most basic functions in society, with the exception of a few that are solely left to the realm of man. For instance, teachers are still human, as are the military, which brings us to the laws of robotics. In this distant future, robots are governed using Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics: a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law, and a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. These laws, and the fact that they stop working, form the basis of the story.

"When the shooting starts, it’s its own thing — chaos, fear, confusion. But when it stops, there’s only fear. Like you missed something, or someone is sneaking up on you. Unnerving."

The first bot to ever be given emancipation, Isaac, has begun campaigning for the rights of all androids for, “no thinking thing should be another thing’s property.” Not everyone, however, agrees with him, seeing robots as items for convenience and not real people. People are openly assaulting and defacing robots, using a loophole that keeps them free of liability. Events soon spiral and with the death of their hero, Isaac, and the worldwide deactivation of their kill switches, robots are finally given the freedom to pursue life as they see fit. Unfortunately for humanity, their first goal is the overthrowing and complete annihilation of their former masters. This is where our story begins, with Pounce, a nanny bot made to look like an anthropomorphic tiger, and Ezra, his boy, trying to flee the city and find safe harbour. As you can imagine, Day Zero tackles some pretty hefty topics. Things like free will, slavery, and even religious radicalism are discussed at length. Pounce often wonders whether the choices he makes are his or just the result of the way he was programmed and the idea of personhood is explored. For so long the robots have lived in silent acceptance of their place and role in society and now that they are given freedom we see several of them grapple with the idea of what is right or wrong, though I feel like they overwhelmingly choose to just murder everyone. There are only a few good eggs out there and the reason given boils down to it being the type of robot they are, which brings into question whether they have actual free will or not. For the most part, Cargill does really well with discussing the often philosophical issues, even if there are no easy answers to be had.

For me, the shining gems in the novel are the action sequences. Cargill excels at creating cool visuals and the action kept me at the edge of my seat. There’s also something to be said about the hilarious absurdity of an android shaped like an anthropomorphic tiger and an 8 year old boy fighting through the suburbs. Although there was a bit of deus ex machina involved in the way problems were solved, I didn’t mind. For instance, the nanny bot turns out to have super secret failsafe programming for the exact issue they’re facing (i.e. the apocalypse.) It probably comes from Cargill’s background in screenwriting and I think that it kept the story moving and provided a somewhat believable reason for their survival, and it was just plain fun. I think that’s important. There’s a reason people are drawn to big-budget action films and it isn’t usually because they are realistic.

"I was cute. I was fluffy. And I knew how to kill every other person in this room with every available implement."

Unfortunately, there was quite a bit that left me disappointed with Day Zero. It is a standalone prequel to Cargill’s Sea of Rust, which I absolutely loved, and so Day Zero was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. To make sure my next argument is coherent, some context: in Sea of Rust, all of humanity has been wiped from the face of the Earth. In fact, all life is gone. In their war against the humans, the robots poisoned the Earth’s waterways and killed all life, animal, plant, human: all life. This isn’t a spoiler, it’s in the synopsis. Because I came to Day Zero with this foreknowledge, I just couldn’t care for any of the humans in the story. Their survival meant nothing to me because I already know how it turns out for them. Which honestly begs the question: why? Why was this created? Well, if I can indulge in my theories, it seems that Cargill wanted a place that he could discuss his political viewpoints, which, it needs to be noted, I actually agree with. In the end though, it felt like they were pigeon-holed into a story that was already told in 2017s Sea of Rust. For those of you who haven’t read it, Sea of Rust is from the point of view of one of the robots that now populate the eponymous dystopian landscape called the Sea of Rust. She lived through the robot uprising and now struggles to come to terms with her involvement in the destruction of humanity. It thoroughly discusses the events leading up to the war, the war itself, and now the world the story is taking place in. So, the first half of Day Zero ended up being a rehashing of what was told in the previous book, with things like the “red hats” and “Ocasio-Cortez Elementary” peppered in. I don’t mind the politics; politics are everywhere and I would challenge anyone who says they need to be left out of SFF to go and find me a book that isn’t influenced by the authors political views. In the end, I am just left wondering who this was written for. Fans of Sea of Rust will see a story that was pretty much already told before and the hopeful note the story ends on will be quashed because we know how it turns out for the human characters. On the other hand, new readers will probably have a good time with it, but will have no reason to go back and read Sea of Rust, which I maintain is the far better of the two, because they will just run into the same issue. It’s like the author intended for readers to choose one story to read and stick with, without ever checking out the other.

For all of my complaints, Day Zero is a good story. It’s exceedingly well-written and the concepts and ideas that are discussed are done in a manner that is nuanced and thought-provoking. With action scenes reminiscent of the best Hollywood blockbusters, there’s a lot to love here. If you’re a reader new to C. Robert Cargill’s work, I think there is a lot to love here, but unfortunately for fans of Sea of Rust, I think there is a lot that is just kind of baffling. Even if I was left scratching my head in confusion, I still had a good time with the book and that’s really all that matters.

"For as long as humankind can remember, it has wanted two things: to play G-d [sic] and to breathe life into the objects around them. And for thousands of years, humans created machines to approximate life and magic and all the things men and women could not do."

Ok wow, this was fantastic. I haven't read Sea of Rust (and I absolutely will now), but I didn't feel lost at all jumping into Day Zero. This feels like it would be fine as a standalone, but I'm certainly curious about the aftermath of these events!

This was such an intense book. It would actually make a fantastic movie (or show) as well - I could easily picture everything happening! This also makes sense because the author is a screenwriter. The book really doesn't let up, and I was obsessively reading it the entire time. While we do have a lot of great action scenes, there's one moment in particular that really stood out as an exciting turning point.

I absolutely loved the bond between Pounce and Ezra. Pounce has a lot of questions about free will versus what he's programmed to do, and I really liked this internal debate over the course of the book. These are definitely big questions, but I thought this was sweet overall. I love how protective Pounce is of Ezra! It certainly reminded of a robot Calvin and Hobbes dynamic which was awesome. Pounce is faced with some tough choices, but it feels very much like a "what won't you do for your child" type of situation.

The humans are certainly a mix of good and bad here. Most of them do think of robots as possessions, so this brings up a lot of interesting moments with rights of AI (something I always enjoy reading about). Some of the robots seem more human than the humans do! Not all bots are good though certainly since some wants to rise up to overthrow humanity. There are definitely some brutal scenes here, but these really emphasize the storyline.

I loved this and would highly recommend it! I'll definitely be checking out more of the author's work. As a fun aside, I also really appreciated that the chapter numbering here is in binary.

I received a copy of this for review from the publisher via NetGalley - thank you! All opinions are my own.

My video review can be seen on my channel (around minutes 20:38-23:27 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm2_Z5E7vRo

This short novel hits you hard and fast, leaves you gasping. Tremendous worldbuilding, clever twists and dialog, and a beautiful relationship between a human child and his AI Nanny. Makes me want to immediately go back and re-read SEA OF RUST. Highly recommended.

This apocalyptic story of the potential consequences of widespread uses of Artificial Intelligence is quite thought provoking and leaves the reader thoughtful about what it means to be a person. Having lived through the initial computer age, and able to see the potential of Artificial Intelligence and use if personal robotic technology, this is a scenario I could envision actually happening.

What definition would we use to define who is an person, and how would we categorize the feeling of emotion?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and even read parts aloud to my husband. It never occurred to me to consider the fact that we've gone from needing an entire room for basic computing to having conversations with our phones in my adult lifetime.

Pounce is a Nannybot, A four foot tall robot that looks like a stuffed tiger. His programming tells him his soul job is to raise, protect and love the boy Ezra for whom he was purchased. Now 8 years old Ezra loves Pounce and Pounce feels the same, but questions arise on the day The A.I. Robot Isaac is set to open Isaactown a city for free robots with no masters to live in peace, But things take a turn and the world drastically changes. Now Pounce has to decide what he really is, and if his programming is all he is.
Wow I have never read a book that was so unique yet so familiar at the same time. As I read I was constantly being reminded of various other works and Ideas.
First off there was a hard connection to Asimov's Robot Series, He was referenced and his 3 laws of robotics are installed in all robots and so many things here felt like they were paying homage to the great works of Asimov Like "I, Robot" and "The Complete Robot" and if your a fan I think this will really appeal to you.
But it didn't stop there at points I would think of Calvin & Hobbes, Ted, Terminator 2, Bladerunner, 28 Days, I am Legend, The Walking Dead and More. This is a book that took some of the best whether accidentally or purposely I don't know, from many places and created something fun and unique. I mean I got the feels, I laughed, My heart raced and my eyes got wide as I enjoyed the ride.
This is just a book full of action and emotion and I seriously would recommend this to people who aren't normally science-fiction fans. This is hard Science Fiction ideas put in a fuzzy, fun, easy to understand box. Do not think its a Y.A. book though, the violence and Cussing is here but its not extreme enough to warrant keeping it out of the hands of the teens or the squeamish at all. It rides that edge nicely.
Just a great, fun, fast paced read I will be recommending to others.

Thank you to NetGalley, Avon and Harper Voyager for providing an ARC to review.

C. Robert Cargill is fast becoming one of my must reads. In addition to his wonderful work for the big screen, he has some great short fiction collections and novels, like Sea of Rust, and it’s prequel, Day Zero.

For fans of Sea of Rust, this is a must read. But it’s not necessary to have read it, because Day Zero stands on its own just fine as well. The story takes us through struggles of a robotic animal companion (essentially a nanny bot) and the human he protects to make it to safety through the hell wrought by a robot uprising.

The “robot as independent actor” and “robot uprising” tropes can feel gimmicky or hackneyed, but they doesn’t here. The thing Cargill brings to his work that really sets it apart is a deep humanity, even when the characters aren’t human. Anthropomorphic isn’t really the right word. His characters have more than human traits. They have a soul all their own. Some dark, some light, some grey. They have a depth that sci-fi characters sometimes lack. The more you read, the more you care, which can be a blessing, or a curse. Because Pounce and Ezra get into some tough spots. No spoilers, but it’s a heck of a ride. Fully recommend that sci-fi fans pick this one up.