Timothy J. Gawne Books in Order

Long after humanity’s unexplained disappearance, sentient cybertanks have inherited its civilization. Patterned on human minds but built as atomic-powered war machines, they continue exploring and defending the former empire while confronting the mysteries and dangers of a universe without their creators.

Humanity has vanished, leaving its sentient cybertanks to preserve a civilization of research, art, bureaucracy, and warfare. Among them, the aging machine known as Old Guy faces alien enemies and new experiences while gradually falling behind the technology around him.

Aging cybertank Old Guy returns in new adventures alongside familiar companions and newcomers. Still a formidable weapon despite approaching obsolescence, he navigates the experiences and conflicts of a civilization built around sentient machines with recognizably human minds.

Old Guy finds himself back on an earlier Earth dominated by powerful oligarchs and threatened by ecological collapse. Renegade bioweapons, mysterious aliens, and an unlikely alliance complicate the cybertank’s effort to free himself and prevent the planet’s destruction.

Damaged and stranded under relentless attack on a dark planet, Old Guy confronts another test of his aging machinery. A story reaching back to humanity’s interstellar colonies connects his predicament with a powerful enemy threatening cybertank civilization itself.

Old Guy and his fellow cybertanks continue their routines of shopping, games, and interstellar combat. Beneath those familiar activities, a hidden presence spreads within their civilization, challenging machines accustomed to solving problems with overwhelming firepower.

This collection gathers Gawne’s science fiction stories, including previously unpublished work and the novella The One Law. Its varied imagined futures examine technological and human possibilities, with one central tale reconsidering the familiar idea of laws governing robot behavior.

As alien forces devastate Earth’s colonies, a new generation of sentient cybertanks joins bioengineered humans in the fight. Their struggle for humanity’s survival also challenges the economic masters whose power makes liberation a problem far beyond defeating the invaders.