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Cybertank Adventure #1
The Chronicles of Old Guy
In the distant future mankind creates sentient cybertanks patterned on the human brain to help fight their alien enemies. Then, inexplicably, the humans vanished. They just went away. All that is left of the human empire are the cybertanks who, in their own way, keep the human civilization alive. With an intelligence based on the human psyche, the cybertanks continue to defend human space, but also perform scientific research, create art, form committees and ponder the universe.
These are the stories of one of the first cybertanks, known to his friends as “Old Guy.” He has outlived most of his peers, and has had a wealth of experiences over his long life, but he is starting to slowly become obsolete. Join him and his comrades Double-Wide, Whiffle-Bat, Smoking Hole, Mondocat, and Bob, as they live and love and fight alien enemies such as the Amok, the Yllg, and the Fructoids.
These are the stories of one of the first cybertanks, known to his friends as “Old Guy.” He has outlived most of his peers, and has had a wealth of experiences over his long life, but he is starting to slowly become obsolete. Join him and his comrades Double-Wide, Whiffle-Bat, Smoking Hole, Mondocat, and Bob, as they live and love and fight alien enemies such as the Amok, the Yllg, and the Fructoids.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 31, 2012
75 people are currently reading
256 people want to read
About the author
Timothy J. Gawne
10 books25 followersI grew up in Boston, MA, and got an electrical engineering degree from M.I.T. I then worked at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for a time, then got my PhD in Physiology, and did a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at the NIH. Since 1996 I have been on the faculty at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in the Department of Vision Sciences. My primary research interest is in the nature of the neural code, and the physical basis of human thought. I live with my wife Adrienne and an Australian Shepherd named "Ginger" and a strange mutt named "Proton." I have a son who works as an engineer in Vandenberg Air Force base in CA, and a daughter who teaches English in Japan. My hobbies are carpentry, tinkering with electronics, and making plants die.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 8, 2017
Ok, I admit it. I know the author, but I really did not want to like this book. I really didn’t. I mean, ‘I’ was supposed to be the author around here and all that… but no, I started reading and was quite amazed at how well he did.
There are science fiction books that are ‘hard’ which strict to the laws of physics and known science- there are SF books that are ‘funny’ or cut’ which generally don’t. This book is somehow able to seem remarkably clever and witty (and yes downright amusing at times), while hiding behind what is really a very proper scientific framework.
The Giant tank do have anti-grav capabilities, but they generally use simple old tracks to get around because it is much more energy efficient. Makes sense. No one really understands the motivations behind aliens because… well because they are ALIEN. Big plasma guns are great, but really big ones are heavy so you have a trade off in weight vs. mobility. I found it a lot more interesting that I thought I would.
I never thought that what I would find the most memorable of the planetary assault scene would be bumper stickers, but I do. Bumper stickers on a gigantic many ton cybernetic tank. My puny words do not do it justice. And that’s why I will admit to being a tad angry: I don’t write this well!
There are science fiction books that are ‘hard’ which strict to the laws of physics and known science- there are SF books that are ‘funny’ or cut’ which generally don’t. This book is somehow able to seem remarkably clever and witty (and yes downright amusing at times), while hiding behind what is really a very proper scientific framework.
The Giant tank do have anti-grav capabilities, but they generally use simple old tracks to get around because it is much more energy efficient. Makes sense. No one really understands the motivations behind aliens because… well because they are ALIEN. Big plasma guns are great, but really big ones are heavy so you have a trade off in weight vs. mobility. I found it a lot more interesting that I thought I would.
I never thought that what I would find the most memorable of the planetary assault scene would be bumper stickers, but I do. Bumper stickers on a gigantic many ton cybernetic tank. My puny words do not do it justice. And that’s why I will admit to being a tad angry: I don’t write this well!
October 2, 2017
Entertaining, tongue in cheek sci-fi, October 1, 2017
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Chronicles of Old Guy (Volume 1) (An Old Guy/Cybertank Adventure) (Kindle Edition)
Fortunately I read the second volume, Space Battleship Scharnhorst, first. If I hadn't, I doubt that I would have continued this series. It is a better book than this first volume. The series is obviously influenced by Keith Laumer's Bolo books and stories. I do not think that volume one is up to Laumer's standard but volume two is closer. As some others have noted, I don't care for the author's economic views but then he never really explains what he believes is so bad about neo-liberal economists and Milton Friedman in particular. Nor why his cybertank characters would think an Obama 2012 bumper sticker is cool. Like so many on the left he seems to simply expect all "right thinking" people to agree. One star for the politics. Four stars for the story and writing. A composite ranking of three stars.
Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Chronicles of Old Guy (Volume 1) (An Old Guy/Cybertank Adventure) (Kindle Edition)
Fortunately I read the second volume, Space Battleship Scharnhorst, first. If I hadn't, I doubt that I would have continued this series. It is a better book than this first volume. The series is obviously influenced by Keith Laumer's Bolo books and stories. I do not think that volume one is up to Laumer's standard but volume two is closer. As some others have noted, I don't care for the author's economic views but then he never really explains what he believes is so bad about neo-liberal economists and Milton Friedman in particular. Nor why his cybertank characters would think an Obama 2012 bumper sticker is cool. Like so many on the left he seems to simply expect all "right thinking" people to agree. One star for the politics. Four stars for the story and writing. A composite ranking of three stars.
September 23, 2021
I was initially disappointed as I went into the book hoping for giant war machines akin to those in Keith Laumer’s Bolo: The Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade . Instead I got another flavor of the Aliens/Clones/Androids Are People Too trope (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...).
This is not a bad thing — the giant war machines fighting on the far side of our moon in Laumer’s A Plague of Demons are very human; but that is because the aliens have been stealing human brains. It has more to do with my expectation.
Accepting that the machine minds are so closely modeled on humanity as to be human, this collection of adventures are interesting and enjoyable enough for me to try the next in the series.
This is not a bad thing — the giant war machines fighting on the far side of our moon in Laumer’s A Plague of Demons are very human; but that is because the aliens have been stealing human brains. It has more to do with my expectation.
Accepting that the machine minds are so closely modeled on humanity as to be human, this collection of adventures are interesting and enjoyable enough for me to try the next in the series.
October 13, 2021
So this one was an odd one. Full disclosure: I almost quit reading after the first two chapters due to lack of interest. Thankfully, I was persistent and finished it as the latter portion was quite good and was difficult to set aside once I had hit upon the “good stuff”. The Chronicles of Old Guy is something of a unique science fiction novel following the exploits of a fully sentient mechanized battle tank making his way throughout the galaxy several millennia after the humans who created it have mysteriously disappeared. It is written as a pseudo short story collection - I say “pseudo” because the chapter system is really broken up into multiple novellas combined into a collection even though I don’t think that was the intent. Each chapter is a somewhat self contained story building upon the previous chapters but telling its own tale with it’s own supporting cast detailing its own struggle against a different antagonist.
I heard about this book from a random Redditor whom I have forgotten and put it on a wishlist because I thought it sounded fun and interesting - and for the most part, it was. Most of this book was delightful and fun to read and kept me coming back to it in my free time. The writing was mostly crisp and to the point with good vocabulary and syntax. There were a few editing errors where double words were missed and occasionally a sentence’s structure suffered from misplaced conjunctions. Overall though, it was well written.
The plot did suffer slightly from the pitfall any novel set many thousands of years into the future struggles with: references and analogies made to present day individuals, events and pop culture. It strains credibility that a being existing in the 40th century (or whenever this takes place) would make so many references to the 20th century. I constantly found myself wondering why these references would mean anything at all to the main character's contemporaries. But that is a minor complaint. References to Emelia Earhart and the Dropkick Murphys are delightful enough to be quickly overlooked despite their incongruity with the supposed era.
Also, I found Old Guy (the main character) to be an occasional hypocrite. In almost every chapter, a running joke was to bash “neoliberal economics” (free market capitalism) and I noticed there seemed to be a healthy animosity toward 20th century economist Milton Friedman (my own personal economic hero) while at the same time waxing philosophic on the majesty of free will. Utter nonsense. Free market capitalism is the epitome of free will and to denigrate it is its anathema. Oh well. It was still an enjoyable narrative schtick despite that nitpick. In fact, I found the running joke kind of endearing despite it being dumb.
The supporting cast was fun and refreshing if a little two dimensional (barring a notable exception that I won’t spoil here). Most of the characters besides Old Guy were fairly generic without much backstory or development. I guess that’s understandable given the first person narration of the story. Old Guy himself was a great character to follow even though his own arc was really less of an arc and more of an unbending line from beginning to end; not a whole lot of growth there either - let alone any kind of crescendo or ultimate climactic apogee to the overall string of events.
Ultimately, The Chronicles of Old Guy was a fun diversion for me (once I got past the first couple of chapters) and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a distant-future-sci-fi tale centered around a sentient battle tank half the size of a football field who spends his days exploring the galaxy, engaging in ground combat with a small menagerie of sundry alien civilizations all bent on Old Guy’s destruction and contemplatively musing over the nature of humanity and the uncertain future of the sentient mechanized creations they inexplicably left behind to fend for themselves.
Four stars for this one. It was odd - like I said.
I heard about this book from a random Redditor whom I have forgotten and put it on a wishlist because I thought it sounded fun and interesting - and for the most part, it was. Most of this book was delightful and fun to read and kept me coming back to it in my free time. The writing was mostly crisp and to the point with good vocabulary and syntax. There were a few editing errors where double words were missed and occasionally a sentence’s structure suffered from misplaced conjunctions. Overall though, it was well written.
The plot did suffer slightly from the pitfall any novel set many thousands of years into the future struggles with: references and analogies made to present day individuals, events and pop culture. It strains credibility that a being existing in the 40th century (or whenever this takes place) would make so many references to the 20th century. I constantly found myself wondering why these references would mean anything at all to the main character's contemporaries. But that is a minor complaint. References to Emelia Earhart and the Dropkick Murphys are delightful enough to be quickly overlooked despite their incongruity with the supposed era.
Also, I found Old Guy (the main character) to be an occasional hypocrite. In almost every chapter, a running joke was to bash “neoliberal economics” (free market capitalism) and I noticed there seemed to be a healthy animosity toward 20th century economist Milton Friedman (my own personal economic hero) while at the same time waxing philosophic on the majesty of free will. Utter nonsense. Free market capitalism is the epitome of free will and to denigrate it is its anathema. Oh well. It was still an enjoyable narrative schtick despite that nitpick. In fact, I found the running joke kind of endearing despite it being dumb.
The supporting cast was fun and refreshing if a little two dimensional (barring a notable exception that I won’t spoil here). Most of the characters besides Old Guy were fairly generic without much backstory or development. I guess that’s understandable given the first person narration of the story. Old Guy himself was a great character to follow even though his own arc was really less of an arc and more of an unbending line from beginning to end; not a whole lot of growth there either - let alone any kind of crescendo or ultimate climactic apogee to the overall string of events.
Ultimately, The Chronicles of Old Guy was a fun diversion for me (once I got past the first couple of chapters) and I would recommend it to anyone interested in a distant-future-sci-fi tale centered around a sentient battle tank half the size of a football field who spends his days exploring the galaxy, engaging in ground combat with a small menagerie of sundry alien civilizations all bent on Old Guy’s destruction and contemplatively musing over the nature of humanity and the uncertain future of the sentient mechanized creations they inexplicably left behind to fend for themselves.
Four stars for this one. It was odd - like I said.
June 22, 2020
In the future, there will be cybertanks with sentience patterned on the human brain and personalities, too. Our hero is an Odin-Class Ground Based Cyber Defensive Unit serial number CRL345BY44. The human used to call him Carl, based on the serial number, and he didn’t like it. His peers call him ‘Old Guy’ because he’s been around a couple of thousand years. He’s 30 metres wide by 60 metres long with a 100 cm bore plasma cannon that can sheer the top off a mountain.
He also controls a lot of secondary and tertiary systems like drones, remote sensors and a satellite network. He’s powered by two fusion reactors and it would take a fusion bomb to destroy him. He manufactures his own robot helpers but has a nostalgic fondness for human-shaped androids. His favourite model is based on Amelia Earhart, the American aviation pioneer. The nostalgia for humans is because they have all gone. No one knows where. The cyber tanks and other machines were all getting on with their jobs and never took much notice of mankind until one day someone noticed they were no longer there.
Mankind had spread out into the galaxy and bumped heads occasionally with other species. There are 100,000 of Old Guy and his ilk and they still have the odd tussle with aliens. As the book commences, he is on guard and maintenance duty on a backward planet. A giant radioactive lizard shows up and tries to kill him. He survives and goes on to fight a war with the Amok, a deadly nano species capable of assuming many different shapes. Then he is mysteriously transported to another dimension where there are wizards, orcs and dragons. When he gets back home he is sent to explore another backward planet and finds the ruins of an ancient alien civilisation, along with a really big cat. Old Guy has a reputation among his peers for finding trouble in the most ordinary places.
The book is episodic, a series of adventures that might have been written as short stories, but the background is large and well-wrought and I suspect the different elements will someday coalesce into a larger narrative. Perhaps they have already for there are now five books about the cybertank. Old Guy is a great character and so are his pals. Based on human sentience, they are very human, albeit with enormous metal bodies, vast databases and incredible industrial capacity. Old Guy does a lot of thinking and philosophising and, with such a vast database of knowledge, he often refers to human history to consider things, even history that hasn’t happened yet such as the burning of Neo-Liberal economists atop a pyre of their own works. I’m looking forward to that.
There really is no way to give a flavour of this in a review. It’s clever, far-ranging, witty, full of invention and has a hugely engaging lead character. Timothy J. Gawne explores the fun possibilities of Science Fiction in a way that Douglas Adams might envy for this is humour with intelligence behind it. Timothy J. Gawne has a degree in electronic engineering from M.I.T. and a PhD in Physiology, too. He’s also done a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at the NIH. This ain’t no dummy we’re talking about here. Furthermore, there are serious and moving events mixed in with all the adventure. Old Guy even has a baby!
One advantage of reading SF magazines, even the little ones, is that you get to sample new authors. If you don’t like them, well a short story hasn’t taken too much out of your life. If you do like them you can pursue it. I very much enjoyed ‘Planiform’, a humorous short story by the author in the December 2016 issue of ‘Perihelion SF’ and on the strength of that bought this for 99p on kindle to see what it was like. I’m glad I did.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
He also controls a lot of secondary and tertiary systems like drones, remote sensors and a satellite network. He’s powered by two fusion reactors and it would take a fusion bomb to destroy him. He manufactures his own robot helpers but has a nostalgic fondness for human-shaped androids. His favourite model is based on Amelia Earhart, the American aviation pioneer. The nostalgia for humans is because they have all gone. No one knows where. The cyber tanks and other machines were all getting on with their jobs and never took much notice of mankind until one day someone noticed they were no longer there.
Mankind had spread out into the galaxy and bumped heads occasionally with other species. There are 100,000 of Old Guy and his ilk and they still have the odd tussle with aliens. As the book commences, he is on guard and maintenance duty on a backward planet. A giant radioactive lizard shows up and tries to kill him. He survives and goes on to fight a war with the Amok, a deadly nano species capable of assuming many different shapes. Then he is mysteriously transported to another dimension where there are wizards, orcs and dragons. When he gets back home he is sent to explore another backward planet and finds the ruins of an ancient alien civilisation, along with a really big cat. Old Guy has a reputation among his peers for finding trouble in the most ordinary places.
The book is episodic, a series of adventures that might have been written as short stories, but the background is large and well-wrought and I suspect the different elements will someday coalesce into a larger narrative. Perhaps they have already for there are now five books about the cybertank. Old Guy is a great character and so are his pals. Based on human sentience, they are very human, albeit with enormous metal bodies, vast databases and incredible industrial capacity. Old Guy does a lot of thinking and philosophising and, with such a vast database of knowledge, he often refers to human history to consider things, even history that hasn’t happened yet such as the burning of Neo-Liberal economists atop a pyre of their own works. I’m looking forward to that.
There really is no way to give a flavour of this in a review. It’s clever, far-ranging, witty, full of invention and has a hugely engaging lead character. Timothy J. Gawne explores the fun possibilities of Science Fiction in a way that Douglas Adams might envy for this is humour with intelligence behind it. Timothy J. Gawne has a degree in electronic engineering from M.I.T. and a PhD in Physiology, too. He’s also done a post-doctoral fellowship at the Laboratory of Neuropsychology at the NIH. This ain’t no dummy we’re talking about here. Furthermore, there are serious and moving events mixed in with all the adventure. Old Guy even has a baby!
One advantage of reading SF magazines, even the little ones, is that you get to sample new authors. If you don’t like them, well a short story hasn’t taken too much out of your life. If you do like them you can pursue it. I very much enjoyed ‘Planiform’, a humorous short story by the author in the December 2016 issue of ‘Perihelion SF’ and on the strength of that bought this for 99p on kindle to see what it was like. I’m glad I did.
Eamonn Murphy
This review first appeared at https://www.sfcrowsnest.info/
August 28, 2021
Bit different. The adventures of an ageing sentient tank in a universe of inimical aliens. Leaves a lot of scope for new adventures, including the reasoning for the disappearance of humanity, which is hinted as self created destruction. Considering this is a series of military misadventures it is surprisingly varied.
August 31, 2021
This is a very fun book about well a sentient cybertank and what life might be like if there was no scarcity and our bodies were highly adaptable immortal killing machines but with a sense of humor and curiosity. Really a fun book that does quite a bit, already bought the sequel before I finished the first
June 14, 2018
A lot of people seem to love this book, but I'm not feeling it. I'd call it a bare 2.5 stars. It seemed a lot like the author was narrating a video game. But a lot of people rate it highly, so I suppose your experience will differ.
May 26, 2020
Similar to Keith Laumer's Bolo series
The cyber tanks are more advanced than the Bolo, more self aware... Good reason given for it as well. I still prefer Laumer but it was entertaining.
The cyber tanks are more advanced than the Bolo, more self aware... Good reason given for it as well. I still prefer Laumer but it was entertaining.
May 19, 2018
Different perspective
Quite enjoyed this. Different sort of perspective and took a little getting used to. Will read some more of these.
Quite enjoyed this. Different sort of perspective and took a little getting used to. Will read some more of these.
October 26, 2018
Sorely disappointed
I thought this would be in the same vein as the Bolo series, by Keith Laumer. I was sorely disappointed.
I thought this would be in the same vein as the Bolo series, by Keith Laumer. I was sorely disappointed.
January 7, 2019
Old Guy rocks
It was a fun read. I always liked the Bolo stories and I was a tank crewman. So this collection of stories, with the smartass cybertank was right up my alley.
It was a fun read. I always liked the Bolo stories and I was a tank crewman. So this collection of stories, with the smartass cybertank was right up my alley.
February 21, 2019
Living machine's
Unusual story about living sentient super tanks. Easy read and enjoyable, and will read the next books I the series.
Unusual story about living sentient super tanks. Easy read and enjoyable, and will read the next books I the series.
not-in-pima-okc-wi-but-want
December 4, 2019Not Found
October 20, 2020
Brief, but surprisingly enjoyable.
A pastiche of Laumer's Bolo series, but somewhat lighter in tone.
A pastiche of Laumer's Bolo series, but somewhat lighter in tone.
November 24, 2022
1 star up for being amusing.
2 stars down for promoting his political beliefs.
I do not recommend this book.
2 stars down for promoting his political beliefs.
I do not recommend this book.
November 24, 2023
Enjoyable book
I really enjoyed reading this book. It ranks up there with the best of the Bolo books by Mr. Laumer.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It ranks up there with the best of the Bolo books by Mr. Laumer.
November 6, 2024
Excellent BOLO book
This is a fun read. I truly love the different encounters that "Old Guy" gets into. Exciting and hard to put down. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
This is a fun read. I truly love the different encounters that "Old Guy" gets into. Exciting and hard to put down. I can't wait to read the rest of the series.
January 24, 2025
Fun, fast, whimsical, yet technical. It lives up to its name as a series of chronicles, and I'll be coming back for the sequel soon.
January 23, 2025
It is not in the Keith Laumer style, but it is an entertaining read non-the-less. I enjoyed it so much that I purchased the second book in the series. It's a nice, easy, fun read.
January 15, 2018
Excellent and fun read!
October 19, 2014
Couldn't even finish it...
and I don't know why. the story is written well, the action is fast paced and exciting, but for some reason I just couldn't finish this story. I started and stopped so many times over a month long period and got about about75% through and just didn't feel like finishing. I didn't care for the bad guys (the amok), there just wasn't anything to them. the book had a haphazard continuity that I didn't care for....I'm having a hard time writing this because I really think the author writes well. I'm probably missing out by not reading other books in this series
and I don't know why. the story is written well, the action is fast paced and exciting, but for some reason I just couldn't finish this story. I started and stopped so many times over a month long period and got about about75% through and just didn't feel like finishing. I didn't care for the bad guys (the amok), there just wasn't anything to them. the book had a haphazard continuity that I didn't care for....I'm having a hard time writing this because I really think the author writes well. I'm probably missing out by not reading other books in this series
May 1, 2015
Mein Gott man, if you haven't read this book you're missing out on one of if not THE best writing since the Bard put ink to paper (ok, in this case I read it on my kindle but we're splitting hairs here).
I read the entire series in a week (total added time, had to wait for the fourth book to be published, heh). This book grabs you by the ba....chin and takes you on a nonstop adventure where action, philosophy, physics, pathos and smart ass commentary are all explored with zeal.
Apologies to the author but I quoted Occam's 2nd and 3rd razors to a friend and he made it into a business model (eh? go figure).
READ THIS BOOK NOW!!
I read the entire series in a week (total added time, had to wait for the fourth book to be published, heh). This book grabs you by the ba....chin and takes you on a nonstop adventure where action, philosophy, physics, pathos and smart ass commentary are all explored with zeal.
Apologies to the author but I quoted Occam's 2nd and 3rd razors to a friend and he made it into a business model (eh? go figure).
READ THIS BOOK NOW!!
October 28, 2014
Oh my goodness, what fun! Light, frothy, quick, it's a lovely read. Reminds me a bit of early Niven, especially in terms of humor in science fiction. Plus, he dislikes neoliberalism as much as I do!
December 8, 2014
Best read I've had in a long time .
I've always loved the bolo books by Keith Laumer
,this is like an updated continuation of his efforts . I highly recommend this author to any Laumer fan. First rate effort,I eagerly await its sequels.
I've always loved the bolo books by Keith Laumer
,this is like an updated continuation of his efforts . I highly recommend this author to any Laumer fan. First rate effort,I eagerly await its sequels.
August 27, 2017
Excellent follow on to the bolo series
For its type it is wellwritten, and edited. The series of short stories are interesting in themselves with some fun characters and humor.
I think anyone who enjoyed the Bolo series will really like this.
For its type it is wellwritten, and edited. The series of short stories are interesting in themselves with some fun characters and humor.
I think anyone who enjoyed the Bolo series will really like this.
October 10, 2016
Certainly one of the best rides ive been on in a LONG time. The writing is fast paced and I laughed myself to tears. I think I must have read over half of the book to my wife to explain the sudden cackles that woud periodically erupt from my chair as I was reading.
January 17, 2017
Good fun.
Excellent. Witty, enjoyable fun read. If you like Scalzi, Heinlein you will not be disappointed. Fast page Turner. Several stories placed in sequence . Just wish there was more
Excellent. Witty, enjoyable fun read. If you like Scalzi, Heinlein you will not be disappointed. Fast page Turner. Several stories placed in sequence . Just wish there was more
June 4, 2015
Loved this book, and all of the follow on ones.
May 4, 2017
Decent quick read. I liked it quite a bit.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews