In the Automatic Age, the autovolts have swept the earth clean of most of its human inhabitants. Kerion and Barry are of the few survivors, mistaken as robots in the first purge because of Kerion's prosthetics. Kerion fears that his son will grow up a lonely anomaly on an earth free of people. The discovery of a group of intentionalized fanatics may be the hope they need to reconnect with the human experience. But is it better risk dangerous isolation or stay with a group of religious zealots?

The truth will send them on the run in a fight for survival beneath the sea of stars to the tower known as the BACKBONE OF NIGHT.

"Chomichuk has developed a fascinating, complex setting . . . And he uses it to explore timely themes of automation, scarcity economics, and robot ethics, while also showcasing his formidable imagination." - Quill & Quire