AustLit

'In the Australia of the distant future computers live on, although electricity and even steam power have ceased to exist long ago. The mighty Calculor of Libris is about to be commissioned, but is making strange errors. A programmer has been assassinated and components are being shot for negligence. Time is running out and important questions must be answered. Will the trains run on time after the end of the world? Can a Battle Calculor still function while drunk? Was there an ice age in the 21st Century, and how long ago was the 21st Century anyway?'

Source: Publisher's Blurb

'Set in a far-future Australia where electricity has been outlawed and society is overviewed by human-powered computers (largely driven by librarians), restricted quasi-medieval guilds struggle for supremacy and to discover the secret of the past. This gradual understanding of past technologies, such as exploring the role of the orbiting space platforms, accelerates in the second volume (Colin Steele, SF Commentary No 77, p.53).