An enduring icon much-beloved of science fiction fans everywhere, the Death Robot comes to life in this collection of stories by some of the brightest upcoming stars in speculative fiction.

Seth and Marvin struggle to make a life for themselves in the abandoned northern half of the United States. The dual catastrophes of peak oil and a decade-long grain blight have annihilated the gas pump and breadbox of North America. The great cities of the northeast corridor have imploded, leaving only tiny rural Amish communities intact and subsisting, as they ever have, unhindered by the need for fuel or mass-produced food. The two friends have grown accustomed to the Amish ways, and earn their keep delivering mail on foot from far-flung farm communities stretched from Indiana and Illinois...