The cycle is set in a far future Australia where great sandships ("charvolants") roam the outback, and the Ab'O tribes control hi-tech and set protocols which restrict the movements of the "Nationals" (white people). In this future Australia, high technology and mysticism co-exist, and piracy and an intricate social order breed a new kind of hero. Tom Tyson, an Everyman figure who has echoes of the Fool of the Tarot, Tom O'Bedlam, the Green Man and other mythic figures, has emerged amnesiac from an Ab'O punishment place known as the Madhouse, with three images that may provide the key to his identity - a Ship, a Star and a woman's Face. Tyson becomes one of the "Coloured Captains" - seven Nationals permitted by the Ab'O to cross the landscape - and wins his ship
Rynosseros in a lottery, thereafter becoming known as "Blue Tyson". To quote Van Ikin, "In this future Australia, the coastal cities, home of white Australians, are urbanely cosmopolitan centres of culture, while in the interior, around an inland sea, the Ab'O states represent the emancipation of the Aboriginal race whose heritage is both its past and its future destiny. Ab'O Princes use satellites to spy on tribal conflicts, and graceful wind-propelled sand-ships roll across the deserts, giving [the series] its symbol of freedom and inquiry." Dowling has attributed part of the inspiration for the Tom Tyson character to Blue Tyson, a character from one of his high school story fragments, and to the song lyric "Loving Mad Tom" (also known as "Tom O'Bedlam"), given to him by sf fan and co-founder of Norstrilia Press, Carey Handfield in 1982.
- Rynosseros (Aphelion, 1990)
- Blue Tyson (Aphelion, 1992)
- Twilight Beach (Aphelion, 1993)
- Rynemonn (Coeur de Lion, 2007). Rynemonn contained a number of stories published previously in magazines and the final triptych of Tom stories which fist appeared in the Forever Shores collection edited by Peter McNamara and Margret Winch (Wakefield Press 2003). Rynemonn also contained four previously unpublished Tom stories, the linking narrative 'Doing the Line' and 'Swordplay', 'Tesserina and The Target Man' and 'The Bull of September'.
Reviews for
Rynemonn included: 'Noted Australian wordsmith Dowling brings a close to the adventures of Tom Rynosseros in this collection of 11 stories, three original, with extensive bridging material. "This is the conclusion to the best and most ambitious Australian SF series ever written, and one of the best, ever - period." ' Locus and Australian SF Reader
Terry Dowling received the Peter McNamara award at the 2007 Aurealis Awards for excellence in speculative fiction in part due to the publication of Rynemonn.
Notes: An unpublished Tom Tyson novel,
Malgre (1988) consists of three stories: "Marmodesse" (an abridged version of this did appear in
Omega Science Digest Jan/Feb 1987), "The Library" and "First Matter". "The Library" has now been published in Keith Stevenson, ed,
X-6, couer de lion publishing (2009).
“The Only Bird in Her Name”, a story from
Rynosseros, was dramatized in 1999 by Hollywood Theatre of the Ear. Adapted for radio by Yuri Rasovsky. Hosted by Harlan Ellison. Narrated by Peter Dennis & Kaitlin Hopkins. Available as a paid download from www.audible.com
An uncollected Tom Tyson story, "Down Flowers" was published in
Orb (Sept 1999).