Jimbo's Assumption

Homo sapiens: development is deviating from projections. With 10 billion Earth-years of galactic experience, the Intelligence, the ethereal presence led by the Energy Masters, discerns something special in this complex creature and its accelerating scientific capabilities.

Their sub-processor and Earth project manager will surely explain. After 100,000 years with his client, the Homo sapiens, can 221 offer enlightenment?

Jimbo, a hesitant hero, knew that Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital, was a great place to grow up and study science. Summer, 1996: pleasingly unexceptional, with good friends in a wonderful city. The recent creation of Dolly the Sheep gave him vacation work, cataloguing mathematical models. Happy days. Until his sleep is interrupted by the nebulous 221, obliging him to rescue the models from nocturnal thieves. A chase ensues, across and underneath the city, but armed gangsters are no match for Jimbo’s new night vision and his galactic minder, 221. The police are doubtful.

221 tries to account for his client’s extraordinary progress, while the Energy Masters struggle from suspicion through bemusement to inconclusiveness. Fortunately, Jimbo participates, while he sleeps.

A story of human development, described to our hero in 100 seconds. Meet an eclectic assortment of scientific wizards who created our modern world. Humour exists, galactically rare. 221 believes the human brain is the galaxy’s most complex machine, running on only 20 watts.

Set in beautiful Edinburgh and the wider Milky Way.

Jack the Ripper?

Readers are transported to Victorian London and introduced to Inspector Doyle, a modern-day detective with eternal life, who discovers that he has been wrongly named as ‘Jack the Ripper’, the Victorian serial killer. Nobody wants that label at any time in history, so with the aid of time travel he returns to the year 1888 in an attempt to clear his name.

Another complication for Inspector Doyle is that his modern-day daughter, Flora, who he has left behind to travel back several centuries, is becoming increasingly suspicious of her father’s identity. This is after making her way into his Shrewsbury study, that she is forbidden to enter.

The only good thing about returning to 1888 is that Inspector Doyle is able to rekindle his relationship with daughter Alice and wife Eleanor, who he had to leave behind all those centuries ago. Alice can then only but marvel at her father’s abilities to answer a question that only he knows the answer to, because he has travelled into the future and back.

The story references many Victorian objects that have been meticulously researched and then used to tell a story that is only possible through time travel and a rather clever inventor who may or may not be still alive. Many elements of the original Jack the Ripper case are also detailed as are the horrors of Whitechapel.

Find out whether Inspector Doyle manages to clear his name by discovering who the real Jack the Ripper is, and expect a twist at the end that involves both daughters and a Victorian book that, unlike the rest of Inspector Doyle’s objects, is unable to exist in parallel between the two time zones.

Ixora

June 2037: Singaporean immunology professor Warren Er is woken in the early morning to answer a question he had written five years ago. The classified protocol he had designed has been activated. It summons the world’s best scientists to respond to the possible discovery of an unknown, potentially dangerous organism foreign to science.

Flying to China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre, Warren realizes the situation is anything but what he had planned for. He and his five colleagues are sealed into a secret underground facility, alongside a visiting US-Chinese bilateral delegation now detained in the name of national security.

In Beijing, China’s First Vice-Premier sees a chance to strengthen his position as the Party Congress looms; in the US, the newly appointed President’s Science and Technology Adviser finds herself a key part of an American response handicapped by geopolitical realities.

Facing unfamiliar circumstances rapidly evolving beyond their control, all those involved must protect their own interests and themselves…

HMS Rutland

A Royal Navy frigate, HMS Rutland, is conducting a scientific experiment when something goes terribly wrong, and they find themselves with no engines and confronted by a Royal Navy sloop from 1805. 

Julia Mitchenson, the Captain of Rutland, and Charles Austen, of HMS Indian combine to destroy a French frigate and outwit the powerful Invisible squadron in a race to reverse the time slip. Julia and Charles are drawn to each other, as are Lt Benna Garret and Lt William Mends.

The story combines the sly humour of Patrick O’Brien and the social observation of Jane Austen in a gripping and well-researched story that has action, romance and more than a touch of science fiction.

Get Real

Justin lives in a future when Earth’s humanity has become largely desensitized to violence and regard for others. He is a Delivery Real superstar whose daily cargo is the soon-to-be exploited, and the already-voided synthetic life forms that look human but are not. He – like the world around him – views artificially created intelligent beings as either property or slaves designed to be used and used up by their human masters without remorse of conscience.

In Justin’s world, everything is up for grabs if you have what it takes, and if you are fit enough to take it. Such is the state of affairs on an increasingly sterile planet with increasingly sterile people who no longer know how to appreciate the gift of life. It isn’t until Justin is introduced to the wise stillness of silence under the tutelage of Mother Entity that he begins to discover what lies just beneath the barren violence of his home planet.

Ever Young

Jack Branson is an aspiring journalist for a large publishing company. He is assigned to report on a government-supported medical scheme called Ever Young, a gene-editing procedure that promises to eliminate all genetic frailties and negative medical conditions. Those who commit to the scheme will be guaranteed good health until the age of 95, whereupon they would submit to the government’s terms of termination. Magnum, a world-famous German computer company, has taken control of the Ever Young scheme, and their deep pockets allow them control of the government.

But Jack discovers Magnum’s deeply concerning wartime history. The corruption and violence that ensue when these eugenicists are entrusted with data of a now intimately networked world threaten the entire global order. Governments stand and fall by their capricious nature. Who dares to confront the truth?

Although Ever Young is fictional it is loosely based on the true actions of a major multinational technology corporation who benefitted significantly from their involvement in the Holocaust.

Empire of Mars

On Mars, some 65 million years ago, two civilisations live uneasily side by side. When a good friend of antagonist Aka-des is conscripted into the service of the god-Emperor, he has no option but to try and find him, unearthing unimaginable horrors at the seat of imperial power in the process.

Outside the Martian city the insectoid Antis, imperilled by the continued expansion of the humanoid Martians into their tribal lands, have to make a choice. Can war between the two races be averted, and can Aka-des prove to a disbelieving world what is really happening in their name?

Meanwhile, in the near future, explorers from Earth make startling discoveries on the Red Planet, which provide a link with its distant past. What they uncover will change people’s view of Mars forever, and pose a growing threat to the mission and the lives of the isolated band of pioneers themselves.

Deadly Beasts

An airborne disease is carelessly released by a Russian company, mutating all the animals in the world into massive beasts. Two years later, Thomas King, an ex-navy commander has lost his wife and son and is convinced that he is the only survivor. Tom wants only two things; to find other survivors and to find a cure for the beasts.

Will he lose his mind in the process? And what obstacles will stand in the way?

Darker Matter Book II - Wildfire

The Dyroshin fear that their most dreaded prophecy did not conclude when the Destroyer of Worlds and the Outlander clashed in an epic magical battle that destroyed the rift between worlds. But before its destruction, an immensely powerful being from a malign conquering race born of Black Metal found its way through the portal.

Now the Five Lands are again under threat but this time from two foes of unimaginable might. There is only one weapon that may be effective, but it has been lost in antiquity and the very quest for its discovery is perilous and becomes a desperate fight for survival.

Clone Ladies

In Clone Ladies, dive into a near-future where medical advancements have made cloning not just possible, but commonplace. As technology evolves, it’s not just organs that are replicated – entire humans can now be duplicated, possessing the same abilities, thoughts, memories, and skills as their originals. While this brave new world promises enhanced happiness and longevity, it also introduces unprecedented challenges. What does it mean to be truly unique in a world of mirrors? This gripping exploration into the promises and pitfalls of cloning raises profound questions about identity, ethics, and the very essence of human existence.

Bubble and Squeak

‘Recalling my initial encounter with a peculiar balloon-like creature that unexpectedly appeared while I was returning home from work in the rural depths of East Sussex, I couldn’t help but think of the infamous “Beast from the East”.
‘When confronted with something unusual, I have a tendency to rationalise it in order to make the experience seem ordinary. However, even after a decade has passed since this incident occurred, the only logical conclusion that remains is that it was undoubtedly an extraterrestrial being.
‘A decade ago, this extraordinary event took place, and I chose not to share it with anyone. Instead, I fabricated a tale about witnessing a luminous object approaching me, which was far from the truth of what I actually encountered. I hesitated to be the first to speak about my experience, fearing the intrusion of cameras and journalists on my doorstep, with no support from others who might have had similar encounters. Hence, I kept my silence all these years. But now, I feel compelled to reveal the truth and share what truly transpired on that momentous day.’
Jules Stevens

Brainwashed

Gabriel has always viewed his Uncle Seanna through the starry-eyed wonder of childhood, regarding him as nothing less than a hero. Their reunions are filled with excitement, a testament to the bond they share. But as Gabriel grows older, he begins to see a different side of Seanna – one that’s dark and manipulative.

As Seanna’s influence over Gabriel grows, the young man becomes ensnared in a web of deception and malevolence. However, when Gabriel finds love, his girlfriend recognizes the danger that Seanna poses. She sees the manipulative hold Seanna has over him and becomes determined to intervene.

Can love break the chains of manipulation? And will Gabriel discover the true nature of his once-beloved uncle before it’s too late?