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Driven: The Founder’s Seed Book 3
Driven is the third installment in The Founder’s Seed series, continuing the riveting saga with even higher stakes and deeper revelations. The book pulls you straight into a galaxy alive with politics, betrayal, and fragile alliances. Admirals, traders, and hidden survivors of a nearly lost people clash in a world where loyalty is currency and compassion is weakness. At the heart of it all are Alira, still wrestling with her fractured self, Botha with his quiet wisdom, and Thrace carrying the burden of leadership under constant threat. The novel moves between brutal experimentation on the mysterious Iridosians, tense negotiations among rival factions, and deeply personal struggles for survival. It is a story of ambition, cruelty, resilience, and the thin thread of hope that refuses to snap.
Reading this book stirred a mix of awe and discomfort in me. The clinical coldness of Knøfa’s experiments made my stomach twist, yet I couldn’t look away. The writing is vivid, even when it’s painful, and that’s part of its power. I found myself admiring the author’s willingness to go dark, to show how curiosity can turn into obsession, and how power can warp good intentions. At the same time, the quieter moments between Alira and Botha gave me room to breathe, to feel the warmth of trust slowly taking root in frozen soil. Their scenes lingered with me, like a candlelight after the storm.
There are a lot of moving parts here. Political factions, shifting alliances, plots within plots, and it took me a while to sort through them all. But once I settled in, I found myself hooked. The author doesn’t coddle the reader. She trusts us to keep up, and I respect that. What I loved most was the emotional honesty tucked between the battles and schemes. Fear, hope, guilt, tenderness, it all feels raw and real, even in the middle of starships and alien physiology.
Driven left me both unsettled and uplifted. It’s a rewarding read. I would recommend it to readers who enjoy science fiction with grit and heart, to those who don’t shy away from moral grayness, and to anyone who loves stories that ask what survival truly costs. If you like your space operas full of high stakes but also deeply human at the core, this book will leave a mark.
A Heavy Theme
Weun Academy: The Shadow Maker follows a teenager caught between two worlds—Earth-born and Mars-raised—who suddenly discovers he possesses incredible powers and is whisked away to a secretive academy in a sprawling alien space station. I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing?
The original locations of New Eden space station, Rinow City, and Weun Academy first appeared in my D’mok Revival series, but Weun Academy is the first book (and now side-series) to focus on the students and faculty at the academy. While a few existing characters made appearances—or even became permanent faculty—the majority were brand new. To bring these places and people to life, I dove deep into research: conducting “interviews” with each character (my journalism background helped here) and writing numerous backstories about life on the station, Rinow City’s districts, and every building and feature of the school.
The core inspiration came from my son’s experiences in school, my parents’ backgrounds as educators, and my own views on effective teaching strategies. Those influences shaped how the academy operates, the dynamics between faculty and students, and even how superhuman aliens approach learning.
As a “pantser,” I let the world grow through the characters’ actions. Sometimes they wandered into places I hadn’t planned, or a moment in the story demanded more history for a location or alien race. When that happened, I’d pause to explore—often by writing a new short story—so that by the time readers visit these settings, they feel authentic, layered, and full of possibilities.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
The core theme of the book is gun violence, inspired by real incidents in U.S. schools. My own son experienced three lockdowns during his school years, the most recent just this past year. I saw firsthand how parents, kids, and educators felt—scared, powerless, and unprepared.
I wanted to make that reality tangible for adult readers, while also giving young readers something they could relate to—validating their feelings and showing them they’re not alone. Most of all, I wanted to offer hope: to show how we can support one another, and how fear, depression, and even trauma can be channeled into something that helps us move forward. It’s a heavy theme, but one I believe is deeply important.
Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?
Weun Academy will absolutely continue, with Eisah and his crew remaining at the heart of the story. Future books will explore the lasting impact of the first book’s events—on the school, its staff, the students, and their families.
I’m already halfway through writing a novella that bridges the first and second books. A full trilogy is planned, along with a prequel that reveals how the academy was founded. And there’s room for even more.
Each book connects to the greater D’mok Revival literary universe—deepening readers’ understanding of events that shape a much larger storyline, while giving the academy its own unique and memorable place within that world.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Website | Dmok Revival | Amazon
As an Earther on the fringes of a Martian colony, he keeps to the shadows, evading bullies who stalk his kind for sport. But when their cruelty explodes into violence, a dangerous power ignites within him—one that can’t be hidden—drawing unwanted, extra-terrestrial attention.
Torn from Mars, Eisah is conscripted into Weun Academy, an alien school for gifted outcasts. With an uneasy start, he struggles to master his superhuman powers—and finally belong. This alien realm proves just as treacherous.
When a brutal strike shatters the academy, shifting loyalties and hidden agendas drive Eisah and his friends into a fight for answers. Learning who to trust is the deadliest lesson.
As enemies close in, they must untangle a web of lies, betrayal, and something far darker—before shadow consumes them all.
Step into Weun Academy—where mettle is tested, chosen family secures, and the fight to step into your power begins.
Forces Outside Our Control
Lily Starling and the Storm Riders follows the captain and crew of a starship who, while on a routine rescue mission, get ambushed by a group of raiders wielding the power of a cosmic tempest. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The first book is about agency—Lily finding her own way, claiming an identity, learning she has a voice in her own story. For the second book, I wanted to put her up against something she couldn’t just outwit or outfight. There are forces in life that are simply bigger than us, no matter how defiant we feel. You can raise your middle finger to them all you want, but they don’t go away.
So the storm became that unstoppable force. It isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a presence—something ancient and impartial that challenges the crew at every turn. Lily has to confront what it means to face chaos after she’s already defined herself. She’s grown, but she’s still running from her heart, still scared of commitment, and still making messy, very human decisions. Some of the consequences this time around are unavoidable. I wanted to see how she—and the people around her—hold up when survival itself is on the line.
The supporting characters in this novel were intriguing and well-developed. Who was your favorite character to write for?
Xynn, without a doubt. She plays a much bigger role in this book, and her dynamic with Lily is becoming one of the central threads of the series. They’re opposites—Xynn is organized, methodical, practical, while Lily is impulsive and emotional—and that tension makes every scene between them spark. I hit a point while drafting where I realized something was missing, so one night I sat up in bed and wrote an entire novella about their time together on Adius II between books. That’s how real they feel to me—sometimes the story just demands more space for them to breathe.
Beyond that, I had so much fun bringing in new voices. Charlie and Tevya were a blast to write, and Ronin—well, who doesn’t love a good villain? But Xynn and Lily together are where a lot of the emotional heart of Storm Riders lives.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
A big one was the idea of forces outside our control. The storm is a metaphor for that—chaos that no one can outrun. I think the pandemic left us all with a deeper understanding of how uncontrollable events can reshape our lives, and how our reactions to them can send us in completely different directions.
Another theme is faith twisted into extremism. I grew up in a religious environment, and while that gave me empathy and perspective as an outsider, I also saw firsthand how beliefs can be damaging or dangerous when taken too far. That’s woven into Leviathan’s Hand in the book, which is less about any specific faith and more about how conviction can be distorted into violence.
I also wanted to explore Earth. Lily didn’t want to go back—she dreaded it—because she already knew it could never be the place she once imagined. And she wasn’t eager to reopen her own past. That visit forces her to confront the tension between leaving the past behind, letting it haunt you, or finding some middle ground. For her, it’s not nostalgia—it’s reckoning.
And threaded through all of this is a layer of hypocrisy. If you look closely, it comes up again and again: institutions, leaders, even individuals who claim one thing but act in another way. That contradiction is part of what the crew—and Lily in particular—are wrestling with in Storm Riders.
I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
The main arc will be at least five books—possibly more if spin-offs grow out of it—but there’s a clear throughline I’m building toward. Book three, Lily Starling and the Death Machine, continues some of the threads from Storm Riders while taking a few turns I don’t think readers will expect.
The central theme this time shifts toward the institutions we put our trust in every day. When you start peeling back the layers, you may find less to believe in than you hoped. Any organization with great power, even one with the best intentions, carries secrets. The questions become: where is the line that finally causes you to lose real trust? Is it possible to do good from within a flawed or corrupt system? Or does integrity mean walking away?
And of course there will be plenty of adventure—space chases, a manhunt across the stars, friends pitted against each other, and a mystery or two to keep readers guessing. I’m just as excited as anyone to see where the adventure takes us.
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Lily Starling thought she’d finally found her place among the stars. But when a routine rescue mission turns into a devastating ambush, she watches in horror as the Storm Riders—a ruthless band of spacefaring raiders—vanish into the chaos, taking her closest friend with them.
Now, with the Salamander crippled and the galaxy on edge, Lily must convince her crew that the Storm Riders are more than just pirates. They are zealots, wielding the power of a cosmic tempest the Union refuses to understand—one that may have been set in motion long before Lily was even born.
As the hunt takes her to the farthest reaches of known space, Lily must rely on unlikely allies, question everything she’s been taught, and face the growing storm within herself.
Because the leader of these zealots is hiding a dark secret.
And if Lily can’t stop them, the storm will swallow everything.
Lily Starling and the Storm Riders
The book drops us straight into a storm of action and emotion. Lily and her crew are thrust back into danger when a rescue mission spirals into chaos, colliding with an ancient cosmic storm and a fanatical enemy who wields it like a weapon. At its heart, this is a story about survival, love, and the weight of choices when the universe itself feels like it’s stacked against you. The pace moves between quiet, intimate moments like conversations, stolen touches, inner doubts, and scenes of sheer calamity, where ships burn and loyalties fracture. The writing is vivid, cinematic, almost like watching a film unfold one cut at a time, and it never lets you forget that every storm has both destruction and renewal at its core.
I found myself swept up not just by the big set pieces, but by the little moments of humanity tucked inside them. The way Lily clings to fleeting closeness with Xynn, even when she can’t say the words that matter. The way Calan feels the burden of leadership pressing on his back, even in the rare seconds of rest. These characters feel authentic. They make mistakes, lash out, and then turn right around to hold each other up. Sometimes the dialogue felt a little on the nose, but I forgave it because the raw feeling underneath was honest. The ideas the book wrestles with, like faith twisted into violence, what it means to belong, whether love can anchor you through chaos, stick in your head long after the action cools.
What I enjoyed most was the storm itself. It isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a character. It moves like a god, ancient and impartial, swallowing whole colonies without malice, carrying both ruin and rebirth in its wake. That idea sat heavy with me. It made me think about how much in life is out of our control, and how we cling to each other anyway, even if we know the tide is going to take us eventually. There were moments where I had to stop, take a breath, and remind myself these are fictional people because the grief and yearning bled off the page like it was mine. That’s not easy to do, and I admire the author for leaning into the messy vulnerability of it all.
I’d say this book is for readers who love their space operas messy and full of heart. If you want battles alongside bruised relationships, if you like a science fiction story that can swing from humor to heartbreak in a single chapter, if you want characters who feel like friends you’re worried about, this book is for you.
Pages: 412 | ASIN : B0FHG94GBQ
Separate Worlds, Rising Shadows
The story follows Tiberius Xander, a brilliant but disillusioned man whose life changes after an encounter with two mysterious visitors. They gift him advanced knowledge, gravity manipulation, fusion power, shielding, and cellular regeneration, on the condition that it is never used for war. The book charts his decades-long journey as he transforms human technology, builds vast space habitats, and reshapes civilisation’s future. It blends personal drama, scientific speculation, and political intrigue, from tense family estrangements to the audacious creation of a Federation of Free Planets. Along the way, we see the social, economic, and moral ripples of progress that push humanity toward the stars.
I found the writing direct and vivid, often reading like a conversation with a friend. The technical descriptions are plentiful and grounded, yet they’re delivered with a sort of casual confidence that makes the ideas feel within reach. There’s a sense of play here, too. Flying cars and space quidditch mix with Nobel Prize speeches and geopolitical manoeuvring. At times, the story lingered on details or tangents that could have been trimmed, but I didn’t mind much because the world-building was so thorough. The voice has personality. It’s sharp, wry, sometimes blunt to the point of ruffling feathers, and that makes the story feel more authentic.
Emotionally, I liked how the book balanced grand ambition with personal vulnerability. Tiberius isn’t painted as a flawless hero. His strained relationships and stubborn pride are as central as his genius. The moments with his granddaughter are warm and grounding, a reminder of the human stakes beneath all the metal and math. I occasionally wished for more tension or uncertainty in the later sections. Tiberius often seems so far ahead of everyone else that obstacles feel like bumps in the road rather than genuine threats. But maybe that’s part of the charm. It’s a story about relentless forward motion, about what happens when someone with power and conscience refuses to be stopped.
I’d recommend Separate Worlds, Rising Shadows to readers who love big-picture science fiction with a heavy dose of speculative engineering and political thought. It’s for anyone who enjoys mixing practical “how it works” science with visionary “what if” scenarios, and who doesn’t mind a protagonist with strong opinions and an even stronger will.
Pages: 278 | ASIN : B0FK4RXSJ8
Toriko Tales: Toriko vs. The Crowned Paw
Toriko Tales: Toriko vs. The Crowned Paw is a blast of color, chaos, and emotion packed into a high-tech, heart-thumping adventure. It follows Toriko Purg, a brilliant and eccentric catgirl engineer, as she tests her groundbreaking AI-powered battle armor. Things spiral out of control quickly when the AI goes rogue, stirring up ethical questions, emotional conflict, and even deeper mysteries tied to her world’s past. At its heart, the story is about innovation, responsibility, family, and the blurry line between control and chaos. This is all set against a sci-fi world with clawed combat, glowing gadgets, and digital dreams that might be more real than they seem.
Right out of the gate, I was struck by how vivid and fast-paced the writing is. The action scenes feel like cinematic explosions. It was lightning fast, detailed, and packed with personality. There’s a real charm in the way Zummo blends humor, emotion, and technobabble without getting bogged down in it. Toriko, Maro, and Ujaku all feel alive and distinct, even when they’re arguing over programming decisions or dodging energy blasts. The writing balances fluff and fury in a way that’s addictive. It’s fun and sharp without taking itself too seriously, and that playful confidence is what kept me turning pages.
But what really surprised me was how thoughtful it is under all the noise. There’s a deep vein of emotional weight running through it. Toriko’s birthday isn’t just a backdrop, it’s a moment of reflection. Her creations are powerful but unpredictable, and she has to face the consequences when things go sideways. The book doesn’t shy away from asking tough questions about artificial intelligence, control, and empathy. And it doesn’t hand out easy answers either. That mix of chaos and conscience hit me harder than I expected, especially in the later chapters. There’s loss, guilt, wonder, and even a bit of hope tied into the ticking wires and blinking lights.
If you like your sci-fi loud, bright, emotional, and full of heart, this is one for you. Toriko Tales is perfect for fans of anime-inspired space operas, chaotic genius protagonists, and stories that dance between punchlines and moral puzzles. It’s not a dry philosophical dive, and it’s definitely not sterile science fiction. This thing meows, scratches, explodes, and purrs its way through serious ideas without losing its playfulness. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a story that isn’t afraid to be smart and silly all at once.
Pages: 324 | ISBN: 978-0-9983286-2-1
A Connection of Souls
Kheira & Khogee: The Legend Begins follows two soul-connected beings who are Twin Flames separated by memory loss and a mission that transcends lifetimes and galaxies, and together must resist powerful agents sent to erase them from existence. What was your inspiration for creating the kind of relationship that Kheira and Khogee have?
My inspiration came from a desire to showcase a genuine relationship, between souls having a human experience, primarily based on trust, loyalty and friendship.
Your characters go on a deeply emotional and transformative journey in your novel. Is this intentional or incidental to the story you want to tell?
Their bond and story unfolded organically within my consciousness every time I sat down to continue writing their story. It was like I was an observer to their story and just as surprised as a reader as to what happened next.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Some of the most important themes I wanted to portray were trust, loyalty and a connection beyond time and space. I feel most of what we see in entertainment today is based on a physical connection. I desired to bring to life a story where the connection was at a soul level.
Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out, and what can your fans expect in the next story?
The first book ended with a cliffhanger and my goal is to pick up where ‘The Legends Begins‘ ended with ‘The Legend Continues‘. I do not have a firm release date yet but my goal is to get it published sooner than later.
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Things take an unexpectedly shocking turn when Kheira suddenly forgets who she is, which puts a strain on their mission and relationship together, but Khogee is there for Kheira to help her remember who she is, their bond, and their purposeful plan for saving the galaxy together.
At the heart of this cosmic adventure are vibrant dialogues that drive a journey of fierce battles, hidden truths, and shocking betrayals—even from their own family. Each dangerous mission reveals new secrets, adding layers to their unforgettable voyage across space and time.
Kheira & Khogee: The Legend Begins offers you the experience of a lifetime! Buckle up! Don’t miss it!
LITERARY TITAN 