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The Morally Grey Character
The Dark Without follows a young woman living in a world where the Earth is dying, who is abducted by aliens and becomes a powerful mystical leader charged with bringing Earth back from the brink of death. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
When I first started, I had no idea where it was heading, but I knew it had to be along the lines of a total power failure and the ensuing outcome of what that brings. But by the third chapter, things started to veer sideways and new ideas hit me all at once. Having aliens in the mix wasn’t in the plans at first. But if I’d kept to the original, it would’ve been pretty drab and predictable, with the backdrop of an Earth falling dreadfully into a dystopian apocalypse with no hope of ever coming out of it. I did toy around with having the aliens as the good guys, but that would’ve been boring, and again, predictable. So I made the protagonist, Esme, the morally grey character – one who the reader would hopefully root for, yet be unsettled with her choices.
The inspiration for the “original” story came about several years ago during a power cut. I sat there feeling absolutely stranded and at a loss of what to do next. No power meant no WiFi, television, or even the air conditioner. What a cushy, entitled life we live in now, right? And from there, a thought bubble formed and a story – what if the power never came back on, what would happen? What would people do? And that ended up the base of the story.
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 setting just sort of manifested organically. I keep a list of names for future characters in future books (which author doesn’t, right?), and I grabbed “Esme” because it sounded right for the story. A simple, classic name, and a little unusual from the norm. From there, I went with it, and decided she didn’t have to be the typical “English-speaking” protagonist, and why not have things happen in Spain, rather than the usual places…and from there, it spiralled onto a wider platform.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Not anything in particular, but by the time I was a quarter way into the first draft, I knew this was going to be a dark story. A vengeful story. One that would reflect humans at their core, as in what and how we would react in extreme situations and conditions. Just seeing what’s happening around the world is enough to understand what we can and will do, especially to another human being. That was the motivator for Esme’s character. A normal, young girl who is thrown into an impossible, horrific reality. What would she do, and how would she do it? And to what extremes would she go to, to get it done?
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
Tempting, but no. While the end of the story left things ambiguous, the story is done. I enjoyed writing it.
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“Humankind is always doomed to fail. It has fallen many times before, and many times we have intervened to ensure it stays on the correct course. Earth is salvageable, but if you had continued along the path you were on, it would not have been. You have billions of years more to exist before your planet’s final destruction. We are only making certain it survives that long, and ensuring your survival until the ultimate end. At times you progress too fast, but such is humankind’s way. So we had to accelerate this current failure sooner in order to restart. As we have done before, a guide with a better objective and understanding of how to protect your world, will be inserted…”
But why did they care what humans did with their lives? They were aliens—beings from another dimension! Earth wasn’t their home.
Esme Serrano’s predestined encounter with the trans-dimensional anthropomorphic Aakehollats sends her on a multi-pathed journey spanning ten thousand years. A journey riddled with lies, manipulations and untold layers of deception. She guides Earth as the Sibyl, a powerful and mystical leader, and brings the dying world back from the brink of death. She helps the Aakehollats, and ensures that Earth survives until its ultimate destruction in the cosmos.
But her one true goal is, and always will be, to kill the Aakehollats.
The Dark Without
The Dark Without by T.K. Toppin plunges readers into a haunting vision of Earth’s future—a world ravaged by humanity’s excesses and the relentless effects of climate change. In this dystopia, the government holds a monopoly on technology and resources, leaving the rest of society to languish in darkness and poverty. The planet itself has become a sprawling wasteland, its landscape littered with the ruins of centuries. Amidst this grim reality, people cling to fragments of normalcy—attending school, eking out livelihoods—but an air of despair pervades. The bleakness of this setting provokes a deep existential question: what’s the point of it all?
From the start, the story grips you on an emotional level. The world Toppin paints feels disturbingly plausible, a terrifying extrapolation of today’s crises. Esme’s journal entries, recounting her family’s harrowing escape during riots, are especially compelling. These passages tug at the heart, vividly capturing the chaos and fear of displacement. The parallels to real-world struggles are impossible to ignore, adding layers of poignancy and urgency to the narrative.
The plot takes an unexpected turn into science fiction when Esme experiences what can only be described as an alien abduction—but not in the way one might anticipate. This twist is both startling and fascinating, tapping into speculative theories about extraterrestrial involvement in human affairs. While I don’t subscribe to such ideas, the book’s exploration of them is captivating. Toppin crafts a scenario that feels both imaginative and unnervingly credible, lending the story a thought-provoking edge.
Themes of government corruption and humanity’s self-destructive tendencies resonate deeply throughout the book. These elements ground the fantastical aspects of the narrative in reality, prompting readers to reflect on the parallels to our own world. Fiction like this—stories that entertain while challenging us to confront uncomfortable truths—has a unique power. In some ways, The Dark Without feels like a grown-up counterpart to The Lorax, delivering its cautionary tale with a sharp, sophisticated edge.
The ending left a strong impression on me. Dark and perhaps morbid, it feels entirely fitting for the story Toppin tells. It delivers a poetic sense of justice. This is a gripping and thought-provoking read. The emotional depth, compelling themes, and unexpected twists make The Dark Without a standout work of speculative fiction. Highly recommended for anyone ready to be both entertained and unsettled by a vision of what might come if we don’t change course.
Pages: 267 | ASIN : B0BT81K56W
LITERARY TITAN 