Blog Archives
A Code of Knights and Deception
Eliza Hampstead’s A Code of Knights and Deception blends time-slip historical fiction with a tense psychological journey, following Sophia, a disillusioned stay-at-home mother, as she is unexpectedly thrust into a medieval world after a visit to Warwick Castle. What begins as a simple solo trip soon turns into a bizarre and haunting experience where reality blurs, complete with knights, castles, and a creeping sense that something is terribly off. Her struggle to reconcile what’s happening with her rational mind propels a tense narrative that shifts between mystery, survival, and self-discovery.
The writing really grabbed me. Hampstead has this uncanny knack for showing claustrophobia and vulnerability without overexplaining. Sophia’s internal monologue is raw, honest, often sarcastic, and sometimes heartbreaking. I felt her fear, her desperation. That choking scene in the peasant’s hut was absolutely harrowing. The author doesn’t pull punches when describing the violence or emotional exhaustion Sophia endures. At the same time, the prose can be beautiful, too. There are moments, especially in descriptions of the castle or Sophia’s fleeting hopes, that feel like small sighs in the middle of a storm. The whole book keeps you off-balance, and I couldn’t stop flipping pages, needing to know if she’d wake up from the nightmare, or if it was never a dream at all.
This book isn’t just a thriller dressed up in chainmail. It’s a sharp look at what it means to feel powerless in your own life. Sophia’s journey through the medieval setting reflects her internal crisis: a woman smothered by expectations, by an unhappy marriage, by invisibility. There’s a quiet rage beneath it all, and it builds beautifully. Her yearning for independence is so relatable, and that makes her trauma hit harder. The story also plays with genre expectations in clever ways. You’re never quite sure if this is a psychological break, time travel, or some elaborate trap. That ambiguity made it addictive and unsettling.
A Code of Knights and Deception left me breathless and unnerved but in the best way. I’d recommend this book to fans of Outlander who like their history with more grit and less romance, or anyone who appreciates a layered, emotional, psychological mystery with a medieval twist. If you’re looking for a story that makes you feel disoriented, a little scared, and totally invested, then this one’s for you.
Pages: 542 | ASIN : B0D6VGNQ41
Fundamental Questions
Tachyon Tunnel 2: The Daklin Empire follows two time-travelers who have returned to Earth and have to contend with an altered timeline and unexpected challenges. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I am a scientist, adventurer, and a storyteller. Combine those three elements and the result is fun!
I think science fiction gets time and interstellar travel wrong. A few years ago, I decided to write Tachyon Tunnel to fix that problem.
Tachyon Tunnel 2: the Daklin Empire goes a step further, answering more fundamental questions about time and space.
What things do you find interesting about the human condition that makes for great fiction?
I love bold persistence and imagination. I think those things can be taught and inspired. A big part of the book is about inspiration while wrapping it in some cool physics!
I felt that the action scenes were expertly crafted. I find that this is an area that can be overdone in novels. How did you approach this subject to make sure it flowed evenly?
As an entrepreneur, I have learned that simplicity is almost always the best path. Tell the story, efficiently. Like many, I had to read James Joyce – Ulysses. Enough said?
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
YES. There will be a part 3. The human drama of galactic war will wrap around time travel, inertia, and the fundamental question of whether plasma is a life form.
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
Tachyon Tunnel 2 explores how time travel might actually work within the laws of physics, and the implications of changing events in the past. The book combines science, adventure, romance and the complexities of human decision-making in high-stakes situations. Part two of bestselling author Michael Gorton’s award-winning Tachyon Tunnel series will keep readers on the edge of their seats and is sure to become one of the best science fiction works of the year!
Tachyon Tunnel 2, The Daklin Empire
Michael Gorton’s Tachyon Tunnel 2: The Daklin Empire picks up right where its predecessor left off—interstellar travelers Alex Durant and Paula Campbell have returned to Earth after a mind-bending adventure through time and space. But home is anything but normal. Between Paula’s memory loss, a tragic second car crash, and a rapidly unraveling timeline, the book blends quantum physics with emotional stakes, then rockets forward into a high-tech corporate thriller. All of it rests on a central question: can you outmaneuver fate, or does it always find you?
This book surprised me in the best way. I expected a sci-fi sequel with more spaceships and techy jargon, but what I got was a personal and often exhilarating look at relationships, ambition, and betrayal. The emotional core hit me hardest early on, with Paula waking up in a hospital after her second crash, her memories scrambled and her heart fractured. The way she searches for clarity while Alex stands by, trying not to break the illusion, was actually heartbreaking. There’s a line when Alex watches Paula light up while solving equations on a whiteboard, and all he can think is, “She was chaos, beauty, and brilliance…” That line stuck with me.
Then there’s the whole startup saga with Zander and his teleportation company, T-Portal Co. At first, I was grinning ear to ear. A sci-fi story about turning teleportation into a consumer business? Brilliant. But things go dark fast. Maillew, the smooth-talking board member who teaches Zander about capitalism, turns out to be a snake. If you’ve ever built something and had it ripped from your hands, this section will sting.
Still, what really makes this book shine is the weird and beautiful connection between Paula and Alex. Her dreams of other lives, other galaxies, and the humming of a ship called Tranquility—and how those dreams slowly turn into memories—was so well done. The whole “reverse aging through frequency” subplot was wild, and I honestly don’t care how plausible it is. It made me want to believe in something impossible. When Paula whispers to Alex about their shared past—memories she shouldn’t have—it feels intimate and magical. It’s not just science fiction; it’s about finding each other through all the noise of time, memory, and loss.
Tachyon Tunnel 2 is not just for science fiction fans. Yes, there’s time travel, AI, tachyon particles, and interstellar tech, but it’s also got heart. If you enjoy stories about second chances, brilliant women solving cosmic mysteries, or just want a good ol’ tale of love, loss, and betrayal wrapped in quantum physics—this book is for you. If you liked The Martian or Project Hail Mary, but wish they had a bit more soul and less sarcasm, Gorton’s got you covered.
Pages: 413 | ASIN: B0DXQFT7FK
An Unexpected Act of Kindness
TOUCH: The Tumbles and Turns of Time Manipulation follows a radiologist whose migraines lead him to an experimental treatment that inadvertently unlocks an ability to manipulate time by sending memories back to his younger self. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The author’s first historic moment for a timeless crystal memory occurred when he was seven. He couldn’t get his kite to fly in the local park. An older kid came to help from across the street but broke the kite. The tall thirteen-year-old immediately replaced it with a new, better kite from his house. Later, the author was a receiver for him in touch football.
Close to the onset of the writing, one of the author’s sisters died of lung cancer because of her teenage smoking start.
A professional football player the author knew died early with severe memory loss.
Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?
Yes, the author accomplished what he desired with the characters. He left room for follow-up writing with some of the characters, particularly the female quarterback, Evelynn Dovell, who recognized Cillian.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
With regard to time, the author explored the contrast between events that seem inevitable and others that have a rare randomness.
The impact of an unexpected act of kindness can be forever.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
The author’s next book, planned for release in 2025, is a follow-up to Clean Slate (where a woman used a drug to selectively erase her boyfriend’s memories of prior girlfriends.)
Meet Cillian, a physician whose seemingly ordinary life takes an extraordinary turn after a fateful accident during a groundbreaking medical procedure. Suddenly endowed with the ability to send messages to his younger self, Cillian embarks on a quest to rewrite his friend’s medical history.
But as Cillian delves deeper into the complexities of time travel, he discovers that changing the past comes with unforeseen consequences. From opportunities and missed opportunities with his true love, Mary, to heartbreaking revelations about his friend Shawn’s illnesses, Cillian grapples with the weight of his choices as he navigates a maze of alternate timelines.
With each twist and turn, “Touch” immerses readers in a riveting tale of love, sacrifice, and the timeless struggle between fate and free will. Will Cillian mend his fabric of time and secure a future with Mary, or will his attempts to rewrite history only lead to further heartache?
TOUCH: The Tumbles and Turns of Time Manipulation
Tucker Madison’s TOUCH: The Tumbles and Turns of Time Manipulation is a mind-bending, emotional journey that plays with the idea of time in a way that is both deeply personal and scientifically intriguing. The novel follows Cillian Cole, a radiologist whose migraines lead him to an experimental treatment that inadvertently unlocks an ability to manipulate time though not in the traditional sci-fi sense of building a machine. Instead, Cillian experiences a series of déjà vu-like flashes that allow him to send memories back to his younger self. This revelation sets off a cascade of existential questions and moral dilemmas as he tries to use this power to prevent tragedy, particularly for his childhood hero and friend, Shawn. As Cillian navigates shifting realities, the novel asks whether changing the past is truly possible or if fate has a way of course-correcting.
One of the most compelling aspects of the book is its treatment of time not as a rigid sequence but as something malleable through memory and consciousness. Madison crafts some truly arresting moments, like when Cillian suddenly has two versions of the past in his mind: one where his medical school canoe trip photos were ruined, and another where they survived because he subconsciously knew to bring a dry bag. That small ripple effect makes the whole concept feel eerily plausible. The writing during these moments is hypnotic, capturing the surreal quality of memory itself. The novel doesn’t bombard the reader with heavy scientific jargon, but rather plays with the idea in a way that feels instinctive like something we’ve all felt in those weird, uncanny moments of déjà vu.
Where the novel really shines is in its emotional depth. Cillian’s relationships particularly with Shawn and later with Mary ground the sci-fi elements in something deeply human. The football scenes between Young Cillian and Shawn are electric, especially the moment of his first big catch, where time slows to an almost supernatural degree. That moment becomes a portal of sorts, something that Cillian later revisits as he tries to change Shawn’s fate. The novel is laced with nostalgia, regret, and a longing for second chances, making it feel less like a traditional time-travel story and more like a meditation on memory and loss. The relationship between Cillian and Mary, which develops through an altered timeline, is equally compelling, giving the novel a love story that feels both earned and deeply romantic.
As Cillian grapples with the implications of his power, there’s an underlying question of how far he should go. The scene where he visits an older, memory-damaged Shawn is heartbreaking, especially when Shawn fails to recognize his own wife, Peggy. It forces Cillian and the reader to ask whether altering the past is always the right thing to do or if the consequences are too unpredictable. The book is at its best when it wrestles with these questions, making the reader feel the weight of Cillian’s choices. The ethical dilemmas feel real because they’re rooted in personal stakes rather than grand, world-saving missions.
TOUCH is an engrossing, thought-provoking read that blends science fiction with deep emotional resonance. Madison crafts a story that is as much about the physics of time as it is about the fragility of human connection. This book is perfect for anyone who loves time manipulation with a strong emotional core. It makes you wonder: if you could whisper advice to your younger self, would you? And even more importantly, should you?
Pages: 160 | ASIN : B0CX96ZTQQ
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.
Author Links: GoodReads | X (Twitter) | Threads | Instagram | Facebook | Website | Amazon
“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.
Love and Forgiveness
Lightning in the Collied Night follows a group of scientists who embark on a bold mission to harness the power of a newly discovered wormhole in a desperate bid to secure the survival of the human race. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The original story idea came to me several years ago. Back then, it was a simple story about a young physicist who overcomes personal and external challenges to travel to the future through a wormhole and discovers… well, I can’t get into that as it’s the crux of the story! I can say that there were multiple inspirations for the story, from literary and sci-fi sources; those are brought out in the novel. Over time, I added twists, layers, and characters to my story until I thought it might be suitable for a novel. When I retired in 2023 and had time to learn how to write fiction, I decided to share my story.
A lot of time was spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?
Probably the most important factor was that I wanted the characters to be relatable to readers. The story is set (mostly) about 30 years from now. I wanted readers to be able to understand and feel what these characters were going through as they overcame many challenges, both from within themselves and the outside world. One of the ways I did that was to try to make the dialogue seem “natural,” like people actually talk, and liberally use interior monologue to let readers get “into the heads” of the main characters.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Probably the most important theme was the power of love and forgiveness to transform a person… or perhaps a world. Another theme is that AI can be an extremely powerful and useful tool when used appropriately, but it’s not the best solution for every problem. There’s a difference I think between what AI could do for humankind, and what we should allow it to do. Finally, I wanted my novel to reflect our wonderfully diverse world, and thus I strove to have the characters be representative of that diversity.
Will there be a follow-up novel to this story? If so, what aspects of the story will the next book cover?
I hadn’t planned on a sequel. But I’ve fallen in love with the characters (most of them, anyway!) and believe there’s much more of their story to tell. Thus I’ve started outlining a sequel, with a planned release of Summer 2025. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I will share that the draft tagline is, “How far would you go for love?” The sequel will be more of a traditional sci-fi story than Lightning, but still approachable by people who aren’t quantum physicists. Like Lightning, it will be focused on the characters, their relationships, and their struggles. I think it will be entirely based on Earth of the future–no trips to wormholes, this time. And, like Lightning, the title will be from Shakespeare. 😉
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
In the mid-21st century, a brilliant American physicist joins a secret mission to travel through the galaxy’s lone stable wormhole. When a series of challenges threaten the project, she must find another way to accomplish its objective: save the human race. With help from an unexpected ally, the young scientist races to harness the universe’s mightiest force and preserve humanity’s future.
Western Lights
Western Lights, by C.P. Schaefer, is a thrilling journey through a near-future world grappling with sudden and violent environmental upheavals. The story kicks off with Ethan Sites, a young NOAA scientist, witnessing bizarre and deadly changes in the Northern Lights. These disturbances set off a chain reaction of events, including strange magnetic anomalies and catastrophic flash fires in Alaska. As Ethan and his team scramble to understand the phenomena, their efforts intersect with various global forces, from government agencies to local Alaskans, all trying to survive and decode the terrifying environmental shifts.
Schaefer’s writing is vivid and fast-paced, pulling you into the chaotic world he envisions with little room to catch your breath. I found his descriptions of the Alaskan tundra particularly immersive. The author’s impressive skill in blending technical details with a compelling narrative makes complex scientific concepts accessible without slowing down the action.
The core idea of a shifting magnetic pole causing such dramatic effects is intriguing and terrifying. Schaefer successfully taps into current concerns about climate change and amplifies them into a plausible and gripping disaster scenario. I appreciated how the novel doesn’t just focus on the spectacle of the environmental catastrophe but also delves into the human responses to it. Characters like Ethan, struggling to make sense of the science, and Sara, a whale rescuer who’s thrown into the chaos, add depth and a personal touch to the narrative. One of my favorite parts is when Ethan and Sara debate the causes and implications of the phenomena while trying to save stranded whales. This scene exemplifies how Schaefer weaves scientific discourse into the plot naturally.
Western Lights is a must-read for fans of eco-thrillers and science fiction. Schaefer combines scientific intrigue with heart-pounding action, making it an engaging and thought-provoking read. The book’s exploration of humanity’s fragility in the face of nature’s unpredictability will resonate with anyone interested in climate change or disaster stories. While I feel the breakneck pace might overwhelm some, it’s perfect for readers who enjoy being thrown into the deep end from page one.
Pages: 434 | ASIN : B0CW18MGZK
