Deeper dive

First they stole our memories. Then our minds. Now they profit from our pain. Can anyone stop them?
Daisy and Jazon never chose to be heroes. With Izzey, their six-year-old Honey Tiger, they are dragged into a war for control where power shifts like shadows in the code. They fight back with outsiders and an invisible army linking human and a.i. worlds. But every step forward blurs the line between truth and illusion. Victory might mean survival. Or it might mean losing the last thing that makes them human.
Honey Tigers is a slow-burn near-future technothriller that erupts in the searing dystopian aftermath of the coming a.i. revolution. Like Blade Runner and The Matrix, it asks what it means to be human — and where we are headed.
Genres: Dystopian, cyberpunk, technothriller, LGBTQIA+ science fiction (with a trans lead character; echoes of Alan Turing’s triumphs against the odds — but without the tragic ending)
Content warnings: strong language, violence, refugee deaths, child endangerment

When illusion is reality and reality is illusion
Investigative journalist Lobo Bolen is catapulted into a desperate dystopian crisis where elite technocrats use technology to oppress the people and dominate dwindling resources as climate change wrecks the planet. She mines shock revelation after shock revelation from a huge trove of leaked computer files, but the conspiracy’s killers are hot on her heels and her secret network of reporters and academics disappear one after another. As her ferocious battle of wits with the technocrats reaches boiling point, she is forced to confront the ultimate question – is she real or is she something else caught in the sliding shadows of realities within realities. Either way, time and options are running out.
Genre: Dystopian fiction
Content warning: Strong language

The year is 2077 and the planet is reeling from centuries of human abuse
Investigative author Jack Janis and his golden retriever Max fall for Alice Algafari, an alluring but enigmatic researcher, in their quiet rural village. In the wider world, humans and a new race, genetically-evolved numans, compete for survival. Jack's hopes for an idyllic life with Alice and Max crash amid conspiracy and lethal risks when Alice's boss tries to ensnare them. Alice, Jack and Max are forced to run for their lives. A final showdown between compassion and science erupts in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization, with Max emerging as a key to shaping the future of the planet.
Genres: Dystopian, genetic engineering sci-fi, suspense thrillers
Content warnings: deaths, strong language

Ghosts of the past, deaths of the present
Tenny Rumble spends his life swimming in the more obscure areas of science, hang-gliding over the wilds of Great Britain, and making love with Madeleine. Then his lifelong rivalry with his half-brother Paul changes everything. He is drawn into the big money echelons and a deadly conspiracy. A new love is kidnapped in Indonesia and he sets off to rescue her. On the way he meets Louise and her friends. Who is friend, who is foe, who is telling the truth, who will die? The rescue turns into a desperate chase across Southeast Asia and, finally, Tenny and Paul collide in a last moment of conflict in the white hell of an English winter. To survive, Tenny must confront his past and the bitter truths surrounding his relationship with Paul.
Genre: general fiction
Content warnings: sex, violence, strong language

Decompiling
the code

HONEY TIGERS is rooted in the present but it reaches out to life in the late 2030s after the current a.i. revolution pales into old news and the next big jump is confronting us. In the dystopian genre tradition, Honey Tigers is a time traveller in that the story tells of the future while the meta meanings comment on the threats and issues of today. Of course, not everyone will bother with the meta meanings -- they will just enjoy the story. If you want to get my decoding, sign on for my (very occasional) newsletters.

BEYOND EXTINCTION hurtles into a future where genetic constructions produce a deeply disturbing clash between science and compassion. It traces the lives of people caught in a world of change and how evolving circumstances dramatically affect them, how yesterday's truth can become today's lies, what it means to be human, and what it means to be far more than human. This, again, is a book full of meta meanings about the way we are living today and where we are going. It's an easy-read page-turner. You can read it for free at the moment - just download it from Amazon. I'll send you my decoding, too, if you sign up for my (very occasional) newsletter.

RUNNING OUT is a tougher read that Honey Tigers and Beyond Extinction. It charts the obsession of investigative journalist Lobo Bolen being pursued by the owners of a leaked file she is revealing. Her story is fast and dangerous. Her analysis of the leaked papers are tougher reading. The coding in it is about digital reality vs human reality and whether, as developments advance, which we will accept as the reality. I know Lobo. She is a composite of real life in newspapers. My decoding analysis is free for newsletter members.

GREEN MONKEY AFFAIR was written originally in the 1980s and hacked about numerous times since then. It's a chase through many of my favourite places in Southeast Asia with the clash of the characters powering the story. Fasten your seat belt, set your suspension of disbelief on maximum.