It's the End of the World as We Know It...

In January of this year author DL Orton posted to Threads: “I write pages and pages of character background before I ever start writing a book. I think characters are more interesting and dynamic when I know who they are before I start building their stories on the page.”

Character building is something this independent author is known for - read reviews of this latest book, or any of the previous books in the “Between Two Evils” series and you’ll see that the depth of the characters is something reviewers often comment on. The characters in this latest book allow the author’s sense of humor to shine through - the main characters exchange bad puns and engage in comedic wordplay, while some of the side characters seem to be there mostly to provide comic relief.

That humor helps to ground the intricately laid out plot that plays around with the concepts of time travel and a multiverse. I’ll run through the main characters and give you some of the highlights of the plot in what follows but will necessarily be leaving out a lot of the texture and detail.

A wheelchair-bound Isabel Sanborn sets the storyline in motion, along with her dead-but-uploaded-to-an-AI friend Matthew Hudson (the AI goes by the name “Madders”). She sends Diego Nadeles back in time on a mission to change the past in order to prevent the bleak future they currently inhabit. When Diego leaves, she will be alone - the last human in the biodome that is the last home of humanity on a dystopian world. And, since it will take all the power they have left to send Diego to the past she’s consigning herself to a quick death as the biodome will fail around her.

In the past future-Diego makes a brief appearance before the story continues with present-Diego and present-Isabel charting their way into a relationship as the events leading to dystopia begin to unfold.

Dave, whom Isabel has recently divorced as the book begins, is an evil genius billionaire in an Elon Musk meets Lex Luther mold. Isabel works for Dave, and her project is the creation of robot bees designed to pollinate crops, as nature’s bees falter on the road to extinction. As the plot unfolds it becomes apparent that Dave has other designs on the robot swarm, hoping to manufacture and sell them as carriers of biological weapons, equipped with stingers to deliver death to their targets. Isabel’s plot to thwart Dave is a highlight of the book.

Meanwhile present-day Matt Hudson gets sucked into a secret government research project to determine who or what is behind a small spherical object that crashes in Denver. He’s assisted by his PhD student Sam and eventually his daughter Cassandra.

How much of what happens is consistent with the timeline that leads to dystopia? That is being monitored throughout by Madders, the future-AI stuck in a computer in the biodome on a failed world. Madders has woken up after solar power has refilled the batteries in the biodome. He has access to “peeper” technology that allows him to peer into the past. Madders gives a status of how the timeline is varying at the start of each new chapter.

So where is all this leading? Well, to a cliffhanger. It is Book 1 after all.

Now I’m not a big fan of cliffhangers in books. It can be a long time between books, especially for a newly published book like this one, so cliffhangers can be pretty frustrating. But I have to say that I agree with all those other reviewers who comment on the strong characters Orton writes. As a reader you really do become involved in their stories and want them to succeed. And I also enjoyed the way the plot unfolded. The end result is that, despite my dislike for cliffhangers, I liked this book a lot and can’t wait for the next one. Which is slated to come out in November of this year. I’ll have to wait…

This is the first book by DL Orton that I’ve read. Since finishing the book and doing a bit of research on the author I’ve learned that the characters in this book also feature in the “Between Two Evils” series. So, I may need to go back and dive into those books while waiting for the next “Madders of Time” book to arrive.

RATING: Three and a Half Stars ⭐⭐⭐🌠

RATING COMMENTS: A thoroughly enjoyable fantasy time-travel book mostly set in a near-future America just outside of Denver Colorado. Strong characters and intricately laid plot that leads to a cliffhanger. Book 2 due in November. Point knocked off for the cliffhanger ending.

WHERE I GOT MY COPY: I received an advanced reviewer’s copy of the book from NetGalley and the publisher, Rocky Mountain Press. The book will be available in the US on May 6th.