T.K. Toppin – författare

Unlocking the past…could unleash chaos... Josie begins her new life in the future as wife to the world president, John Lancaster. But all is not idyllic. A dangerous man from her past returns to wreak more havoc and destruction. Along with him comes a hostage, Josie's great-niece seven times removed. The trade off—a keycode for the life of her niece. As revelations of Josie's long-ago past begin to unfold, every question she has ever asked is answered. Together with John, she heads to the Scrap Yard, a cybernetics space station where a battle to regain control of the world's droids begins. Can Josie save the life of her new-found niece? Will learning the truth about her family and her past really be enough to put the ghosts to rest?

A Tangled Web of Secrets and RevelationsGreat battles are nothing new to the generations of oligarchs and aristocrats who rule the colonised systems of Earth's descendants. They are a necessary evil to protect star systems and outposts from greedy poachers and other systems bent on dominating the galaxy, as King Greycer of Strium System knows all too well. The king arranges to marry Ryn Bengaria, a young woman from Halantia, the main planet of the Strium System.Unknown to Ryn, her life had been planned before she was even born. Through their marriage, King Greycer seeks to reclaim nine outposts from the underhanded regent, Xin Sibur. When the king is assassinated, Ryn finds herself a reluctant queen and war commander. With the help of her former weapons master, and an unlikely alliance with a commander of the feared Nezu Warrior clans, Ryn embarks on a path of duty and vengeance. Her quest to destroy Xin Sibur and secure the future of Strium System will go down in galactic history as Bengaria's War.

Lies that become truths…The Hlad are one race, the only race beneath the Great Abyss. The great Fire King deemed it so when the Great Mother birthed the Fire King's children from the dry lake beds. All know of His power and scorn, and praise Him with each rising so He may shine down gently and with kindness.Warrior Class Lieutenant Raq of the Imperial Guard is a proud soldier, an adoring father to his sons, brave, dutiful and honour-bound, a devout servant of the Fire King. He is a true Hlad. But his faith is shattered when an alien craft crash-lands on Hlad from the Great Abyss.One alien, the Dayyid, survives the horrible massacre that follows the crash. Imprisoned, suffering from malnutrition, and studied by the reptilian doctors and scientists, he doesn't forget one of the creatures from the crash site. One who hesitated to kill.Forced to live together, Raq and the Dayyid learn to understand each other despite the language barrier. But when they learn of a threat to Earth, they discover an almost unbelievable truth that unites them against the Hlad. The rest of Hlad must learn this truth, and so, too, the rest of the universe.

Truth is an illusion...or is it?Pirates and corporate criminals will never die out. In 2337, Earth has expanded its domain into space, colonising the dark abyss as far as Jupiter. The need to travel faster than light, to stretch farther into the galaxy, comes with humanity's growth—and with it, corruption and greed.Captain Alanis Grosjean of the Commonwealth Corp always thought she had life figured out. Be honest and dedicated in protecting and serving Earth and its citizens, do the job right, follow orders, finish the mission. But when one space pirate dies, despite ending the mission, the next thing she knows, it's a dull routine of patrolling space like a traffic warden. She may have kept her rank and ship, but the "e;deserved reprieve"e; seems more like a demotion.The elusive space pirate Norstrom may have led the world to believe he was dead, but lately it seems the dead can be killed again. Death threats force him out of hiding to seek the help of the one person he trusts, his old lover, Grosjean.As Grosjean and Norstrom join forces to ferret out the source of the threats, they discover the gruesome truths behind the destruction of a Commonwealth Corp scout ship, underhanded corporate deals, greed, and terrifying research. Before long, Norstrom's pirate crew from the Drunken Sailor, long written off as dead, make a dramatic reappearance.Will they be in time to save the galaxy from corporate criminals? Will their history hinder them, or make them work together like a well-oiled engine? And will Captain Grosjean finally figure out her life and what makes her happy?

Ten engaging and exciting Short Stories in one book - Sequentially ordered for your reading pleasure.Following the events from the full-length novel, Jax Marlin—To Catch a Marlin, the vigilante, Jax Marlin, and the special inspector who chases her, Michael Pedroni, find themselves on a journey of deeper self-discovery and mutual understanding as they battle the criminals of the world. What was once black and white and by the book, no longer applies. The world is filled with myriad shades and perspectives, and in order to conquer evil, one must do what one must. Learning this prompts Pedroni to make a life-altering decision.As for Jax, her once-resolute focus wavers when her driving force, the fire inside her, takes over with violent results. She battles her inner demon in a life-long war, she realises she can't change who she is and what drives her: bad people must be punished. She must make the ultimate decision: destroy the beast within or continue down the destructive path of homicidal abandon.Follow the adventures of Jax and Pedroni from the dark depths of space and sunny tropical islands to the fume-filled streets of major cities.

Forever Just Got Longer...Unable to resist the lure of finding her niece, Josie sifts through the crumbs of clues left behind. With her friend and savior, pod-hunter Quin Aguilar at her side, she seeks out Fern Bettencourt, who is assumed to be sleeping for over a century. When Fern's location is discovered from an unlikely source, Josie seeks out the last link to her past.But will Fern want to be found? Will finding this niece be enough to bury the ghosts that haunt Josie? And can Josie bring herself to destroy her last surviving family in order to save herself? The Eternal Knot, the final chapter in the Lancaster trilogy: Every question answered, every truth revealed. Will Josie finally rest in peace in the new future she lives in?

What Wouldn't You Do To Catch A Criminal?At the end of the 24th Century, Special Inspector Michael Pedroni pursues Jax Marlin, a beautiful and elusive vigilante. It's a wild cat and mouse chase that will take him from Earth to the Bacchus Dome and beyond. Jax Marlin is not your average criminal. She seeks out evil-doers and law-breakers, doling out justice in whatever way she sees fit. But lately, she finds she's been gift-wrapping criminals specially for her favourite copper. Four of the world's leading criminals are lining up to form an alliance. Jax is determined to stop them. Hot on her heels, Inspector Pedroni finds himself questioning the difference, if any, between her justice and his. More than that, he wonders why, when he'd had her in his grasp, he was unable to slap on the restraints and bring her in.

The Guilty Must Pay, But So Will The Innocent. Across the icy, untamed stretches of Neptune's Kuiper Belt sprawl humanity's habitat stations, repurposed generation ships and terraformed moons.From megacity utopias to the Wild West of rundown ghettos, veteran Galactic Judicial Authority (GAJA) retrieval agent, Bis Rose, apprehends nefarious criminals. But when escaped convict Jun Hiro, the heir to the infamous Hiro Syndicate, drops in her lap, her stellar record may be in danger.Bis follows the clues to capture her prey, but instead finds herself on a quest to prove Jun innocent of murder. An impossible task when an unknown force stalks her at every step.

These visions explore the myriad realms where humanity and technology intersect, taking readers to distant futures where human and machine exist in uneasy symbiosis, to worlds both grim and wondrous, where survival depends on getting the upper hand.A woman's passage into a digital afterlife where nothing, not even the self, remains fixed.A hunted hacker in a surveillance-saturated future seeks revenge, only to find he's the one being played.Two stranded cyborg soldiers struggle to hold onto what's left of their humanity.Written by six independent voices in Science Fiction and Speculative Fiction—among them award winners and members of organizations such as SFWA, IASFA, BFA, and SFI—these compelling stories offer glimpses into all-too-plausible realities.