Time Bandits (ePub)

It's the early days in an Age of Abundance, just decades into the future. Consciousness continues to co-evolve with the self-empowerment technologies that give humans almost supernatural powers.

Still, some would use these gifts to give free rein to their evil. One such psychopath and his cybernetic creation, a nine-year old girl, are out to save humanity from itself. Clyde Barker is convinced that self-empowerment and self-directed evolution are affronts to God. One might think that even a genius in fashioning human upgrades and a cybernetic little girl with a four-digit IQ would be easily neutralized in an Age of Abundance.

One would be wrong.

You see, his little girl has a rather unique skill. One might say a special power. With her help, Clyde can pop in and out of timelines at will, steering them in the direction he wants without anyone being any the wiser.

Of course, nothing comes easy, not even to a clever, highly-manipulative psychopath.

Kendra Harding is the detective heading up the hunt for Clyde Barker. Her on-again, off-again lover and partner in crime, Torin Zealton, is both the coroner and a highly-prized psychic. Getting into her mind uninvited as a matter of habit has all but destroyed their relationship. But getting into Clyde's mind might just save the world.

The four timelines explored, in which Kendra and Torin chase down Clyde Barker and his cybernetic creation, give us four different takes on a near-future Age of Abundance, each more glorious and fantastic than the last.

Seeing the romance between the wisecracking protagonist paramours, replete with its ups and downs, evolve across four different timelines, moreover, lends the love they share an epic, eternal quality; one that might survive Clyde Barker, even if nothing else does.

NOTE: CONCEIVED IN THE SPIRIT OF IAIN M. BANKS' CULTURE SERIES, THE NOVELS IN THE AGE OF ABUNDANCE SERIES, LIKEWISE, ARE STAND-ALONE BOOKS THAT CAN BE READ IN ANY ORDER. THEY FEATURE DIFFERENT CASTS OF CHARACTERS. THE AGE OF ABUNDANCE IN WHICH THE STORIES ARE SET SPANS FROM THE NEAR FUTURE TO THE FAR FUTURE. IN THE EVENT ANY OF THE AGE OF ABUNDANCE NOVELS ARE SERIALIZED, THEN THE SAME CAST WOULD PREVAIL. I.E. TIME BANDITS 2.