Hive, A Dystopian Time-Travel Thriller: Madders of Time Book One
About this ebook
⭐️ 2026 Independent Press Award WINNER! ⭐️
“Engrossing doomsday thriller spliced with heart, humor, and second chances.”
—Publishers Weekly
Years from now, the last humans hide beneath glass domes. Outside, swarms of microdrones chew through the last defenses of a drowning world. Inside, a dying scientist and her lifelong love ration hope while Madders—a sarcastic, duct-taped AI—keeps the dome breathing.
But time is short. The lights are dimming. Hope is bleeding out. To punch a door into the past, they must shut down everything—including Madders. One jumps. One pays. One is left behind.
Decades earlier, Isabel’s life is in free fall. Just as she gets her footing, a stranger steps into her path. Longing flickers in his eyes—then the landmark hotel behind her erupts in flames. His hand lifts like he means to touch her, then drops. His voice comes out rough. “Run,” he says. “Now.” Her next move changes everything.
Reality frays. Contradictions pile up. Timelines shear. From the far future, Madders watches three lives slam into the same fracture:
• A physicist chasing the ghost of a spacetime bridge.
• A woman whose quiet choices light the fuse.
• A man tethered to her by love, grief, and time itself.
This is the story that begins at the tear—where love and physics collide.
Praise for HIVE, Madders of Time Book One
“Smart, imaginative.”
Kirkus Reviews
“A high-stakes, time-bending thrill ride with brains, heart, and a badass AI.”
Reader’s Choice Award
“Characters that feel real. Emotions that hit hard.”
BookTrib
“Some books entertain you. HIVE devours you.”
G.R. Mitchell, Goodreads
Madders of Time Literary Awards
⭐️ San Francisco Book Festival Winner
⭐️ Eric Hoffer Book Award – Grand Prize Finalist
⭐️ BookLife Prize Finalist
⭐️ Readers’ Favorite Awards Finalist
⭐️ IAN Book of the Year Awards Finalist
⭐️ IndieReader Book Award Finalist
Lyrical and unflinching, HIVE is the first book in the Madders of Time series—an emotional, character-driven sci-fi thriller where time travel isn’t a gimmick. It’s a reckoning.
🐝 Start reading today—before the cracks spread and the ending stops being fiction.
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About the author
DL ORTON is the author of the AWARD-WINNING and BEST-SELLING Between Two Evils book series. Her books have received multiple literary awards, including the BookLife Prize in Fiction, the Indie Book Award, and a Publishers Weekly Starred Review. Ms. Orton is a graduate of Stanford University's Writers Workshop and a past editor of "Top of the Western Staircase," a literary publication of CU, Boulder.
The author lives in the Tropics with her husband, a golden retriever mix, a Siberian cat, and a bazillion geckos. In her spare time, she's building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.
