Hive (Madders of Time #1) by D.L. Orton
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Book Info
Genre: Science Fiction
Age Category: Adult
Number of Pages: 350 Pages
Publication Date: May 6, 2025
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/222567665-hive
Storygraph: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/92ec58c7-fbb5-45cf-b7ab-23c42ea9f4e9
Amazon: https://a.co/d/bnN8PN1 (Canada) https://a.co/d/7AiywJA (USA) https://amzn.eu/d/1P5EFIe (UK)
Blurb
What if saving the future meant rewriting the past?
In a dying world overrun by microdrones, humanity’s last survivors cling to life inside the Eden-17 biodome. Isabelle Sanborn knows her time is running out, but one desperate plan might give humanity a second chance. With the help of Madders, an enigmatic AI built from the memories of a brilliant physicist, Isabelle sends Diego Nadales—the love of her life—35 years into the past. His mission? To change the course of history and prevent their world’s collapse.
When Diego arrives in the vibrant yet fragile Main Timeline, he’s forced to confront ghosts of the past, including a younger, ambitious version of Isabelle. As he battles to shape a better future, Diego must navigate a delicate web of relationships and events without destroying the very fabric of time.
Brimming with suspense, heart-pounding action, and a poignant love story that transcends time, Madders of Time – Book One is a breathtaking science fiction adventure. Award-winning author DL Orton weaves a tale that explores sacrifice, resilience, and the timeless power of love.
Fans of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Dark Matter will find themselves captivated by this unforgettable journey through parallel worlds and intertwining destinies.
The clock is ticking. Can love survive the collapse of time itself?
Prepare to lose yourself in the first installment of the Madders of Time series—a story that will keep you turning pages and leave you hungry for more.
Isabel, Diego, and Matt intrigued me as protagonists from the beginning of this novel until its last page.
The book opens with aged, dying Isabel and an also aged but healthier Diego who have been living alone in a collapsing biodome for years. The only other person in the dome, and on Earth as a whole, is dead. The two only have an AI version of an old physicist friend to keep them company, and the power in the dome will run out soon. Humanity’s last hope is that Diego goes back in time to try to change the path of the tragedies that led to them being the only two humans left alive. He has to leave Isabel to die alone, but hopefully his actions will change the timeline so they never end up in the collapsing dome in the first place. Diego and Isabel truly loved one another, but they had to try to find a better future for all of humanity.
Present-day Isabel is a scientist who created artificial bees to help repollinate the world. Now, she’s divorcing her husband, Dave. Making the divorce even messier is the fact that Dave owns the company that produces her artificial bees. Where did it all go wrong? Why didn’t she marry the true love of her life, Diego, 15 years ago? Suddenly, Diego shows back up in her life. He claims he received mysterious instructions, including instructions on how to come back into Isabel’s life. Isabel also received these instructions, but also received a separate set of instructions on “stopping Dave.”They both try to decipher what the mysterious messages from the mysterious person mean, while increasingly concerning and random events happen around them. Seeing them rekindle their old love was heartwarming, and I rooted for them the whole time.
This book is a masterclass in time-travel science fiction. I was drawn in from the start, seeing the hopeless state of Future Isabel and Diego, and then walking through a (hopefully different) version of that past timeline with their present-day characters. I only wish I had a little more time with past Isabel and Diego to get a stronger view of their original timeline. I wanted to know if time-traveling Diego’s changes are having any direct impact on the present timeline, but I didn’t have many specific events to compare. Is the past able to be substantially changed when it comes to the end of humanity? Or, will the past, when interfered with, change itself?
The secondary story is learning more about the scientist who eventually becomes the AI voice guiding Diego and Isabel in the doomed future. The physicist Matt saw a UFO with his brilliant niece, but the government didn’t take him seriously. Matt is a bit of an eccentric scientist, but he truly cares for his niece, whom he raised after her family died in a tragic accident. Everything he does is to try to provide her with a stable, loving home and a hopeful future. I loved every chapter with him in it, and can’t wait to learn more about how his brilliant mind can help further future Diego’s plans to save humanity.
I heavily disagreed with some of the choices Isabel and Diego made close to the end of the book, but I won’t get into that for spoiler reasons! Look out for my review of book two, once it comes out, and I will definitely get further into analyzing those particular choices. This ended up dimming my enjoyment of the story a bit, but I am looking forward to seeing how/if things will change in the next series installment.
I would recommend Hive by D.L. Orton to anyone looking for an in-depth science fiction series with strong characters, a unique premise, and a promising next installment.
I received a copy of this book, and this is my voluntary review.
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 books.
About the Author
The BEST-SELLING AUTHOR, D. L. ORTON, lives in the foothills of Colorado where she and her husband are raising three boys, a golden retriever, two Siberian cats, and an extremely long-lived Triops. Her future plans include completing the books in the BETWEEN TWO EVILS series followed by an extended vacation on a remote tropical island (with a Starbucks).
When she’s not writing, playing tennis, or helping with algebra, she’s building a time machine so that someone can go back and do the laundry.
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 has a number of short stories published in online literary magazines, including Literotica.com, Melusine, Cosmoetica, The Ranfurly Review, and Catalyst Press.
Her debut novel, CROSSING IN TIME, has won numerous literary awards including an Indie Book Award and a Publishers Weekly Starred Review. It was also selected as one of only 12 Great Indie Stars by BookLife’s Prize in Fiction.
Wow—thank you for this deeply thoughtful and beautifully written review.
You dove into the heart of HIVE and surfaced with the exact emotional and ethical dilemmas I hoped readers would wrestle with: How far would you go to rewrite your own story? And at what cost?
I’m especially glad you connected with Matt. He’s the quiet engine behind so much of what unfolds, and yes—his mind is brilliant, but it’s his heart that drives him. There’s more to uncover about him in Book 2 (and 3), and I can’t wait to hear your take.
I respect that you didn’t agree with some of Isabel and Diego’s choices—that push-pull of hope and heartbreak is the tightrope they walk. It means the world that you stayed with them to the end and are still curious about what comes next. Because yes, the clock is ticking, the stakes are rising, and some timelines refuse to stay buried.
Looking forward to continuing this conversation in the multiverse. And thank you again for sharing your time and insight with the book—and with me.