Mike Middleton 
The Edge of Time 

Kate and Luke who run a roadhouse in remote Central Australia are finding it hard to attract staff when a stranger turns up. Knowing little more than his name, and the fact that he is physically strong, they employ Thomas as a casual worker to help with cleaning, gardening and serving in the store. While Thomas does the work well, Kate finds him enigmatic. He is good with numbers, but poor with spelling. His knowledge is limited but he learns quickly. He seems nave but asks deep questions.
On the other side of the world, in Saint Petersburg, Russian ex-cosmonaut and university lecturer Viktor Kamensky is challenged by Toby, one of his overseas students to break out of the reclusive life he had been living since the death of his wife and unborn child eight years earlier. With Tobys encouragement, he attends a reunion in Prague and agrees to speak at a summer conference in Hobart, Tasmania.
Meanwhile, Kates daughter Ruth comes home on university vacation, meets Thomas and develops a friendship with him. She encourages him to spread his wings and share his ideas more widely. Thomas scans the Internet for conferences and finds an early photograph of Viktor Kamensky whose appearance is almost identical with his own. This catches him off guard and he tells Ruth that he is a clone of Viktor, grown on another planet, and on a mission to Earth. Ruth is distressed. Has she fallen in love with a man who is mentally ill? She devises a plan to prove to Thomas that his similarity to Viktor Kamensky is coincidental, and that he must learn to overcome his delusional tendencies.
Ruth travels with Thomas to Hobart. They meet Viktor Kamensky and a critical set of challenges emerge, challenges that have the potential to change the way humans live their life on planet Earth.

About the author

Growing up in Tasmania, Mike Middleton worked first as a geophysicist in the Savage River wilderness of western Tasmania. He then chose a career change, working as a teacher and school principal in Tasmania and South Australia. He later lectured in a Queensland university where he also chaired that state’s Ministerial Consultative Council on Curriculum. As an educational consultant he has worked in New Zealand, Hong Kong, the UK and all Australian states. During his career, Mike made many educational science programs for ABCTV. He also served on the Board of the Australian Children’s Television Foundation. He has written widely in professional journals and has written several non-fiction books. The Edge of Time is his first novel.