Mongrel

Tardi Malko is a 22nd century Byron Bay truck-jockey. For his second job, he surfs for a never happy Virtual Surfing outfit. His ex-girlfriend refuses to accept they aren't a couple anymore and secretly signs him up for a job with her, and his brought-back-to-life brother wants to stay dead next time his CPU freezes.

When Tardi is infected with a sentient alien substance by falling against some coral, the Moogerah Monster comes alive in his mind. This alien, wanting to escape its prison in Brisbane, picks Tardi for its waterman.

Tardi begins his resistance by intending to stay himself. Quite soon he needs to work on how he will stay human. The Monster's control over him increases. Then the Stormies, a mysterious underclass, claim Tardi as their own. Tamer, they call him. Will they help or hinder his quest to find a cure?

As events unfold, Tardi Malko becomes a mongrelised cross between human, Stormy-kind and the alien infections he carries. Mongrel, Book 1 of the Doomed? Series, of about 105,000 words, tells of the beginnings of his trials.