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Prison of Souls
High resolution surveillance footage clearly showed Joshua Briar walking onto the campus of Walton University in broad daylight and shooting neuroscience professor Edward McSorley.
The bullet ricocheted off a metal plate in McSorley’s head and struck an innocent college girl, killing her instantly.
The pundits called it the strangest murder ever recorded. The prosecutor called it an open and shut case. They were both right.
The only problem? Joshua was innocent.
Now, three years into his life sentence, Joshua experiences a powerful occipital-lobe seizure—wild hallucinations flash before his eyes, visions of McSorley conducting strange, frightening medical experiments on him.
McSorley vanishes from Walton University, and a strange new corrections officer named Slaven confronts Joshua with questions: Did you merge with the pivot? Are you working with the enemy?
A vast conspiracy has followed Joshua into prison, and soon he can’t tell the difference between his nightmares and reality.
FROM THE EDITOR
Fans of Wayward Pines take note: you'll want to check this one out.
Haunting and surreal on one page, achingly wistful on the next, Prison of Souls is a powerful debut by Xander Gray. As Joshua Briar's trip down the rabbit hole stretches deeper, he reaches the places where science and spirit intersect. The narrative's questions are suspenseful and introspective by turns, including everything from "What is going on?" to "What does it mean to be human?"
Fascinating, harrowing, and thought-provoking, Prison of Souls is the sci-fi thriller you've been looking for.
- Adam J. Nicolai, Editor
The bullet ricocheted off a metal plate in McSorley’s head and struck an innocent college girl, killing her instantly.
The pundits called it the strangest murder ever recorded. The prosecutor called it an open and shut case. They were both right.
The only problem? Joshua was innocent.
Now, three years into his life sentence, Joshua experiences a powerful occipital-lobe seizure—wild hallucinations flash before his eyes, visions of McSorley conducting strange, frightening medical experiments on him.
McSorley vanishes from Walton University, and a strange new corrections officer named Slaven confronts Joshua with questions: Did you merge with the pivot? Are you working with the enemy?
A vast conspiracy has followed Joshua into prison, and soon he can’t tell the difference between his nightmares and reality.
FROM THE EDITOR
Fans of Wayward Pines take note: you'll want to check this one out.
Haunting and surreal on one page, achingly wistful on the next, Prison of Souls is a powerful debut by Xander Gray. As Joshua Briar's trip down the rabbit hole stretches deeper, he reaches the places where science and spirit intersect. The narrative's questions are suspenseful and introspective by turns, including everything from "What is going on?" to "What does it mean to be human?"
Fascinating, harrowing, and thought-provoking, Prison of Souls is the sci-fi thriller you've been looking for.
- Adam J. Nicolai, Editor
260 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2015
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992 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
November 30, 2015
Good Premise. Nice Idea, thought out well.
September 7, 2016
“Any life imposed by another is a prison of soul.”
Thank you Xander Gray for the Review Copy of your fantastic book.
This book is something else.
Man was this something else.
This was just the right book to quench my thirst for science fic.
The story revolves around a quantum physicist, Joshua Briar who is (apparently) framed for a murder he did not commit and while doing his time in prison he has to face strange scenarios and it isn’t until cryptic letters from a benefactor arrives at his lawyer’s doorstep that he realizes whatever is happening takes roots deep in his childhood.
A well-crafted and clever debutante from Xandar Gray, Prison of Souls makes chills run down your spine while your eyebrows hit the hairline and it makes you go, “What did I just read?”
After reading every book, I always put up this question to myself about whether I would like to be the protagonist of the book. But the answer to this one? Hell No.
I do have lists called ‘Protagonists I’d Want To Be’ and another called ‘I’d Rather Pass’. Joshua Briar is on the top of the ‘I’d Rather Pass’ list. Because. Phew. I cannot even imagine what all he had to go through: unable to distinguish if it’s reality or a hallucination, not to be in control, the disorientation…
Gah.
Worse than extreme schizophrenia.
This book had everything, just the right amount of Science fic and just the right amount of action and I would go as far as to say, this book should be turned into a movie.
The only problem I had was, there were no incidents or even dialogues that would signify the fact that Joshua Briar was a physicist, if nothing else he should’ve been shown doing something related to his profession. There was nothing that would agree to the fact that he was a quantum physicist.
Other than that, it was very well-written for a debut and I would definitely recommend it to the sci-fi lovers out there and would love to read more from this author.
August 15, 2016
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This is an intriguing cross-genre mix: part prison story, part mystery, part horror, part psychological thriller with a dollop of invasion of the body snatchers.
It took a little while to get used to the writing style, as it seemed very confusing at first - until I realised that that was the point. For the first third or so of the book, the trick is figuring out what's real, what's hallucination and what's virtual reality, underpinned by the question of what actually happened to the Helena Isaacson, whose murder the PoV character is imprisoned for.
Once we start being introduced to the underlying story, it gets closer to more standard SF, with a different take on a worldwide conspiracy theory. The author has come up with some interesting ideas, including a slightly version of uploading consciousness, and the possible reasons for doing it (although I'll admit I'm not entirely sure the 'science' of it is convincing).
All in all, I liked the book (three out of four stars on my personal ranking system), which seems to offer an original take on various themes, and ultimately this leads to a discussion of what really makes 'self', and whether people are ever justified in doing bad things for good reasons.
This is an intriguing cross-genre mix: part prison story, part mystery, part horror, part psychological thriller with a dollop of invasion of the body snatchers.
It took a little while to get used to the writing style, as it seemed very confusing at first - until I realised that that was the point. For the first third or so of the book, the trick is figuring out what's real, what's hallucination and what's virtual reality, underpinned by the question of what actually happened to the Helena Isaacson, whose murder the PoV character is imprisoned for.
Once we start being introduced to the underlying story, it gets closer to more standard SF, with a different take on a worldwide conspiracy theory. The author has come up with some interesting ideas, including a slightly version of uploading consciousness, and the possible reasons for doing it (although I'll admit I'm not entirely sure the 'science' of it is convincing).
All in all, I liked the book (three out of four stars on my personal ranking system), which seems to offer an original take on various themes, and ultimately this leads to a discussion of what really makes 'self', and whether people are ever justified in doing bad things for good reasons.
October 31, 2015
Once I picked this up, I couldn't put it down. I don't want to give anything away, but this book will draw you into the characters' mysterious pasts and presents and keep you turning the page until the last one!
December 1, 2015
Stephen Hawking, Ray Kurzweil, Randal Koene: all these scientists believe, to differing degrees, that it may (or will) be possible to upload the human mind to a computer. And what then?
One answer – one terrifying and convincing answer – to that question is the central premise of Xander Gray's complex and intricate science-fiction novel Prison of Souls. Based on cutting-edge actual and theoretical research in quantum physics and mind uploading, Prison of Souls challenged me to believe the science and its implications, and yet at the same time proposed a logical and frightening outcome. This duality – fitting for a novel based on quantum research - kept me turning pages long after I should have put the book down and gone to sleep.
Prison of Souls received top rankings in all the categories I use to review books. Gray writes very well: his prose flows naturally, and his skill in describing everyday scenes, and contrasting them with the unreality of what is happening to the protagonist adds to the sense that what is real in this book is fractured and fluid, not conforming to commonly accepted versions of reality, like the particle/wave duality of light.
If I have one reservation about Prison of Souls, it is that the science is complex and difficult, but Gray uses dialogue to explain it in ways that make it reasonably comprehensible. The moral questions raised in Prison of Souls are real ones, and if Koene and Kurzweil are right in their belief that the uploading of human minds to computer networks will occur in the lifetimes of those who are now under fifty, then they are moral questions for which we currently have no answers, and have barely begun to consider.
I'm giving Prison of Souls five stars; it's an outstanding debut novel. Available from Amazon.
Review by Goodreads Author Marian Thorpe Empire's Daughter
The author provided me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review. The opinions stated here are mine alone.
One answer – one terrifying and convincing answer – to that question is the central premise of Xander Gray's complex and intricate science-fiction novel Prison of Souls. Based on cutting-edge actual and theoretical research in quantum physics and mind uploading, Prison of Souls challenged me to believe the science and its implications, and yet at the same time proposed a logical and frightening outcome. This duality – fitting for a novel based on quantum research - kept me turning pages long after I should have put the book down and gone to sleep.
Prison of Souls received top rankings in all the categories I use to review books. Gray writes very well: his prose flows naturally, and his skill in describing everyday scenes, and contrasting them with the unreality of what is happening to the protagonist adds to the sense that what is real in this book is fractured and fluid, not conforming to commonly accepted versions of reality, like the particle/wave duality of light.
If I have one reservation about Prison of Souls, it is that the science is complex and difficult, but Gray uses dialogue to explain it in ways that make it reasonably comprehensible. The moral questions raised in Prison of Souls are real ones, and if Koene and Kurzweil are right in their belief that the uploading of human minds to computer networks will occur in the lifetimes of those who are now under fifty, then they are moral questions for which we currently have no answers, and have barely begun to consider.
I'm giving Prison of Souls five stars; it's an outstanding debut novel. Available from Amazon.
Review by Goodreads Author Marian Thorpe Empire's Daughter
The author provided me with a copy of this book in return for an honest review. The opinions stated here are mine alone.
June 5, 2016
Loved this book!
Prison of Souls by Xander Gray starts out by quickly grabbing your attention, our hero Joshua Briar in the thralls of a form of epileptic seizure. A lifetime of seizures and strange memory gaps continue to haunt him as he wakes up in prison, convicted of a murder he has no recollection of committing and no idea why he’d even be framed for it.
Joshua’s attorney wife has received strange information about science experiments conducted years ago on a group of children, including Joshua, and works from the outside to figure out how this is tied to her husband’s murder conviction, hoping to get a new trial. In the meantime, Joshua learns things inside the prison aren’t quite right as prisoners start disappearing, guards have purple eyes, and strange dreams start to feel like long lost memories.
This story has a good mix of science and time travel, mystery and suspense. The hero is likeable and I particularly liked his strong willed and unflappable wife. Xander did a great job explaining the brain and time travel science in bite size chunks while the story unfolded, and the mystery and suspense kept you guessing and wanting to keep turning the pages. 5 stars!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Prison of Souls by Xander Gray starts out by quickly grabbing your attention, our hero Joshua Briar in the thralls of a form of epileptic seizure. A lifetime of seizures and strange memory gaps continue to haunt him as he wakes up in prison, convicted of a murder he has no recollection of committing and no idea why he’d even be framed for it.
Joshua’s attorney wife has received strange information about science experiments conducted years ago on a group of children, including Joshua, and works from the outside to figure out how this is tied to her husband’s murder conviction, hoping to get a new trial. In the meantime, Joshua learns things inside the prison aren’t quite right as prisoners start disappearing, guards have purple eyes, and strange dreams start to feel like long lost memories.
This story has a good mix of science and time travel, mystery and suspense. The hero is likeable and I particularly liked his strong willed and unflappable wife. Xander did a great job explaining the brain and time travel science in bite size chunks while the story unfolded, and the mystery and suspense kept you guessing and wanting to keep turning the pages. 5 stars!
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
January 10, 2026
Bloody good read.
It had me on the edge of my seat for the duration, metaphorically at least, I was actually lying down because it was the middle of the night. Solid characters and a fascinating, quite intriguing premise that was deftly written.
Drat, stumbled upon another author whose books I’m now compelled to read because apparently my TBR pile is trying to attain the comparable size of Olympus Mons!
It had me on the edge of my seat for the duration, metaphorically at least, I was actually lying down because it was the middle of the night. Solid characters and a fascinating, quite intriguing premise that was deftly written.
Drat, stumbled upon another author whose books I’m now compelled to read because apparently my TBR pile is trying to attain the comparable size of Olympus Mons!
December 1, 2016
very good
July 13, 2016
[This review originally posted on my blog, www.Jill-Elizabeth.com.]
My review copy was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Xander Grey’s novel is a self-described science-fiction thriller. That it definitely is. It’s also at times a surprisingly thoughtful exegesis on mortality and the self, with a healthy dose of brain-as-hardware-and-software philosophy thrown in for good measure. I loved the opening – the scatter-shot setup was intriguing and grabbed me right from the opening paragraphs. As the story developed, I got sucked further in, trying to figure out what exactly was going on – I love love love when a book does that, keeps me guessing. As long as the guessing is managed, that is – and at times, this one felt a bit like a runaway train… It never got so far ahead of me that I couldn’t keep up, but it did at times feel like there were so many storylines running on so many timelines that I wasn’t entirely sure where the author was trying to take me. It tied up at the end (a little handily, but that’s a comment not a complaint), but some of the ride was a bit bumpier than I expected (again, comment not complaint). That’s not a bad thing per se – there’s nothing worse than a predictable novel, and this was anything but…
There is a lot of original food for thought in this storyline, and that’s not something you can say all that often in this genre. Kudos to Grey for that. Quantum theory is de rigeur for sci-fi these days, and as a result some of it starts feeling stale even when it’s new ground being covered, simply by virtue of the overplay. I didn’t feel that here. The story was unusual, and played out unusually. I liked that about it, a lot. It is what kept me trying to figure things out when they seemed to be playing out in multiple directions simultaneously (or what I thought was simultaneously – and yes, that’s a deliberately vague comment so as not to run into spoiler territory). Then again, maybe my problem was that I kept trying to layer traditional storytelling narrative techniques onto this one to keep things straight in my head – this is a decidedly non-linear ride (again with the vague…) and once I realized that I had a much easier time with the flow. So keep that in the back of your mind, and you’ll be fine… All in all Prison of Souls offers a very intriguing trip down Joshua Briar’s memory lane – there are more secrets than one man has any right to lay claim to, and their unveiling is worth the ride!
My review copy was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Xander Grey’s novel is a self-described science-fiction thriller. That it definitely is. It’s also at times a surprisingly thoughtful exegesis on mortality and the self, with a healthy dose of brain-as-hardware-and-software philosophy thrown in for good measure. I loved the opening – the scatter-shot setup was intriguing and grabbed me right from the opening paragraphs. As the story developed, I got sucked further in, trying to figure out what exactly was going on – I love love love when a book does that, keeps me guessing. As long as the guessing is managed, that is – and at times, this one felt a bit like a runaway train… It never got so far ahead of me that I couldn’t keep up, but it did at times feel like there were so many storylines running on so many timelines that I wasn’t entirely sure where the author was trying to take me. It tied up at the end (a little handily, but that’s a comment not a complaint), but some of the ride was a bit bumpier than I expected (again, comment not complaint). That’s not a bad thing per se – there’s nothing worse than a predictable novel, and this was anything but…
There is a lot of original food for thought in this storyline, and that’s not something you can say all that often in this genre. Kudos to Grey for that. Quantum theory is de rigeur for sci-fi these days, and as a result some of it starts feeling stale even when it’s new ground being covered, simply by virtue of the overplay. I didn’t feel that here. The story was unusual, and played out unusually. I liked that about it, a lot. It is what kept me trying to figure things out when they seemed to be playing out in multiple directions simultaneously (or what I thought was simultaneously – and yes, that’s a deliberately vague comment so as not to run into spoiler territory). Then again, maybe my problem was that I kept trying to layer traditional storytelling narrative techniques onto this one to keep things straight in my head – this is a decidedly non-linear ride (again with the vague…) and once I realized that I had a much easier time with the flow. So keep that in the back of your mind, and you’ll be fine… All in all Prison of Souls offers a very intriguing trip down Joshua Briar’s memory lane – there are more secrets than one man has any right to lay claim to, and their unveiling is worth the ride!
June 8, 2016
MIND BLOWING...
The beginning of the book was confusing; I almost gave up and put the book down. Don't do it! It is so worth pushing though all the crazy delusions of a broken mind to get to the real story.
Joshua's in prison for a murder he doesn't remember committing but this isn't the first time there have been missing moments in his life. Plus, there is overwhelming evidence against him. His wife just won't give up though and she has started investigating mysteries surrounding his childhood and the possibility that he was experimented on.
Will she be able to get him another trial and will it even matter when they figure out what was really going on in those moments of time he couldn't remember while growing up?
**************
Spoiler Alert!
**************
I will say that after reading this book I decided to look up theories on time and relativity. It sparked quite an interest.
The beginning of the book was confusing; I almost gave up and put the book down. Don't do it! It is so worth pushing though all the crazy delusions of a broken mind to get to the real story.
Joshua's in prison for a murder he doesn't remember committing but this isn't the first time there have been missing moments in his life. Plus, there is overwhelming evidence against him. His wife just won't give up though and she has started investigating mysteries surrounding his childhood and the possibility that he was experimented on.
Will she be able to get him another trial and will it even matter when they figure out what was really going on in those moments of time he couldn't remember while growing up?
**************
Spoiler Alert!
**************
I will say that after reading this book I decided to look up theories on time and relativity. It sparked quite an interest.
June 29, 2016
I'm writing this quite a while afterward, so I don't remember many of the details for why I said it was average, but I do remember not caring that much for the main character, and as a result didn't find myself particularly invested. It was a clever idea, but time travel can be kind tricky (both writing about it and doing it).
...maybe once we achieve time travel it will be easier to understand books about the subject. Until then, I consider myself a non-fan in general.
...maybe once we achieve time travel it will be easier to understand books about the subject. Until then, I consider myself a non-fan in general.
December 15, 2016
A very interesting read.
Initially it was difficult to follow what was happening but once things started settling, it became more clear.
The story revolves around Joshua who has been experimented with and now has some weird things happening to him. The idea of human consciousness and time travel give a pretty confusing but very interesting storyline.
Would recommend it to any Sci-fi fans.
Initially it was difficult to follow what was happening but once things started settling, it became more clear.
The story revolves around Joshua who has been experimented with and now has some weird things happening to him. The idea of human consciousness and time travel give a pretty confusing but very interesting storyline.
Would recommend it to any Sci-fi fans.
December 15, 2016
Perfect for Sci fi fans
A very interesting read.
Initially it was difficult to follow what was happening but once things started settling, it became more clear.
The story revolves around Joshua who has been experimented with and now has some weird things happening to him. The idea of human consciousness and time travel give a pretty confusing but very interesting storyline.
A very interesting read.
Initially it was difficult to follow what was happening but once things started settling, it became more clear.
The story revolves around Joshua who has been experimented with and now has some weird things happening to him. The idea of human consciousness and time travel give a pretty confusing but very interesting storyline.
August 23, 2016
Good read - very exciting - I had a hard time putting it down
-I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good thriller which is hard to find now a days -
-I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good thriller which is hard to find now a days -
September 20, 2016
A good sci-fi thriller
The beginning is a little weird but stick with it. A great sci-fi thriller that makes you really think if everything is up to chance or already pre planned.
The beginning is a little weird but stick with it. A great sci-fi thriller that makes you really think if everything is up to chance or already pre planned.
June 6, 2016
Think X-files, Twilight Zone and Quantum Leap. Great book. Read it!
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews