Pseudocoma

by Alex Austin

Actor Philip Rayne has played a detective on television, but when his friend Niya is wounded in a bizarre attack, he must become one in reality to prevent the assassins from finishing the job. As Philip gets on stage with an ensemble of murderers, Niya relives in her imagination the terror-filled ordeal and heroic actions that made her a target and which now put Philip’s life on the line. Will Niya wake from her pseudocoma to save both their lives?

263 pages, Paperback

Published July 13, 2019

About the author

I was born in New Jersey and grew up on the Jersey Shore, where I spent much of my childhood underwater. My little town on the Raritan Bay, Union Beach, flooded every full moon, but the bay and creeks were my element. I spent many a day six feet beneath the surface trying to extract oxygen from water (Aquaman and I share the secret). After coming up for air, I did a tour in the U.S. Navy (on the water!). That done, I moved to California and attended UCLA, where I got a BA in history, but by then my interests had turned to less academic writing—both fiction and nonfiction. I've written in most forms, but for the last 20 years, I've stuck to novels. My latest, End Man, was published by Cursed Dragon Press and released October 2022. The novel took six years and went through more than 200 complete revisions. It's about our online and data-soaked times, but to make it work I had to set it 10 years in the future. It has very much to do with ChatGPT. When I'm not writing, I'm reading. I live in Los Angeles.


“End Man has echoes of Bladerunner, Max Payne and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Noir vibes, an outnumbered, outgunned hero and an impending sense of paranoia. It sends you into a future with a disturbing vision of how our data could be used.”
—Luke French, Reedsy Discovery

"Alex Austin is a master at building tension, psychological inquiry, and intrigue that tests his protagonist in unexpected ways."--Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review

“Evocative and thought-provoking, End Man by Alex Austin is an extraordinary science-fiction tale that paints a disturbing futuristic picture of a technologically advanced society. ”—Susan Sewell for Readers’ Favorite

"An engrossing and well-crafted SF Tale with timely themes."—Kirkus Reviews Recommended

"Fast and fresh, End Man is a blood-pumping thriller like nothing you’ve experienced before!"
—Indies Today

“End Man is an exciting cyberpunk novel that creates a fully realized and compelling world for a fascinating protagonist to exist in.”—Literary Titan

“This is a well-written and gripping dystopian thriller, thoughtful and complex, that will appeal to sci-fi and mystery fans alike.” –Steph Warren, Bookshine and Readbows.

“I enjoyed this book through and through. . .The characters were one of a kind and the whole plot line impeccably well thought out.”—Victoria Luv
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I'm a Los Angeles-based journalist and teacher (LAUSD). My novel End Man, a speculative mystery published by Cursed Dragon Ship, was released on October, 11, 2022. First sentence: "Death was a good place to hide." Bookish Beyond has published a persuasive review: https://bookishbeyond.com/index.php/2...

I've given several interviews in conjunction with End Man's release. You'll learn of my humble Jersey roots, how End Man emerged from an online epiphany, and why I caution those who contemplate writing novels:

https://heatherlbarksdale.com/author-...

https://twitter.com/_armedwithabook/s...

My novel Nakamura Reality was published by The Permanent Press in February 2016. Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review and called it "powerful and moving. The following are links to some reviews, interviews and published stories:

Publishers Weekly Starred Review of Nakamura Reality http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1...

Better Beta Reads Interview http://betterbetareads.com/bookmarksi...



Night Swim (excerpted from Nakamura Reality)
http://web.archive.org/web/2012090117...

UV30 (excerpted from Nakamura Reality)
http://carte-blanche.org/articles/uv-30/

The Rat (Nominated for Best of the Web 2015)
http://districtlit.com/post/12

Reviews

[Erika Winterlia · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book we follow actor Philip Raines as he tries to piece together what really happened when his friend Niya was shot and left in a pseudocoma.

We get to follow Philip as he tries to maintain a somewhat normal life after what happened while he simultaneously takes his on-screen role as a detective into the real world and searches for Niya’s attacker and the reasons someone wanted to take her life. As for Niya, she’s stuck in her hospital bed and shares the horrifying story of how she ended up in America after escaping an arranged marriage to a much older man.

This book is a little outside of what I usually read, but I do enjoy a good mystery and I think this book had a lot of great twists and turns that comes with a great mystery book. It was interesting and personal and felt real in so many ways. I particularly enjoyed reading about Philip and following his investigation and even though I knew more than he did (since we also get Niya’s backstory) I never felt bored with his journey. It was a joy to read about his discoveries, and there was still plenty of twists for it to stay interesting throughout

When it comes to Niya I actually like her POV better than Philips in the beginning. It’s written in first person which makes it feel very personal, and you instantly feel a connection with her. But after a while it became clear to me that young Niya is put through things that I really didn’t want to read about. Forced marriage is bad as it is, but when the bride to be is a child, my stomach turns, and I just want to throw up and hurt someone. I don’t want to spoil the book too much here, so I’m not going to say more than that I had a really hard time reading Niya’s story and that I really wish that Niya had been made a little older, like at least 16-17. I don't think aging her up would have changed the story, or Niya's experience, but it would still have been just a little easier to read it.

There’s a lot of action in this story, but it’s not particularly fast paced. It’s more of a slow burn here and it might take a while to get from one point to the other, which is also why I think it ends up feeling more genuine. Life isn’t really a fast road that leads you from one point to the other, it’s more of a series of turns and small roads and crossroads and dead ends.

The writing is good with a lot of dialogue that makes the characters come to life, and I find it interesting how much personality we get from the characters from just “hearing” them talk to each other.

If you like mystery, thrillers with characters and story that feel real, then don’t hesitate to pick this up.

[Clark McCann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pseudocoma is an L.A. noir detective story, in the spirit of Raymond Chandler, but in today's multi-ethnic L.A., where the damsel in distress is a young Pakistani girl with a dark past and no shortage of brutal men who want her dead, along with Philip Raines, an aging actor famous for his TV detective who finds himself playing the role for keeps, with her life and his at stake. A real page-turner with a plot that takes you on a byzantine, unsettling journey.

[Amy Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Premise

Austin pens a thrilling story in Pseudocoma. This is the first work of Austin's that I've read, and I really enjoyed this story. The flow of the story fits the story, and there is a vast connection between the characters, even Niya, in her pseudocoma. The story is filled with suspense and action, that takes the characters into interesting directions. I was a bit surprised by the ending, and that's what I like about a good story. I look forward to reading more by this author.