Alex Austin's Blog - Posts Tagged "artificial-intelligence"
An Agent for End Man
Lotus Lane Literary will represent End Man (now titled The Machine in the Ghost). It just happened, Initially, the agent liked the concept and the opening chapters but she wasn’t sold on the remainder. I did a major revise of the novel for her before she offered to represent. This novel has been a struggle (many doubters and rejections, but some great feedback along the way) but I’m glad I kept at it. Lotus has high hopes.
Premise
Afflicted with dromophobia, the fear of crossing streets, 26-year-old Raphael Lennon must live out his life in the one square mile that surrounds his Los Angeles home. Fortunately, the area provides everything an artistically sensitive person needs, including a job at Norval, an oddball company that tracks and markets the online remains of the deceased. Raphael's specialty is unearthing "possums," people faking their deaths. His new assignment is Jason Klaes, an allegedly dead physicist who is perhaps creating afterlives for the Internet-era deceased based on their social media content. Raphael must break out of his phobic prison to solve the Klaes Case and thwart his company's entry into a chilling spin-off of its product.
Premise
Afflicted with dromophobia, the fear of crossing streets, 26-year-old Raphael Lennon must live out his life in the one square mile that surrounds his Los Angeles home. Fortunately, the area provides everything an artistically sensitive person needs, including a job at Norval, an oddball company that tracks and markets the online remains of the deceased. Raphael's specialty is unearthing "possums," people faking their deaths. His new assignment is Jason Klaes, an allegedly dead physicist who is perhaps creating afterlives for the Internet-era deceased based on their social media content. Raphael must break out of his phobic prison to solve the Klaes Case and thwart his company's entry into a chilling spin-off of its product.
New Kindle Vella Platform
I've posted the first five chapters of End Man on the new Kindle Vella platform. Please check them out.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/e...
Because Vella isn't available outside the U.S., I've also posted the chapters on Wattpad
https://www.wattpad.com/story/2778564...
Kirkus Review of End Man
In this debut SF novel, a detective who investigates faked deaths finds himself on the trail of a man who might change his life.
Raphael Lennon is an End Man: an employee of the Norval Department of Marketing Necrology, whose business is to hoard the online personal data of the recently deceased and sell it to the highest bidder. He’s also a struggling artist with a fear of crossing streets, which confines him to living within one square mile of Los Angeles. Raphael specifically works as a so-called “possum specialist,” tasked with rooting out those people who have faked their own deaths in an attempt to disappear. His current case is physicist Jason Klaes, whose accounts have been active even after he was recently declared dead. But why would Klaes fake his death? (“The usual alarms hadn’t sounded: no darknet sites, no online queries about disappearing from society, no underage girlfriends or boyfriends, no cryptocurrency plays or big insurance policies.”) Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the case is why Raphael’s boss, infamous CEO Geo Maglio, wants Klaes investigated so badly. Raphael follows the clues, and before long he comes across a conspiracy involving new technologies, dangerous parties, and secrets linked to his own family. Raphael soon learns that when you pry too deeply into the business of the dead, sometimes you end up joining them. Austin’s prose is urgent and colorful, painting a dystopian world at once alien and familiar: “A mile above the museum, a weather drone circled, prepared to alter the weather if the dense, white clouds darkened. Even from a distance the machine appeared huge and menacing, as if designed for warfare.” The premise is highly imaginative, and the author brings it to life with a group of colorful and well-drawn characters. Raphael in particular has a complex interior life that will pull readers into his mission. For all the cyberpunk elements, the novel is ultimately a contemporary parable about people’s increasingly online lives and the extent to which they have become products to be bought and sold without much consideration or consent. An engrossing and well-crafted SF tale with timely themes.
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/e...
Because Vella isn't available outside the U.S., I've also posted the chapters on Wattpad
https://www.wattpad.com/story/2778564...
Kirkus Review of End Man
In this debut SF novel, a detective who investigates faked deaths finds himself on the trail of a man who might change his life.
Raphael Lennon is an End Man: an employee of the Norval Department of Marketing Necrology, whose business is to hoard the online personal data of the recently deceased and sell it to the highest bidder. He’s also a struggling artist with a fear of crossing streets, which confines him to living within one square mile of Los Angeles. Raphael specifically works as a so-called “possum specialist,” tasked with rooting out those people who have faked their own deaths in an attempt to disappear. His current case is physicist Jason Klaes, whose accounts have been active even after he was recently declared dead. But why would Klaes fake his death? (“The usual alarms hadn’t sounded: no darknet sites, no online queries about disappearing from society, no underage girlfriends or boyfriends, no cryptocurrency plays or big insurance policies.”) Perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the case is why Raphael’s boss, infamous CEO Geo Maglio, wants Klaes investigated so badly. Raphael follows the clues, and before long he comes across a conspiracy involving new technologies, dangerous parties, and secrets linked to his own family. Raphael soon learns that when you pry too deeply into the business of the dead, sometimes you end up joining them. Austin’s prose is urgent and colorful, painting a dystopian world at once alien and familiar: “A mile above the museum, a weather drone circled, prepared to alter the weather if the dense, white clouds darkened. Even from a distance the machine appeared huge and menacing, as if designed for warfare.” The premise is highly imaginative, and the author brings it to life with a group of colorful and well-drawn characters. Raphael in particular has a complex interior life that will pull readers into his mission. For all the cyberpunk elements, the novel is ultimately a contemporary parable about people’s increasingly online lives and the extent to which they have become products to be bought and sold without much consideration or consent. An engrossing and well-crafted SF tale with timely themes.
Deep Dive Into End Man
Please check out this review of my new novel End Man on Bookish Beyond, a well-respected British blog.
https://bookishbeyond.com/index.php/2...
Thanks,
Alex
https://bookishbeyond.com/index.php/2...
Thanks,
Alex
