COMING SOON

To be published in 2026

SYNOPSIS:

Rylan is a praesidian, a person neurologically engineered to be the caretaker and security guard of a child from an elite family. Since Rylan’s bonding to his child, Joel, he has no memory of his prior life and never cared about it. After years of service, his world falls apart when Joel passes from terminal illness and Rylan’s mind turns against him. An onset of convulsions, heart palpitations, odd episodes of mutism and intense clinical depression besiege him. He is diagnosed with Syvertsen’s Complex and learns his condition almost always ends in suicide.

Detained at a psychiatric institute, Rylan learns the only other praesidian who survived his illness is Dana Syvertsen, the namesake of his condition. He chooses to leave the safety of the institute in the hope of finding her and getting the answers he needs to survive. He crosses paths with Kirsi, a ward of the state who is the dead opposite of the refined child he raised. Kirsi is brash, impulsive and ready to start a fight anytime, anywhere. She invites herself on Rylan’s quest and pushes him to become more emotionally resilient, but his physical symptoms escalate as his repressed memories begin to surface and trigger increasingly dangerous episodes. Rylan must decode his past and locate Syvertsen in time before his illness overtakes him.