Daemones Ex Machina
Demonic deals have dire consequences for a hardened community in the exciting futuristic novel Daemones Ex Machina.
In Russell Anders’s thrilling science fiction novel Daemones Ex Machina, three corporate operatives make an insidious deal after a mission goes haywire.
In the distant future, Jon, Friedy, and Guion work for AWE, a major weapons manufacturing corporation. After a supposed mission to sabotage a competitor ends in their near deaths, imprisonment, and narrow escape, they are propositioned by a demon to make a deal and evade capture. Jon bargains for complete invisibility; Friedy to become an apex predator; and Guion for a professional, a doctor, and a companion in his mind.
Even with these gifts, the three are left to hide out in the Hives, the destitute shell of former Manhattan, among a hardened community, facing threats of gang violence and a serial killer who brutalizes women. As more information is revealed about AWE and its plans, the deals that Jon, Friedy, and Guion made begin to have more dire, pernicious consequences for them and for the Hives’ communities.
Active from the first chapter onward, the narrative shifts between the perspectives of Jon, Friedy, and Guion with speed, revealing the consequences of each of their demon deals in candid, often grisly detail. Meanwhile, the Hive community and the relationships the three form are captured via snapshots of the futuristic landscape, where human limbs are replaced with machinery, people are scanned for their optics and backgrounds, and virtual intelligence and technology permeate society. In this setting, human beings can give themselves physical and mental boosts to manipulate their DNA, corporations have the ability to create militarized states through propaganda, and classism reigns. Innocent civilians and community members are often victimized in this brutal setting.
While the worldbuilding sometimes takes time to unpack, it is on the whole immersive. Further, the demons are developed with nuance, and the ways they play off of their corresponding assignees are fascinating. They are effectual counterpoints and sources of challenge to Jon, Friedy, and Guion: Friedy, a technical prodigy who is weak in physical stature, is able to defend himself because of his demon, and Guion, an intentional and analytical man, becomes even more pragmatic through his demon, Jack. Jon’s demon is Steve, an external, gluttonous figure, while Friedy and Guion’s demons are internal. Jack interacts with Guion and no one else, a shadowed entity within Guion’s mind. Meanwhile, Friedy’s demon has no name at all; referred to as “the beast,” its motivations manifest in primal urges that Friedy experiences with increasing intensity. This results in tense, unreliable narration from both of them.
About the devilish pacts of three unlikely heroes, Daemones Ex Machina is a rousing, dynamic science fiction novel about corporate corruption.
Reviewed by
Natalie Wollenzien
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