Saint Vidicon to the Rescue

by Christopher Stasheff

Blessed are the troubleshooters

Techno troubleshooter Tony Ricci's latest challenge is to debug the computers at the marketing firm of Rodrigo and associates. Pages of Biblical text have been appearing on every terminal throughout the network--disrupting the staff and costing the company a lot of time and work.

But he's astonished to discover that the religious text tells the story of St. Vidicon of cathode, who protects people from the consequences of Finagle's General Principle and its most famous corollary, Murphy's Law. Then his attempt to exorcise the virus places him face-to-0face with the blessed saint.

Father Vidicon needs a disciple to aid him in answering prayers, solving problems and averting disasters across the globe. In exchange, the Saint will give Tony some much-needed help with his love life. Now Tony's providing tech support for a world in peril. And it's going to take more than rebooting to fix this kind of system failure...

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Humor, Science Fiction Fantasy, Comedy, Romance

308 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

The late Christopher Stasheff was an American science fiction and fantasy author. When teaching proved too real, he gave it up in favor of writing full-time. Stasheff was noted for his blending of science fiction and fantasy, as seen in his Warlock series. He spent his early childhood in Mount Vernon, New York, but spent the rest of his formative years in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Stasheff taught at the University of Eastern New Mexico in Portales, before retiring to Champaign, Illinois, in 2009. He had a wife and four children.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an amusing fantasy/sf parable about a tech-support specialist achieving sainthood. I probably would have gotten more out of it had I been more knowledgeable about Catholicism and/or computer operating. It's not really a part of the Warlock series, but I'd call it Warlock-adjacent as St. Vidicon is called upon from time to time on the Wizard's worlds. Stasheff is almost always fun to read.

[Pseudonymous d'Elder · Rating 1 out of 5]

____________________________________
Though I Walk Through the Valley of the Blue Screen of Death
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I have enjoyed the 6 books in the author's Warlock of Grameyre series that I have read so far, but Stasheff apparently forgot to ask St. Vidicon to bless his word processor when he was writing this unholy mess.

St. Vidicon is a fictional saint of technology who pops up in several of Stasheff's series, and who apparently has a tongue-and-cheek cult following among real-life techies (119,000 hits on Google). Vidicon fights against the perversity of modern technology and the gremlins that create the great blue screen of death on our PCs. In this book, Vidicon and his trusty side-kick Tony have adventure after adventure doing such things as fixing a bug in a computer program, inspiring a lawyer in a gasohol law suit, and getting the gizmo that is supposed to display the phone number on the TV screen during a PBS fund raiser to work properly. And yes, those adventures are every bit as dull and insipid as I have made them sound.

I don't know what imp of perversity inspired the author to write this book, but St. Vidicon failed to save us this time.

[D.M. Dutcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like the premise: a marytred television tech for the Pope becomes a saint of technology and battles the forces of perversity with the aid of a hacker. But the execution was poor, mostly being a collection of short stories linked by the Saint's metaphysical journeys in the afterlife, and the hacker's chaste romance in this world.

Also without getting into spoilers, the style comes across very much as Piers Anthony trying to write a catholic novel, and it jars a bit. I don't want to say Stasheff doesn't get Catholicism, but the novel feels lacking in the spiritual dimension of it. All these people pray to Saint Vidicon in crisis, and we never see them think about what that means, and Tony doesn't really ever think about any hard questions that his adventuring brings up. This makes the book seem bloodless, and again, the structure doesn't help. We're being jumped from random person to random person too much.

Stasheff in my book gets points for being one of the few fantasy authors to embrace telling a tale considering how religion affects people in a world. but this novel badly needed tightening up and more meat to it.

[Kathy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Two comments for Christopher Stasheff. First, Vidicon is a really bad name for a character, especially a saint. I kept reading it as vicodin. And while I'm sure that some people do pray for and maybe even to, vicodin, that wasn't the type of book he was trying to write.
Second, allegory is good if you are Nathaniel Hawthorne, but just barely. Allegory comparing software problems to the salvation of souls, probably can't be redeemed even if you could write as well as Hawthorne. And I hate Hawthorne's allegory anyway.
I have liked Stasheff in the past. This type of religious stuff works best in a medieval setting. In fact, I like his fantasy because too many authors like the medieval stuff, but leave out the predominant religious aspect. It does not work in a more modern setting, at least for me.

[Jsrott · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Enjoyable little stand-alone book. It isn't a heavy read, and you don't really get emotionally invested in the characters. The overall story involves a code monkey who ends up playing assistant to the patron saint of technology in his fight against the forces of glitches, crashes, and general FUBARs. A fun idea. While never laugh-out-loud, it was clever in its way. And it clears the palette for some more serious fare.

[Lissa Oliver · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's probably unfair of me to give only two stars, as this is no reflection on the book, which most would find entertaining and it's very well-written. The concept is highly original, the characters strong and well rounded and the plot entertaining. However, I personally found it a bit heavy going as a reader, because it was simply not to my personal taste. I'm not entirely sure why, there was plenty of humour, but while I'd recommend it to others, it wasn't for me.

[Casey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Stasheff's books of fantasy/modern/logic. The mix is good, the stories are neat, I just get bent out of shape at the Catholic moralizing he manages to inject into every damn book.
It's tiresome, and cancels out some of the fun I get out of good fantasy.
However, if you don't mind a little preaching...

[Tonja Condray Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is now my favorite Sci-Fi/Fantasy novel of ALL TIME as of 10/07/17! I’m not Catholic, but I may pray to the Lord using Saint Vidicon, the fictional Patron Saint of High Tech as an example of what I need for the usual technological issues I face in real life sometimes. I think Jesus might roll His eyes at me then smile and help as needed since He knows that I know He is the One Who is sending any help. I was hooked on this book with the very first page of the Prologue ‘The Martyrdom Of St. Vidicon Of Cathode’ and the quoted song by Vidicon himself, “Praise God, from Whom electrons flow! Praise Him, the Source of all we know! Whose order’s in the stellar host! For in machines, He is the Ghost!” I laughed with reader glee and fan-girl bliss then cried with intellectual realization and faith-filled amazement. This book reminded me why I loved writing Basic code back in the day and why I still love doing webpages now. Although I don’t like Finagle, Murphy, or Entropy, I still love trying to see things work right!

It may be that God Almighty is the ‘Ghost in the machine’ for a specific reason sometimes to get our full attention! I’m a 45-year-old woman who was doing Basic coding in High School and now does Webpage Design. This book was everything I’d hoped for, more than I could wish for, and beyond anything that I have ever dreamed! Many of the concepts in this have dual meanings to me as a believer in Jesus Christ. It’s not truly ‘religious’ except in background, but it creates a reality that transcends pure fiction. I cried several times, not because it made me sad but because I understood it in literary, scientific, and spiritual layers that this story weaves with precision. Although I love Gramarye from the first book done in 1969 (3 years before I was born that I read for the first time a couple years ago) and through the ones with Rod Gallowglass as the main male lead, this book was done in 2005 and is an amazing trip through the tech side of this amazing saga! For Fantasy lovers this series is one I would suggest for as long as time lasts.

I might take this journey again just to be reminded that there’s a reason why I’m here…

[Ted Goldstein · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am sorry to admit I only made it through the first half of this book. I hate to give up on a book without finishing it, but I found I just didn’t have the patience to wade through this shallow repetitive story while I had so many other great books waiting in my to-read list. I found the writing style to be simple and uninspired and the overall plot to be a tedious, long, drawn out hashing of a simple pretense. I can see it was trying to mix the holy texts of the Catholic cult with a modern computer tech culture, but it just didn’t click. It could have been a fun short story, but there just wasn’t enough meat for a novel. When I come across a book like this it always makes me further appreciate the true talents of writers like Tom Holt, Robert Rankin, Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett who have mastered the “wacky fantasy” genre without becoming tedious.

[Jon James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun voice, great humor, and charming characters, but held back by a jittery plot.

Read my full review on incesenpunk.com.

[melydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tony Ricci, a computer troubleshooter, is called upon by Father Vidicon of Cathode, patron saint of computers, machines, and anything else susceptible to Finagle, master of perversity and chaos. While Vidicon fights the greater demons, Tony is sent to put out smaller fires, helping people on Earth with their problems. It's a cute idea, that a self-described fictional saint fixes the inexplicable failures of modern technology, which are caused by actual microscopic beasties like gremlkins and scuttlefish. I was a little confused at first (how did Sandy already know that Tony had fixed the problem?), but once I got used to the regular switch between Tony's regular life and his adventures with Saint Vidicon, it was a lot of fun. If you enjoy silly sci-fi, it's a worthy read - if only for the ridiculous (and funny) climax at the PBS station, WBEG.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Father Vidicon is on his way to sainthood when he sacrifices himself to make a vital connection in the broadcast equipment for a history-changing speech the pope MUST make. Soon he is being called upon to help people with all kinds of computer, video and equipment troubles. Tony Ricci, who works for a computer/software repair/recovery business, is called to check out computers in a company where the computers quit working for 5 minutes and scroll a story in Biblical English across the screen, then resume functioning. This happens several times a day and is disrupting productivity in the company. Tony cures it, but downloads the glitch to his computer and takes it home in an effort to discover why and how exactly this happened. And so begins his own adventure with Saint Vidicon....
Very entertaining book.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had I attempted thus review earlier, I would have rated it much lower. This is a book that you can't really understand until it is wrapped up in the end.
In essence it is a group of short stories tied together by the overriding story of Tony helping St Vidicon solve a number of technical problems while St Vidicon advises Tony on how to conduct a courtship with Sara in keeping with sexual morality. Like all Stasheff books there is deep philosophy and light theology going on behind all the fun and adventure, as well as a few Piers Anthony style puns.
All in all this is a very satisfying read

[Kurtbg · Rating 3 out of 5]

When your electronics inexplicably get buggy, pray to Saint Vidicon to protect you from the imps of perversity, the ever present, yet elusive finagle, and the unstoppable Murphy’s Law

Written in the style of T. Pratchett and J. Fforde, Stasheff combines technology, philosophy, and religion in a dual-level narrative with fun and thoughtfulness.

3.5

[Mike Ball · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoy Christopher Stasheff's Grameyre series. I didn't enjoy this book as much as his other books, but I was still fun to read more about Saint Vidicon, since he's mentioned a lot in the author's other series.

[Rose]

Leaving unrated, I could not get into this one - the tech is a little too painfully 80's for me, unfortunately, not helped by the very comical metaphoric/symbolic turns of phrase. I can see how fun this would have been when fresh and newly released, but... now it doesn't have the same effect.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very odd book talking of a priest's travels to sainthood, and the man he recruited to help him in his journey.

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dumb but funny.

[Fraser · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some cute ideas, but overall I didn't like it much. I was a big fan of the Warloxk In Spite of Himself books.

[Erin Robichaud · Rating 1 out of 5]

I couldn't even finish this it was just painful to read.

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining tale. Enjoyed it again.

[Esther_a · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dull enough that I didn't even finish it.

[Jared · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't bother. It's not very good.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good one-off novel with an interesting take on computer "geeks" and how they can save the world.

[Georgene · Rating 3 out of 5]

Along the lines of the Discworld books by Terry Pratchett.