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Deus Ex Machina
When the sun nears nova, David Jones, a writer, is offered a chance to escape via an experimental transmat booth
- GenresScience Fiction
277 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
October 31, 2025
This was a great read. One of the best I’ve read in a while.
It starts with individual stories and slowly connects the characters and stories all together.
It is dystopian fiction with several different settings/groups/cultures of the new world after the fall of our society. There are still plenty of relics and similarities as it is only a generation or two since the collapse.
With the author being a poet and this book being his first novel, the stories and characters really feel and have a closeness and meaning that is not always present in sci fi.
The setting is magnificent. It is dystopian with a hint of cyberpunk. The world is full and easy to see with the minds eye due to the great writing. The technology is interesting and unique. The author does a great job of blending it into the characters and story.
As a brief summary, David is the main character. He is a poet/writer is a dystopian world. He teaches part time and pimps for money. David lives in the suburbs, which are the left overs of modern society just a little rougher. There are also the New Cities, which are the new “perfect” society that is being built, and the “Out There” which is a Wild West equivalent setting. The pushing force of the narrative is that the sun is going bad. The Earth will not last much longer. There is a “Rescue Effort” underway trying to devise some way to save some part of humanity. David’s writings get him in front of the selection committee to be saved. As the story progresses, the individual narratives start to tie together and we see how everyone is connected. I won’t give away the ending, but it is emotional, and somewhere between good and bad.
It starts with individual stories and slowly connects the characters and stories all together.
It is dystopian fiction with several different settings/groups/cultures of the new world after the fall of our society. There are still plenty of relics and similarities as it is only a generation or two since the collapse.
With the author being a poet and this book being his first novel, the stories and characters really feel and have a closeness and meaning that is not always present in sci fi.
The setting is magnificent. It is dystopian with a hint of cyberpunk. The world is full and easy to see with the minds eye due to the great writing. The technology is interesting and unique. The author does a great job of blending it into the characters and story.
As a brief summary, David is the main character. He is a poet/writer is a dystopian world. He teaches part time and pimps for money. David lives in the suburbs, which are the left overs of modern society just a little rougher. There are also the New Cities, which are the new “perfect” society that is being built, and the “Out There” which is a Wild West equivalent setting. The pushing force of the narrative is that the sun is going bad. The Earth will not last much longer. There is a “Rescue Effort” underway trying to devise some way to save some part of humanity. David’s writings get him in front of the selection committee to be saved. As the story progresses, the individual narratives start to tie together and we see how everyone is connected. I won’t give away the ending, but it is emotional, and somewhere between good and bad.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review