The Dues Machine (First Edition)

In the near future, an unemployed computer expert named Riley must stop the destruction of DEUS, a supercomputer endowed with the ability to improve itself and create life. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo.

In the year 2005, in the midst of an unprecedented economic depression that has ruined the country and brought the government to the edge of collapse, a renegade genius programs a supercomputer with an artificial intelligence (DEUS) that perpetually reinvents itself--and thereby comes "to life." But when crooked government insiders intent on making profits through chemical warfare use DEUS for their research, the machine, attempting suicide, spawns an unbelievably terrifying array of mutant life forms that begin to run wild over the earth. It's then up to an unlikely threesome--computer programmer Michael Riley, his lover, biomedical engineer Jessica and their young friend Jimi--to save DEUS (and the world) from the bloodthirsty and perpetually mutating horde. This first novel by an advertising executive reads like a glossy repackaging of contemporary action-adventure movies ( Terminator ) with video games ( Space Invaders ) and '50s sci-fi ( Them! ). There's no mistaking the good guys (man, woman and child) from the bad (homicidal pederast who makes his money in germ warfare). Still, the somber, apocalyptic atmosphere, sensational prose and intensely visual imagery are bound to appeal to science fiction and fantasy fans, particularly those who don't necessarily mind watching a rerun if it's worth a good scare.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Many, many microprocessors--packed together in Portland to serve the needs of a political conspiracy--start thinking independently, scaring the bejeezus out of the Pacific Northwest and bringing some order to the life of a deserted child. Adman Ouellette's first novel is long, ambitious, and absorbing. Grafting cyberdramatics onto a well-built thriller mainframe, Ouellette drops into the near future--2005--where Americans are paying a horrible price for the fiscal excesses of the 80's and 90's. The country is in the grip a depression as deep as that of the 30's. Everyone's broke except the federal government, which has so much money that a right-wing cabal has been secretly siphoning off billions for a hidden computer project in Oregon and for a biological warfare project in Mexico. The computer's designer, a drugged-out genius known as The Architect, has programmed and packed enough microprocessors together that, in a sort of critical- mass chain reaction, they've begun cycles of self-improvement and given birth--the baby being a cyberpresence with a mind of its own. The mind is supposed to lend itself to the creation of new, nasty, militarily useful genetic forms, which it does, but it goes a bit further and gets a conscience--and gets to know Michael Riley, a computer whiz quite as capable as The Architect. Riley must join with the artificial intelligence to clean up a terrifying mess that the computer has made with the help of the illegal Mexican life forms and all the genetic information in the world. Meanwhile, swarms of nasty new life forms have settled into Willamette Valley with cybermurder on their mind. Michael gets assistance from a lovely biologist and a spunky young neighbor. Fully-fleshed characters, nicely etched scenery, and a good, old-fashioned moral core--all balance the almost unbearably complex and scary cyberthrills. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Machine intelligence/consciousness and its interface with humanity form the central theme in Ouellette's first novel. The trappings of an honest intellectual exercise on the future of the computer are present here within the context of an espionage/adventure tale. Brought to life and then subverted by corporate and political interests, the supercomputer Deus struggles with its ever-growing sense of ethics, which points toward self-annihilation as the only viable course of action. The equation is altered by the creation of another rapidly evolving machine-based intellect that develops a human-oriented value system built upon relationships between a computer wizard, his lover, and a small boy. Well-rounded characters and a lively story make this high-tech thriller a first choice for any fiction collection. Elliott Swanson