Author Pierre Ouellette, a partner in an advertising and public relations firm that specializes in high technology, contrasts human rapacity, an infinite capacity for self-delusion and self-destruction with the ability to build intelligent machines. Result: His first novel, The DEUS Machine.
As literature, Ouellette's work competes with other cyberthrillers, especially those of author Michael Crichton. He offers believable but stereotypical characters, and a plot that grips the reader's attention. The novel reads like the script of Terminator or Space Invaders. One reviewer says, "There is no mistaking the good guys (man, woman and child) from the bad (homicidal pederast who makes his money in germ warfare.)" Set in 2005, the plot details an attempt by a clique of military-industrial elitists in the United States government to maintain status as a superpower. Reacting to severe economic depression, the group uses an antisocial computer genius to launch DEUS, a supercomputer that develops sentience. While the clique seeks to develop a viral superweapon, the computer develops its own approach to problem-solving. Upshot: Bizarre lifeforms from mutant DNA sprout in Oregon. The hero, a jobless computer scientist who flees secret government, and his companions develop friendship with DEUS that eventually results in a satisfactory conclusion for the human species. Costs are high, however, in human life.
What makes the novel compelling is Ouellette's synthesis of the latest data from biomedical research, genetic engineering, and computer science. Horror of the unknown captivates the reader. Suspense, naturally, follows. For the mature reader, the novel is frighteningly believable. Yet, the book's greatest appeal may lie in the mature youth market, those voracious fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger and his Terminator movies.