DEUS V MACHINA--First Book of 2025
Good author, weak book
It’s 2025. I’ve unsubbed from about a dozen YouTube channels that I’ve been following for years, mainly because their videos don’t do much for me any more.
Especially the movie review channels—I can pretty much guarantee that any movie they watch is going to suck, according to them, so whatever. I actually had fun watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice even though it had some faults. I tend to enjoy movies and I’d like to make up my own mind about them.
However, one guy I still follow is Dave Cullen, a critic and writer from Northern Ireland. He’s actually making the effort to be detailed and unique in his criticism of bad culture, while also promoting independent videos and books that he has enjoyed.
A few months ago Cullen told his subscribers that he was working on a book set in Las Vegas, where I’m from. It was a techno-thriller with some religious overtones. I emailed him and said hey, I’m a reviewer, and I’m also from Vegas, if you want a beta reader I can give it a looksee.
(Never did hear back from him, but alas.)
Well, the book came out last month, and it aspires to be the first in the Cody Stockton Mysteries series. I read it this week and gave it three stars, which is what it deserved. It wasn’t great, it was just kind of okay, but it had some things going for it and like I said on Goodreads, I want Dave Cullen to keep writing. Here’s the skinny:
The Story
Cody lives in Vegas with his girlfriend. He’s a war veteran. The year is 2045 and now he works as a PI while his girlfriend waits tables. Back in the war, which was against a computer, Cody saw horrible things happen and now he doesn’t believe in God.
Then a whole bunch of connected things start happening around the world: there’s a wicked cult of Satan worshippers, there’s a man claiming to be Jesus Christ performing miracles around the world, and also the government wants to reboot the AI that started the war 15 years ago (this is a dumb idea and therefore on brand for a government.)
When a private case lands on Cody’s desk, he starts pulling at threads and unraveling a gnarly conspiracy to take over the world, but this time it’s by cultists who want to channel Satan into the AI when it boots up. Then there’s the whole Jesus thing that Cody can’t figure out.
Based on that alone, I’m guessing you know where this book goes. I will say that there was a sort of “second ending” that elevated the book beyond what was expected, and his idea for the Jesus/Satan/Cult element of the story was well-done, making it an intriguing story in the end.
The Good
Cullen does a good job of “looking down the road” for problems that could pop up after the problems we have in the Current Day, so that his novel isn’t immediately dated by the news. In this case there was a worldwide AI set up in the 2030s, and it tried to do a Skynet, and humanity had to go to war to beat it. Cody Stockton is a veteran of that war.
It’s now 2045 and the governments are floating the idea of starting up the AI again, which sounds ridiculous, but remember that 10 years after the 2008 collapse, the US Gov turned around and let the banks do the same damn thing all over again, so don’t pretend like THEY are that smart.
The components that make this story possible are all credible, and that makes the speculative elements easier to accept.
The Bad
If you’ve ever read a piece of Christian fiction, or seen a Lifetime channel movie, this book is 90% similar to that. Like most Christian made-for-TV stories, the narrative is very predictable and as soon as you meet the characters, you know how things are going to end for them in a general sense. The specifics of DEUS V MACHINA are unique enough to merit the reading, but if you’re like me, you’ll see the other developments coming a ways off.
Main character: “Hurrrrrr I don’t believe in God.”
Love interest character: “HURRRRR I DO AND YOU SHOULD TRY, PWEEEEEASE!”
Story: (Happens)
Main character: “I BELIEBE!!!”
It’s not like that, I’m just being me right now. But those are the beats. Cody Stockton is an atheist, he has cynical reasons for not believing, then he sees some stuff he can’t explain, then he believes. Every Christian pop culture piece is like that and I’m more interested in just seeing a Christian character go through a unique plot.
The Goofs
As I said above, I offered to beta read Cullen’s book and never heard back. Having read it, I can highlight a few notes I would have sent to him, just for the sake of technicality. A few of these had to do with the flavor of Vegas/Henderson on the page. You can only get so much from Google Maps, but he at least did what he could there.
One thing that stood out though was when Cody Stockton was in a waiting room to meet with a doctor, and there were two guys from India also in the waiting room, “speaking Indian” to each other. I don’t think anything else in the text made this reasonable—the official language in India is English, and after that the most common native languages are Punjabi, Hindi, and Bengali.
“Indian” is not a language. And it’s not like Dave Cullen doesn’t know this. He’s from the UK, he’s surrounded by Indian people.
Minor point, but it made me lol.
Should you read it?
Sure. As a book it was fine and adequate, and it’ll give you a glimpse into Cullen’s creativity. I expect he’ll write more, whether in this series or not.
Content
Very minor profanity, stuff you’d get away with on basic television during the daytime, nothing more intense than that.
Find Dave’s Stuff
“The Dave Cullen Show” is the name of his YouTube channel. He used to write elsewhere but YouTube is still the king of video, so check him out.
And you can find his book here through my affiliate link. That’ll get me tidy little commission if you choose to pick it up.