Russell Anders’s DAEMONES EX MACHINA is about three secret operatives: Jon, Guion, and Friedy. After they are betrayed by a teammate, their weapons-tech employer aims to have them killed. Each of the three men makes a deal with the devil to keep themselves safe—with chilling repercussions. The more sensible Jon asks the devil for cloaking abilities so he can hide; geeky Friedy becomes an “apex predator” with a cannibalistic appetite; and no-nonsense Guion has a demon inhabit him to do dirty work for him. What follows as the three fugitives evade capture is an entertaining and chaotic adventure full of violence and dark humor.

Friendly banter among the three men develops character, but it also slows the book’s pace. Jon, Friedy, and Guion also often find themselves separated from each other and conversing with minor characters whose involvement with the main plot is minimal. Three back-to-back scenes in which each of the men must avoid capture by weapons-dealing agents feel repetitive. While the book’s lifelike dialogue is its greatest strength, the sheer quantity of it creates divergences from the plot and needlessly extends the book’s length. The characters’ principal goals get lost as a result, even as their personalities remain strong and believable.

Female characters are “a study in extremes,” as physical descriptions introduce nearly every woman who enters a scene—regardless of whether they stick around for longer than a chapter. Most are depicted through an overly sexual, voyeuristic lens: “Her large chest and wide hips combined with a tiny waist in an exaggerated hourglass shape.” For the book’s three heroes, description, action, and dialogue weave seamlessly together to capture character in distinct portraits: “Friedy did far more than flip light switches on Friday nights, and he did do most of the cleaning on the second floor, but Nana Robin clung to her independence even if she had a live-in assistant now, and there were certain things she refused to relinquish […] Every day Friedy tried to help. Every day she slapped his hand and pointed to the table. Every day he lost that fight and sat down for a meal.” Even when the men are brutal, violent, and resentful—which they often are—their distinctiveness maintains their likeability and compelling natures.

The cyberpunk setting includes occasional worldbuilding details (Jon has a weapons-grade prosthetic arm, for instance), but the worldbuilding is eclipsed by the characters’ conversations. The book does not shy away from gore, with cannibalism featuring heavily. Scenes of violence are appropriate to the story, heightening a sense of danger and suspense, and dark humor in the form of demons being tortured in hell by eating their own excrement is a signature of the work. With that in mind, those who enjoy the scatological and sexual humor of The Boys or Archer may find DAEMONES EX MACHINA amusing fun.

Russell Anders’s DAEMONES EX MACHINA is an entertaining, character-driven, and violent cyberpunk adventure.

~Aimee Jodoin for IndieReader