Book Review: Demon Seed

The machine with a, malevolent, mind of its own is a common trope in the horror and science fiction genres. In this reworking of his 1973 novel Dean Koontz uses it to give his readers a good scare and to make them think.

The machine gone bad in this novel is Adam Two, a super computer with a desire to experience the ‘life of the flesh’ and to create a new master race. To achieve this end he takes control of the security system of a Californian mansion that just happens to be home to an attractive young woman.

This is all solid shocker material; it touches all the required bases, paranoia about technology, isolation, the threat of violence with a dash of sexual anxiety thrown into the mix too. Needless to say Koontz handles this side of things skilfully, even if the story is familiar from the film adaptation there are enough moments that raise a satisfying shiver in even the most jaded of readers.

What lifts Demon Seed above the usual run of such books is the voice, that of Adam Two, Koontz uses. A disturbing internal monologue composed of intelligence, utter incomprehension as to the workings of the world without the slightest trace of self awareness; like the ranting of a gifted but disturbed child or the confessions of an unusually articulate psychopath.

It is this aspect of the book that prompts Koontz’s readers to think as they shudder. In an afterword Koontz says that he sees the book as a satire on certain male attitudes, possessiveness, vanity and the like. This is reasonable; however it is also possible to see Adam Two with its vanity and lack of empathy as representing not just men but ‘mankind’, blundering through the world intent on achieving one grand scheme of another without thought for the consequences.

This is a highly effective genre novel that hasn’t been spoilt by the, mostly, cosmetic, changes made by its author. It is also in the way of the best books about the near future one that gives its readers pause to think about how they behave today.

Demon Seed
Dean Koontz
(Headline, 2007)