DEUS-X: The Reality Conspiracy

This finely crafted tour de force is Joseph A. Citro's most ambitious, irreverent and unusual work to date. Sometimes violent, sometimes elegant, DEUS-X is an electrifying excursion into spiritual terror, blending classic elements of occult horror with nightmarish contemporary themes.Beginning as a mystery, we witness two seemingly unrelated events; in a secret California government installation, a political prisoner is grotesquely executed: and on the East Coast an elderly Vermont farmer vanishes, victim of an otherworldly abduction.Three amateur investigators--a psychologist, a physicist, and a priest--join forces, sharing divergent world views to discover the relationship among the two dissimilar events.Stalked by a murderous psychopath bent on stopping them, they encounter UFO's, bizarre religious phenomena, multiple personalities, and overwhelming psychic violence. They are drawn inexorably forward through the Gothic halls of a Canadian hospital for elderly and demented priests to the locked chambers of a covert American repository for space age weaponry where they uncover the most sinister application of computer technology since Kubrick's 2001.The trio's efforts ignite a chain reaction of unrelenting terror that eventually explodes like a nuclear bomb!In the devastating climax, we join the characters as they confront an undreamed of physical and philosophical menace that threatens to destroy every notion about good and evil, illuminate the fragile nature of reality, and ultimately subjugate all mankind.*********** The full spectrum of Joseph A. Citro's wild talents as a master storyteller are beautifully displayed in DEUS-X. He guides us into a world that's comfortably familiar, yet oddly alien, a world where you can believe your feet are safely under you until something shifts ... and suddenly nothing is as it seems. Imagination, style and intelligence merge perfectly to make DEUS-X as unforgettable as it is entertaining. This superbly literate novel is guaranteed to quicken your pulse, shatter your sleep, and turn all your cherished beliefs upside down. Included in this edition are many illustrations by Stephen R. Bissette.***********Joseph A. Citro has won enthusiastic critical attention for uniquely plotted, fast-paced thrillers. His eccentric perceptions, nail-gnawing suspense, and believable--if slightly oddball--characters make him a true original.He has sold work to magazines, newspapers, radio and television, with short fiction appearing in various anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Three novels were recommended for Bram Stoker Awards: four were optioned for films. Several stories were collected on his two audio books, and his film Soul Keeper premiered in 2011.

Amazon.com Review

Deus-X, one of the most inventive novels of spiritual terror, is the fifth occult thriller by Vermont native Joseph A. Citro, who has achieved even greater recognition as a bestselling nonfiction chronicler of the occult and paranormal. What he has done so effectively with Deus-X can perhaps be best compared to deciphering the ultimate X-Files case. But instead of two FBI agents, there are three amateur investigators--a psychologist, a priest, and a physicist--who band together to try to save the world from total subjugation to a secret supernatural, or possibly extraterrestrial, force. Citro seamlessly couples his insight into the unknown with his considerable skills as a horror novelist to explain the seemingly inexplicable. Meanwhile, it's exciting and frightening to learn that the truth is... in here. --Stanley Wiater

From the Publisher

Many illustrations by noted artist Stephen R. Bissett.

From the Back Cover

The full spectrum of Joseph A. Citro's wild talents as a master storyteller is beautifully displayed in Deus-X. He guides us into a world that's comfortably familiar, yet oddly alien, a world where you can believe your feet are safely under you until something shifts. . .and suddenly nothing is as it seems. Imagination, style and intelligence merge perfectly to make Deus-X as unforgettable as it is entertaining. This superbly literate novel is guaranteed to quicken your pulse, shatter your sleep, and turn all your cherished beliefs upside down.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The fading crunch of Alton's boots vanished into the distance. Stuart was alone. To his right a short row of evergreen trees, their branches heavy with snow, bent toward-sometimes touched-the ground. The snow weighed on Stuart, too. He was winded. His heart thumped. He could hear the muted roar of blood pulsing past his ears as he stood sweating in the cold wind. That climb from the house to the forest got steeper every year. Now, with Al out of sight, Stu permitted himself to stop and rest for a while. After placing his rifle against a hickory tree, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the plug of Red Man. He chomped some off between his gums. A stinging sweetness bit back at him and he smacked his lips. "Lordy," he whispered, "Lordy, Lordy." Not far away he saw evidence that a rabbit had passed by, and not long ago. As sunlight found each cluster of four tiny paw prints, they were transformed by the melting snow. They blended, ran together, formed the strange tracks of some large, unfamiliar animal. Stuart smiled. The woods'll play tricks on you if you let it, he chuckled. Yessir, Mother Nature can be a great deceiver. He rested his hand against the peeling bark of a white birch trunk, gently, as if touching a lover who would soon depart. He closed his eyes, the rubbery smile still broad on his face. How grand it would be if a man could grow tall and old like the trees. He could keep an eye on everything from above, he could study the mysterious shifting of seasons, look down upon the beautiful ever-changing patterns of sunshine and shadow on the Green Mountains. And at night he could fall asleep to the lullaby of the stream and the soft secret whisper of the wind. Stuart opened his eyes and looked around. A cloud must have passed the sun for suddenly it was colder. Trees rustled slightly, depositing tiny falls of snow that scattered in the breeze. Something was nearby. Snatching up his pa's ancient 32-40 Winchester, Stu tuned his ears to the forest sounds. Reflexes ready, he scanned the snowy ground, the black tree trunks, the roll of earth where it dipped sharply before angling upward to become the eastern slope of Stattler Mountain. Lord God it was all so beautiful. His mind drifted from the thought of game to the wilderness itself. From where he stood, he could see no reminder of civilization: not a road, not a telephone line, not even a church steeple in the distance. The silence was unpolluted by chainsaws or automobiles, or even the barking of dogs. He breathed deeply and tipped his head back. No jet exhaust discolored the crystal-blue winter sky. This is the way the forest was meant to be. This is how it must have looked when the first white men came. And this is how it had looked to the Indians, a thousand-or a thousand thousand-years ago. The thought pleased him, made him feel as if he were part of the ages. Whatever had caught his attention was gone now. Stuart lowered the barrel of the rifle. Soundlessly he stepped up onto a little rise of moss-covered bedrock, protected from the snow by a ledge. From there he could look across a shallow depression, past a shelf of shale, and up at the mountainside. Then he saw it. No more than twenty feet in front of him. White light. Stuart took an involuntary step backward. Bright as a flashbulb. He blinked several times, expecting the strange vision to tighten into some recognizable focus. The light, it doesn't go out! The hovering circle of brilliance seemed to pulse as it grew more intense. Stuart squinted, lifting his right hand to shade his eyes. He let the rifle slip from his left. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush . . . Part of his bewildered mind registered something about the shadows. Juniper bushes. Thick tree trunks. Their shadows should spread out around the glowing thing like the spokes of a wheel. But- . . . and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed . . . ! Stuart turned his head away, trying to protect his eyes from the piercing white light. When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush . . . "STUART, STUART!" "Here I am, Lord," he whispered, taking a cautious step forward. "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." Stuart dropped to his knees. He was closer to the fire. But he felt no heat. He sat down. Cold wet snow darkened his woolen pants. His frantic fingers worked numbly with the laces of his boots. Before he could pull them free of his feet the brilliant white circle began to rise from the ground. Stuart followed it with his eyes as it floated upward, passing like smoke through interwoven branches of towering evergreens. Somehow, he found he was standing. His arms reached out, groping for the vision as it withdrew. He took a step. "Oh my Lord, I have been a sinner. . . ." Another step. It was above him now, like a white-hot sun directly overhead. "Deliver us from evil, oh my Lord. . . ."

About the Author

Joseph A. Citro has won enthusiastic critical attention for uniquely plotted, fast-paced thrillers. His eccentric perceptions, nail-gnawing suspense, and believable-if slightly oddball-characters make him a true original. He has sold work to magazines, newspapers, radio and television, with short fiction appearing in various anthologies, including the World Fantasy Award-winning Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. Three novels were recommended for Bram Stoker Awards and two were optioned for movies. Deus-X is his fifth novel.

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