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The Digital Plague by Jeff Somers
The Blurb On The Back:
’This is an assassination. Not yours. But an assassination none the less.’
Avery Cates, criminal king of New York, has climbed his way to the top of a heap of trouble. On his knees in the snow, with a gun to his head, Avery thinks this must finally be it. Instead, he is injected with nanotech and left confused but alive. Then everyone around him starts dying.
With every moment bringing humanity closer to extinction, Cates finds he will be either executioner or saviour of an entire world.
It’s 5 years after THE ELECTRIC CHURCH. Avery Cates heads the most feared criminal organisation in New York with Wa Belling (aka Canny Orel) as his number 2 when he’s kidnapped by unknown assailants who, instead of killing him, inject him with nanotech and leave him outside the city. Realising that someone in his organisation has betrayed him, Avery’s determined to get revenge. When the people around him start dying from a strange sickness though, it soon becomes clear that Avery is a pawn in a bigger game – a game where the fate of all mankind is at stake ...
Jeff Somers’ sequel to THE ELECTRIC CHURCH is another fast-paced SF action thriller. This time Avery takes the role of Typhoid Mary, with the story following his efforts to find out who set him up and why. Although Avery has a strong voice, I’m still not convinced that he’s the flawed hero Somers seems to want him to be mainly because he has so little emotional impact to what he’s been forced to do. Somers introduces the character of Glee (a teenage girl who Avery’s formed a paternal relationship with) to give the tragedy a human impact for him, but because Glee has not been seen before it’s difficult to understand the connection beyond her youth. Saying that Avery does go on a character arc, with the character at the end of the book very different to that at the beginning, which was interesting.
I still like the dystopian future that Somers has created and I particularly enjoyed the way that he sets about making it even worse in this book. There are some nice look backs to THE ELECTRIC CHURCH (which you do need to read to get the most out of this) and while some of the twists and turns were a little predictable, Somers keeps them coming at a fast pace. Although deus ex machina is again relied on to get Avery out of his worst scrapes, the fights are well choreographed and a scene towards the end has a chilling techno-take on zombies. Supporting characters remain largely ciphers there to fulfil roles and I didn’t believe the traitor’s motivation at all once they’re revealed.
In conclusion, it’s a decent read that kept me turning the pages and the cliff hanger ending will ensure I look up the next book, THE ETERNAL PRISON.
The Verdict:
The sequel to THE ELECTRIC CHURCH is another fast-paced SF thriller. I enjoyed the way that Somers takes his dystopian future and makes it worse and the action scenes towards the end of the book have a neat techno twist on zombies. I’m still not convinced by Avery as a character (he’s not heroic or anti-heroic enough for me to quite believe in), supporting characters remain as ciphers and deus ex machina is still used to get Avery out of the worst scrapes. However the story did keep me turning the pages and there is a definite character arc for Avery that makes me interested in checking out the next book in this series, THE ETERNAL PRISON.
Thanks to Orbit for the free copy of this book.
Avery Cates, criminal king of New York, has climbed his way to the top of a heap of trouble. On his knees in the snow, with a gun to his head, Avery thinks this must finally be it. Instead, he is injected with nanotech and left confused but alive. Then everyone around him starts dying.
With every moment bringing humanity closer to extinction, Cates finds he will be either executioner or saviour of an entire world.
It’s 5 years after THE ELECTRIC CHURCH. Avery Cates heads the most feared criminal organisation in New York with Wa Belling (aka Canny Orel) as his number 2 when he’s kidnapped by unknown assailants who, instead of killing him, inject him with nanotech and leave him outside the city. Realising that someone in his organisation has betrayed him, Avery’s determined to get revenge. When the people around him start dying from a strange sickness though, it soon becomes clear that Avery is a pawn in a bigger game – a game where the fate of all mankind is at stake ...
Jeff Somers’ sequel to THE ELECTRIC CHURCH is another fast-paced SF action thriller. This time Avery takes the role of Typhoid Mary, with the story following his efforts to find out who set him up and why. Although Avery has a strong voice, I’m still not convinced that he’s the flawed hero Somers seems to want him to be mainly because he has so little emotional impact to what he’s been forced to do. Somers introduces the character of Glee (a teenage girl who Avery’s formed a paternal relationship with) to give the tragedy a human impact for him, but because Glee has not been seen before it’s difficult to understand the connection beyond her youth. Saying that Avery does go on a character arc, with the character at the end of the book very different to that at the beginning, which was interesting.
I still like the dystopian future that Somers has created and I particularly enjoyed the way that he sets about making it even worse in this book. There are some nice look backs to THE ELECTRIC CHURCH (which you do need to read to get the most out of this) and while some of the twists and turns were a little predictable, Somers keeps them coming at a fast pace. Although deus ex machina is again relied on to get Avery out of his worst scrapes, the fights are well choreographed and a scene towards the end has a chilling techno-take on zombies. Supporting characters remain largely ciphers there to fulfil roles and I didn’t believe the traitor’s motivation at all once they’re revealed.
In conclusion, it’s a decent read that kept me turning the pages and the cliff hanger ending will ensure I look up the next book, THE ETERNAL PRISON.
The Verdict:
The sequel to THE ELECTRIC CHURCH is another fast-paced SF thriller. I enjoyed the way that Somers takes his dystopian future and makes it worse and the action scenes towards the end of the book have a neat techno twist on zombies. I’m still not convinced by Avery as a character (he’s not heroic or anti-heroic enough for me to quite believe in), supporting characters remain as ciphers and deus ex machina is still used to get Avery out of the worst scrapes. However the story did keep me turning the pages and there is a definite character arc for Avery that makes me interested in checking out the next book in this series, THE ETERNAL PRISON.
Thanks to Orbit for the free copy of this book.