Book Review: The Electric Church by Jeff Somers

The Electric Church, the latest book from Jeff Somers, is a gritty, cyberpunk masterpiece in the tradition of Snowcrash and Neuromancer. The Electric Church is set in world in which New York dominates the entire eastern seaboard and “Trenton is only a neighborhood,” jobs are a thing of the past, and nearly-omnipotent cops known as “System Pigs” murder and pillage and occasionally enforce the laws of the totalitarian world government.

Enter Avery Cates. Avery Cates is a 27 year-old hitman, or “gunner” whose luck has just run out. The Electric Church begins with a dissatisfied client who growls “You screwed up Mr. Cates” by way of introduction. Things only get worse for Avery Cates. Ultimately, one mistake thrusts Avery Cates between the “System Pigs” and members of the Electric Church, a religion whose members allow themselves to be killed only to reborn as cyborgs with human brains and robot bodies who spend their days offering all who will listen “An endless trail of sunsets.”

The Electric Church is a winding, twisting rollercoaster of a book. Somers’ sparse, noir-like prose is fun and easy to read and his excellent pacing kept me turning pages way past bedtime. The world Somers has created is a dark and scary place, but it’s also a real place full of compelling characters, political intrigue and the problems of ordinary people who happen to live inside a cyberpunk novel.

Avery Cates deserves his own paragraph. Cates is a hitman with a conscience whose code of ethics is as complicated as it is ironclad. He will kill people. He will kill people for money, but several times in the novel he refuses to kill someone for one reason or another even when killing them would serve his interest. He persists in asserting that he is not a good man, and maybe he’s not, but he’s as close as it gets. Also, in his case, Murphy’s Law is far more than theoretical, and his trials and tribulations are great fun for the reader.

Like any good hero, Cates acquires a band of sidekicks complete with aliases, rap sheets, and neuroses. Their interactions with Cates and each other add a lot of color to this excellent novel.

In short, The Electric Church is a must read for fans of Neal Stephenson, William Gibson, and Raymond Chandler, and will appeal not only to veteran cyberpunk readers but to all people who enjoy a good read.

Article Author: Brian Burns

Brian Burns is a Professional Writing student at the University of Oklahoma. In the summer, he lives with his family in Fort Worth, Texas.

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