A Review of "The Digital Plague" by Jeff Somers

When I first picked up my copy of Jeff Somers' book "The Digital Plague" I was hooked by the first line in the book. The main character, Avery Cates, has the first line in the book, saying, "I was going to have to kill a whole lot of people." Like most people I have to be drawn in by the first line of a book to warrant me buying it. This line definitely drew me in and I wasn't disappointed. "The Digital Plague" is probably the best Science Fiction book I've read in a long while.

This book is a sequel to "The Electric Church" and focuses on the same character of Avery Cates. He's called a "Gunner" which is basically the word for hitman in the book. He's the most wanted man in New York City, but doesn't officially have a record. Cates is in his early to mid thirties. This is considered "old" in the universe of the book.

As for the "digital plague" in the book, Avery Cates is patient zero. The plague is based around nano-technology and since I want other people to actually read the book, I won't go into in-depth detail about it. But the plague does eventually resurrect its victims. But don't worry, this doesn't turn into some kind of futuristic zombie story, it stays true to being pure Science Fiction and stays away from horror. It takes the best of the greatest SciFi writers, i.e., Asimov, and adds new twists.

This book is not literary fiction and isn't deep in social commentary. There is some social commentary with an omnipresent character that's never seen, but is reminiscent of Orwell's Big Brother from "1984." This character is basically the head of the government in the new world that "The Digital Plague" takes place in. The world in this book is unified and without borders. This, of course, leads to a very dystopic utopian.

Jeff Somers' writing style is interesting. His descriptions of characters and settings is very vivid and sometimes makes the reader wish he had been a little less descriptive. There's also not a scene in the book in which Avery Cates isn't in, which is a new technique to me. I haven't read many books that doesn't have at least one or two scenes that doesn't involve the main character. But the focus on the main character keeps the story moving swiftly and you'll find yourself having the finished the book in the first day you started reading it.

Like I said, the book isn't literary fiction and sometimes you'll find yourself laughing at some action sequences that are a bit cliche. But Somers seems to take the sequences tongue-firmly-in-cheek, which keeps them fun. You also become very concerned with Cates' predicament and you actually cheer when he starts taking care of his enemies in the book. All-in-all, I would recommend this book to anyone who's into Science Fiction and enjoys a good fun read. Make sure you read "The Electric Church" by Jeff Somers first though, because this book is a sequel.