Don’t believe the back-cover blurb that pegs Jeff Somers’ THE ELECTRIC CHURCH as “BLADE RUNNER meets KILL BILL.” They got one of the movies wrong, in my opinion. It should read “BLADE RUNNER meets THE DIRTY DOZEN, with a dash of Sergio Leone.” As in many future-set sci-fi novels, the world is a nothing but a dystopian nightmare, where the rich stay that way while everyone else is poor and struggling. Is there any other kind?

Avery Cates is a gunner, hired killer and criminal, taking a nod from the mold that Richard Stark built. He’s drinking in some makeshift bar until the police force turns up. It seem the last job Cates pulled, he killed a undercover officer, under false pretenses. If Cates only had to hide from the cops, that would be easy enough. But in this future, you also have to deal with the monks.

The monks belong to the titular Electric Church, and they are cyborgs in the worst way. The only part of them still human are just the brains. All that ran through my mind was Somers must have watched DOCTOR WHO as a kid, since these monks closely resemble the Cybermen. Imagine if someone crossed THE TERMINATOR with Hare Krishnas. These monks don’t take no for a answer and will hound you down. No wonder people don’t join this church willingly.

The head of the Internal Affairs department wants to hire Cates for a very dangerous mission, promising cash and a clean slate no matter what collateral damage he incurs: to kill the head of the Electric Church. Cates recruits his team to do so, bringing to the mind THE DIRTY DOZEN since he gathers the lowest of the low for help.

Somers’ plot moves so smoothly, you’ll crank through this book in no time. The book is filled with great action, even with the view of the future as bleak as it is. Best of all, it will never bog the reader down with techno-babble. Not only will you never feel lost, you’ll never be bored. Anytime you feel things might be slowing down, Somers packs another surprise for our group of merry men, all the way to the climactic battle at the end, with a humorous way of escape.

In ELECTRIC CHURCH, Somers has crafted an action movie for the literary set, with avenues open for future sequels. On top of all of this, he’s done something I wish other books would do: Set up a website that actually ties into the book. Not just a page or two of the actual book, but a complex type of puzzle to work through and enhance the novel experience. –Bruce Grossman

Buy it at Amazon.