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Avery Cates #0.5
The Kendish Hit: An Avery Cates Short Story
In this prequel to "The Electric Church," a young Avery Cates takes on his first job, meets someone who will be an old friend someday, and learns some hard lessons in the newly-formed System of Federated Nations.
Contains the previously-released Avery Cates stories "This Was Battle. This Was Joy," "The Golden Badge," "The Oldest Bastard on the Block," "This Was Education," "all orphans, at least," and "The Sewer Rat."
Contains the previously-released Avery Cates stories "This Was Battle. This Was Joy," "The Golden Badge," "The Oldest Bastard on the Block," "This Was Education," "all orphans, at least," and "The Sewer Rat."
96 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 1, 2017
6 people are currently reading
48 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Somers
68 books349 followersJeff Somers (www.jeffreysomers.com) began writing by court order as an attempt to steer his creative impulses away from engineering genetic grotesqueries. He has published nine novels, including the Avery Cates Series of noir-science fiction novels from Orbit Books (www.avery-cates.com) and the Ustari Cycle series of urban fantasy novels. His short story “Ringing the Changes” was selected for inclusion in Best American Mystery Stories 2006, his story “Sift, Almost Invisible, Through” appeared in the anthology Crimes by Moonlight edited by Charlaine Harris, and his story “Three Cups of Tea” appeared in the anthology Hanzai Japan. He also writes about books for Barnes and Noble and About.com and about the craft of writing for Writer’s Digest, which will publish his book on the craft of writing Writing Without Rules in 2018. He lives in Hoboken with his wife, The Duchess, and their cats. He considers pants to always be optional.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 14, 2017
A few years back, in the original series Jeff Somers introduced readers to Avery Cates, a not very likeable gunner you can't help but root for. Constantly down on his luck and not always the sharpest tool in the shed, Cates' first person narrative has always been a highlight since the very beginning. The last volume, The Final Evolution, appeared to bring the overall story arc to an end and no further misadventures seemed to be forthcoming for everyone's favorite gunner.
About two years ago, the author started releasing short stories and novella-length installments chronicling the events which acted as sequels to the original series. Now that they have all been published, Somers has grouped them all into a single novel. If all goes as planned, this omnibus will act as the first volume in what Somers plans to be a new trilogy.
Which brings us to this latest Avery Cates offering. The Kendish Hit is a prequel featuring a much younger Cates, one that has yet to acquire the "wisdom" which allowed him to survive in such a harsh environment for so many years. How could I not want to read this novella?
Here's the blurb:
In this prequel to "The Electric Church," a young Avery Cates takes on his first job, meets someone who will be an old friend someday, and learns some hard lessons in the newly-formed System of Federated Nations.
Contains the previously-released Avery Cates stories "This Was Battle. This Was Joy," "The Golden Badge," "The Oldest Bastard on the Block," "This Was Education," "all orphans, at least," and "The Sewer Rat."
The post-apocalyptic worldbuilding was the aspect that gave the original series and the short fiction sequels their distinctive flavor. However, things are not as bad in The Kendish Hit. Indeed, Unification took place a few years before. And while everything is going down the crapper fast, it's not as bad as it will be a couple of years down the line. Cates even shares a number of pre-Unification memories, about his family, upbringing, and the world in general.
Everything Cates touches has a tendency to turn to shit and the gunner always finds ways to find himself up to his neck into trouble. And that's the "wise" Avery Cates. Now, imagine the skinny teenager/young adult Cates who needs to make a name for himself and earn some money. I relished the opportunity to go back in time and get an inkling of just how Avery Cates became who he is and I would love to read more of these prequels, if any are in the works.
Adult Avery Cates' first person narrative is always filled with wise cracks and dark humor and it never fails to make for a fun reading experience. Avery Cates is a despicable, manipulative, immoral, lousy, and sick f**k. Yet for all his faults and shortcomings, it's well nigh impossible not to root for the poor fool. The Kendish Hit allows readers to discover a bit more about how he came to be that way. Young or old, he's in over his head yet again, with his life hanging in the balance. But that's business as usual for Cates. The story of his life, actually.
Homeless, friendless, starving, Avery Cates is a skinny kid looking for some respect and a way to earn a living. So when he takes it upon himself to murder a man who was meant to be someone else's mark, you know that the proverbial shit will hit the fan. The Kendish Hit is the perfect companion book for fans of the series and what came after.
Even better, the ebook comes filled with bonus material. "This Was Battle. This Was Joy." and "The Golden Badge" are excerpts from a never-completed novel taking place in the Cates universe and told from the perspective of the System Police. "The Oldest Bastard on the Block" was a chapter originally meant to be part of The Digital Plague. "This Was Education" is another chapter meant for the same book, this one featuring Glee. "all orphans, at least" is a deleted chapter from The Terminal State. And finally, "The Sewer Rat" occurs following the events featured in The Shattered Gears omnibus edition. Each offers some insight on the world and its characters, and they were all interesting reads.
For more reviews, check out www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
About two years ago, the author started releasing short stories and novella-length installments chronicling the events which acted as sequels to the original series. Now that they have all been published, Somers has grouped them all into a single novel. If all goes as planned, this omnibus will act as the first volume in what Somers plans to be a new trilogy.
Which brings us to this latest Avery Cates offering. The Kendish Hit is a prequel featuring a much younger Cates, one that has yet to acquire the "wisdom" which allowed him to survive in such a harsh environment for so many years. How could I not want to read this novella?
Here's the blurb:
In this prequel to "The Electric Church," a young Avery Cates takes on his first job, meets someone who will be an old friend someday, and learns some hard lessons in the newly-formed System of Federated Nations.
Contains the previously-released Avery Cates stories "This Was Battle. This Was Joy," "The Golden Badge," "The Oldest Bastard on the Block," "This Was Education," "all orphans, at least," and "The Sewer Rat."
The post-apocalyptic worldbuilding was the aspect that gave the original series and the short fiction sequels their distinctive flavor. However, things are not as bad in The Kendish Hit. Indeed, Unification took place a few years before. And while everything is going down the crapper fast, it's not as bad as it will be a couple of years down the line. Cates even shares a number of pre-Unification memories, about his family, upbringing, and the world in general.
Everything Cates touches has a tendency to turn to shit and the gunner always finds ways to find himself up to his neck into trouble. And that's the "wise" Avery Cates. Now, imagine the skinny teenager/young adult Cates who needs to make a name for himself and earn some money. I relished the opportunity to go back in time and get an inkling of just how Avery Cates became who he is and I would love to read more of these prequels, if any are in the works.
Adult Avery Cates' first person narrative is always filled with wise cracks and dark humor and it never fails to make for a fun reading experience. Avery Cates is a despicable, manipulative, immoral, lousy, and sick f**k. Yet for all his faults and shortcomings, it's well nigh impossible not to root for the poor fool. The Kendish Hit allows readers to discover a bit more about how he came to be that way. Young or old, he's in over his head yet again, with his life hanging in the balance. But that's business as usual for Cates. The story of his life, actually.
Homeless, friendless, starving, Avery Cates is a skinny kid looking for some respect and a way to earn a living. So when he takes it upon himself to murder a man who was meant to be someone else's mark, you know that the proverbial shit will hit the fan. The Kendish Hit is the perfect companion book for fans of the series and what came after.
Even better, the ebook comes filled with bonus material. "This Was Battle. This Was Joy." and "The Golden Badge" are excerpts from a never-completed novel taking place in the Cates universe and told from the perspective of the System Police. "The Oldest Bastard on the Block" was a chapter originally meant to be part of The Digital Plague. "This Was Education" is another chapter meant for the same book, this one featuring Glee. "all orphans, at least" is a deleted chapter from The Terminal State. And finally, "The Sewer Rat" occurs following the events featured in The Shattered Gears omnibus edition. Each offers some insight on the world and its characters, and they were all interesting reads.
For more reviews, check out www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com
December 19, 2018
I hope that Jeff Somers is making a fair bit of money because I want all the threads of his Avery Cates stories to come together. I've often said in my reviews that the backstory of the Cates universe is absolutely fascinating and terrifying. We've seen Cates' world go from a poverty-stricken cess pool to a depopulated planet where people have been "bricked" and the remaining population is sterile and dying.
Who is benefitting?
This book is kind of odd. The title story is a bona fide short story about Avery Cates' first murder for hire. The story shows Cates before he was uber-competent and uber-cocky. Nonetheless, because he's desperate, he picks a contract off the floor and freelances. The story has all of the Cates style. It even explains how he got introduced to the Roon automatic handgun.
The remaining four stories are actually chapters from prior books, or planned books, that Somers did not use. These chapters actually make decent short stories, but the reader really has to know the background of the characters to fully appreciate them. I know that I barely remembered some of the characters.
The final section, set after the collapse of the world, ends with Cates realizing that he has become the System.
Now, that is a great insight/development that portends the something deeper that I am expecting from Somers.
Who is benefitting?
This book is kind of odd. The title story is a bona fide short story about Avery Cates' first murder for hire. The story shows Cates before he was uber-competent and uber-cocky. Nonetheless, because he's desperate, he picks a contract off the floor and freelances. The story has all of the Cates style. It even explains how he got introduced to the Roon automatic handgun.
The remaining four stories are actually chapters from prior books, or planned books, that Somers did not use. These chapters actually make decent short stories, but the reader really has to know the background of the characters to fully appreciate them. I know that I barely remembered some of the characters.
The final section, set after the collapse of the world, ends with Cates realizing that he has become the System.
Now, that is a great insight/development that portends the something deeper that I am expecting from Somers.
October 13, 2017
Some cool Avery Cates related short stories. Most were deleted chapters from the series, but still pretty interesting to read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews