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The Black Wave
Avery Cates is heading back to The Iron Island to steal what might be the last operational hover in what was once The System, but his rag-tag army is starting to fray -- and there are more System leftovers out there than he knows. And most of them aren't very friendly.Part One of the novel THE MACHINES OF WAR, which will eventually be published in an omnibus edition in both print and digital formats.
- GenresScience Fiction
68 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2021
4 people are currently reading
4 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Somers
69 books355 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 of 1 review
December 24, 2022
The Black Wave (Avery Cates) by Jeff Somers
It's hard to keep up with Avery Cates these days. Cates started as an up-and-coming gangster - a "gunner" in Somers' parlance - and then became the top gunner. All this was in the world of the globe-spanning "System." Then, the System fell apart, everyone who mattered got "bricked," and civilization totally collapsed to where the scattered remnants of humanity are fighting over the last remaining scraps of working System technology. Cates has grown into an old man with bad knees but the capacity to take a punch.
Cates' rise and fall is described over the course of around eight books. We are now about three books into the post-System world, which has been getting nastier and brutish.
In this book, Cates is leading a team to raid "Iron Island" for the last working hovercraft. The idea is that they can use the hovercraft to enter a secured facility and restart the System. Cates spent his life hating the System and does not have a favorable opinion of how this will work out, but it seems like the only move left.
The Cates series is very enjoyable action/adventure. The worldbuilding is gritty. However, the series works better when read from the beginning. At this point, there have been too many plot changes and characters to make sense of without following the storyline from the beginning.
This installment is about short story length. The story is not complete in itself. It is the first quarter of a complete novel. Still the story is satisfying and ends on a proper cliffhanger that motivated me to get the next installment.
It's hard to keep up with Avery Cates these days. Cates started as an up-and-coming gangster - a "gunner" in Somers' parlance - and then became the top gunner. All this was in the world of the globe-spanning "System." Then, the System fell apart, everyone who mattered got "bricked," and civilization totally collapsed to where the scattered remnants of humanity are fighting over the last remaining scraps of working System technology. Cates has grown into an old man with bad knees but the capacity to take a punch.
Cates' rise and fall is described over the course of around eight books. We are now about three books into the post-System world, which has been getting nastier and brutish.
In this book, Cates is leading a team to raid "Iron Island" for the last working hovercraft. The idea is that they can use the hovercraft to enter a secured facility and restart the System. Cates spent his life hating the System and does not have a favorable opinion of how this will work out, but it seems like the only move left.
The Cates series is very enjoyable action/adventure. The worldbuilding is gritty. However, the series works better when read from the beginning. At this point, there have been too many plot changes and characters to make sense of without following the storyline from the beginning.
This installment is about short story length. The story is not complete in itself. It is the first quarter of a complete novel. Still the story is satisfying and ends on a proper cliffhanger that motivated me to get the next installment.
Displaying 1 of 1 review