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A review by albatrossonhalfpointe
The Eternal Prison by Jeff Somers
4.0
If you'd told me before I started reading this series that I would actually come to love it a little bit, I don't think I would have believed you. Cyberpunk is so not my thing. And yet, what can I say? I kind of love Avery Cates, and I kind of love Jeff Somers.
The gun battles, of course, remain one of Somers' huge strengths, but I also love his insanely convoluted plotlines that somehow all come together in the end. Sort of. His characters are almost all self-serving, snarky assholes that you somehow develop a certain affection for despite their lack of pretty much any redeeming qualities. And I love that when he bounces you back and forth between times and locations from one chapter to the next, he doesn't pander to those not paying attention by adding little bylines to tell you where you are now. He just works something into the first paragraph or so that, provided that you are in fact paying attention, clues you in to where you are. (He is also considerate enough to consistently alternate between only two such settings so that even without the clues, one should be bright enough to pick up on the pattern after a few chapters, but anyway.)
The upshot is that these books are not deep, and I have nothing insightful to say about them, but as long as he continues to write them, I expect that I will continue to read and thoroughly enjoy them.
The gun battles, of course, remain one of Somers' huge strengths, but I also love his insanely convoluted plotlines that somehow all come together in the end. Sort of. His characters are almost all self-serving, snarky assholes that you somehow develop a certain affection for despite their lack of pretty much any redeeming qualities. And I love that when he bounces you back and forth between times and locations from one chapter to the next, he doesn't pander to those not paying attention by adding little bylines to tell you where you are now. He just works something into the first paragraph or so that, provided that you are in fact paying attention, clues you in to where you are. (He is also considerate enough to consistently alternate between only two such settings so that even without the clues, one should be bright enough to pick up on the pattern after a few chapters, but anyway.)
The upshot is that these books are not deep, and I have nothing insightful to say about them, but as long as he continues to write them, I expect that I will continue to read and thoroughly enjoy them.