The Electric Church is noir flavored scifi. Avery Cates is a gun-for-hire in a grim future. Earth has been unified under an oppressive government called the System, and the vast majority of people squat in the ruins of once great cities, committing petty crimes, living fast, and dying young. At 27, Cates is an old veteran. People over 50 are basically mythical. Cates gets drawn in a plot by the head of Internal Affairs for the System Cops to assassinate the head of a new religion called the Electric Church. The Electric Church preaches a doctrine of salvation through cybernetization, machine immortality to contemplate their sins. At their rate of growth, they'll be the biggest religion in 5 years, and the only religion in 10, if they aren't stopped.

The story moves quickly through the standard noir beats, with the coolest scifi ideas compressed into the last few chapters. My main problem is that the writing is repetitive, and commits the cardinal sin of telling and not showing. Cates's first person monologue is the only voice of the book, and he drones on about how ordinary cops are bad and the elite System Security Force are worse, how creepy the Electric Church cyborg Monks are, how crapsack the world is, and how much of tough and smart criminal he is. All words better spent showing this, rather than telling us.