Welcome back to the brash, brutal new world of the twenty-fifth century: where global politics isn’t just for planet Earth anymore; and where death is just a break in the action, thanks to the techno-miracle that can preserve human consciousness and download it into one new body after another. Cynical, quick-on-the-trigger Takeshi Kovacs, the ex-U.N. envoy turned private eye, has changed careers, … eye, has changed careers, and bodies, once more . . . trading sleuthing for soldiering as a warrior-for-hire, and helping a far-flung planet’s government put down a bloody revolution.
But when it comes to taking sides, the only one Kovacs is ever really on is his own. So when a rogue pilot and a sleazy corporate fat cat offer him a lucrative role in a treacherous treasure hunt, he’s only too happy to go AWOL with a band of resurrected soldiers of fortune. All that stands between them and the ancient alien spacecraft they mean to salvage are a massacred city bathed in deadly radiation, unleashed nanotechnolgy with a million ways to kill, and whatever surprises the highly advanced Martian race may have in store. But armed with his genetically engineered instincts, and his trusty twin Kalashnikovs, Takeshi is ready to take on anything—and let the devil take whoever’s left behind.
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BROKEN ANGELS is the second book featuring protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. Whereas ALTERED CARBON, the first book in the series, delivered a film noir, whodunnit set in the future, this latest installment switches to straight-up space opera/military sci fi. Thus, my drop to four stars for this installment isn’t so much about the quality of the writing …
Broken Angels is the second novel of the Takeshi Kovacs series. Whereas Altered Carbon was a future noir detective story in the future, Broken Angels is a war picture. Even the decades change with Altered Carbon feeling vaguely 1940s-like, Broken Angels feels like it takes place in a pseudo-Vietnam. I was initially disappointed to see none of the …
I didn’t think it was possible for Richard K. Morgan to top his first book, Altered Carbon, but he did. Like Altered Carbon, the narrator is a soldier/assassin with a tortured soul and very dry wit (although not as much wit in this book as the first–this book is much darker). Every sentence is considered; there is nothing slap-dash here. Morgan …