I enjoyed this cyberpunk adventure featuring Takeshi Kovacs. While it was confusing at times remembering who was who and where they were, I liked the mix of artificial intelligence and human interactions. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Woken Furies.

Richard Morgan’s second outing for character Takeshi Kovacs takes a different approach and creates a different atmosphere. From the ‘sci-fi’ noir detective tale in Altered Carbon, Broken Angels is possible bleaker yet, focusing on war and the effects. Such as, taking your ‘sleeve’ (any body, into which your digital soul can be transferred) into an area of huge radiation, and slowly dying from the poisoning. Sure, you can get a new sleeve, but you’re still experiencing the slow rot. Or what about asking what happens to a mind when it is repeatedly killed and resleeved and sent back out into the fighting, only to die and be reborn again?

In the story, Kovacs has turned mercenary, fighting in a local planatary war. Until he is approached to lead a group going after a prize: alien technology worth the end of the war.

The negatives: a few cliched situations; a lot of gory bloodshed; very annoying speech patterns, spreading through all the characters; and perhaps a slight vagueness in place of mystery in the plot.

The positives: great atmosphere, and very different from the previous book; thought-provoking situations of man meeting advanced technology; and a revelation in the plot that made me want to start over.

Roll on book 3!

Another good sci-fi-noir tale. Sophomore effort worth reading.

Great book. Rereading it to learn why.

This is a great book. I admire Morgan’s style. Trying to figure out why this book is so good, which is why I’m rereading it.

Another great Kovacs novel from RKM