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Broken Angels

A Takeshi Kovacs Novel

By Richard Morgan

(34)

| Mass Market Paperback | 9780345457721

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Book Description

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 anContinue

Critics

All the pulse of pulp

Broken Angels by Richard Morgan 394pp, Gollancz, £10.99 Genres, like genes, thrive on recombination. In 1984 William Gibson's Neuromancer dramatised an intuition familiar to every computer user, that there is a space behind the screen: a world waitin ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

The Best Reviews: Richard Morgan, Broken Angels

"Terrific futuristic outer space tale" In the twenty-fifth century, three decades have passed since Laurens Bancroft hired Takeshi Kovacs to investigate the murder of Bancroft (see ALTERED CARBON). Now Takeshi has returned to his main profession, sol ... (read full critics)

thebestreviews published on Thu, 16 Sep 2010

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4 Reviews

2 people find this helpful

There's two things wrong with Sci Fi. Ridiculous oneupmanship permeates the genre, with each new author and each new book daring to create bigger better universes with more aliens and more technology and more fear and more intrigue and more confusion. And thats the other thing - confusion reigns whe ... (continue)

There's two things wrong with Sci Fi. Ridiculous oneupmanship permeates the genre, with each new author and each new book daring to create bigger better universes with more aliens and more technology and more fear and more intrigue and more confusion. And thats the other thing - confusion reigns when the author fails to employ subtlety.
Altered Carbon suffered from neither of these and as such it was perfect. This follow up, Broken Angels isn't quite as succsseful. For a start it tries too hard. As a sequel it just isn't as effortless as its predecessor, the technology gets in the way, the characters are too brash and the story is too convoluted.
And that ties up into quite a confusing little package - in a valient attempt at keeping the reader guessing Morgan has chucked more twists in than a bucket of twisty twister twists. And its just hoplessly confusing. At one point I was flicking back by 100 pages trying to work out what I'd read the day before and if that guy with the thing was actually that guy who did the thing with the other thing, but its not its ok its a different guy but they might be the same guy, and it might actually be a man and for fucks sake its all irrelevent.
What the novel does deliver in large doses is a downbeat look at corporate society (however unsubtle) and some fantastic action.
A case of trying too hard, this isn't a bad novel but its not any better than the sum of its parts which is a shame because Takeshi Kovacs is an excellent character who deserves more.

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Kieran Delaney said on May 28, 2008 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

1 person find this helpful

SCi Fi - Cyberpunk

I liked a lot this book. There are all the ingredients of a good Cyberpunk book: evil corporations, war on a distant exotic planet, relationships between people, technology both human and alien.

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Roberto Palazzolo said on Aug 9, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

My thoughts

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.

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krin5292 said on Dec 10, 2008 | Add your feedback