I was utterly taken by Altered Carbon, Morgans first Takeshi Kovacs book - his second, Broken Angels, however was not great and felt like both the character and his writer were treading water. Woken Furies is a return to form, though not necessarily in the style of the original. Its still hard and fast, descriptive and intelligent but gone is the hard boiled detective noir to be replaced by grim action thriller that is positively epic in scale. An adventure that rolls from side to side of an alien planet dealing with emotional turmoil and the powers of guilt and revenge, this book is surprisingly emotive and you see through the facade of Kovacs at times to the very human character at his core. Of course its layered underneath wise cracks, violence and cool headed thinking from Kovacs but you really do get a sense that the characters are products of their environment, a living breathing hell of an alien planet ravaged by settlement wars. Harlans World is obviously the starting point for the Kovacs story and rather cleverly Morgan has him return in order to deal with his personal issues, whilst knowingly nodding to the previous stories and their effects upon the character.
Its a shame because if this was the second novel in the series, the run would be amazing - as it is, the middle book lets the story arc sag slightly. Don’t let it put you off though, avoid Broken Angels completely if you like - this book is outstanding and it would be a shame to miss it. The different styles on show here demonstrate the flexibility of Morgan and his deft characterisation means there is surely more in the pipeline for Kovacs.
Filed by Kieran at August 19th, 2008 under Books