Customer Reviews

Woken Furies: A Takeshi Kovacs Novel

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I'd been waiting for quite a while to read this third entry in Richard K. Morgan's series of Takeshi Kovacs novels. It was worth the wait, and in some respects it may be the best of the series so far. Tak travels through some dark, dark territory here.

Don't be fooled (or put off) by the pace. Where _Altered Carbon_ was a rapid series of body blows, _Woken Furies_ is more like being dragged down very slowly by a very large weight. There's a lot going on here, but quite a bit of it is in the background and between the lines. If you don't get into Tak's head pretty early on, the novel may read like a travelogue.

Not that that's necessarily _bad_. Probably a lot of us were curious about Harlan's World, and we get to see quite a bit of it here. We also finally get to put faces (the faces of their current sleeves, anyway) with some familiar names from Tak's past. All of that will probably be interesting enough to entertain the casual reader.

But if that's all you get out of this novel, then you're missing the meat of it.

The surface-level plot opens with Tak on Harlan's World in a synthetic sleeve, trying to get back into his own body. He's also, as we gradually discover, on some sort of mission, the details of which we don't really learn until some 250 pages in. And not too far into the tale, we meet someone who just _might_ turn out to be Quellcrist Falconer . . . or maybe not. Furthermore, Tak is being pursued by a younger version of himself, decanted from a backup copy he didn't know existed. Things build toward a final revelation with implications far, far beyond Quellism and the local politics of Harlan's World.

The pace, though, is generally slow. Oh, things do happen (and people start dying horribly within the first twenty-odd pages), but a lot of the action is off-screen. We spend the bulk of the novel the way we spent most of _Star Trek: The Motion Picture_: Going Somewhere.

The really interesting stuff, and the real, behind-the-narrative content of the novel, is what happens to Tak. I'm not going to give you any more clues about this; I'm just going to warn you to listen with both ears as those titular furies awaken and the possibilities of redemption come and go. There's a lot of internal turmoil going on here, and Tak isn't necessarily going to tell you about it directly. Hell, despite his Envoy training, I'm not sure he's even fully aware of all of it himself.

Readers who keep wanting recycled versions of _Altered Carbon_ will continue to be disappointed, as they were with _Broken Angels_; Morgan clearly isn't going to keep rewriting the same book for us. Now, me, I think that's a good thing.

I have to admit, I'm hooked. I can't get enough of Richard Morgan's distopian future. I was so eager to read Woken Furies that I arranged to get a copy from Great Britain (because it was released months earlier than in the US). I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Like Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, it treats you to a highly-charged whirlwind of a story centered on the activities of Takeshi Kovacs.
In this episode, a Yakuza family have hired an earlier version of himself to track him down. Complicating matters are a personal vendetta against a particularly vicious religious group, and a woman who may (or may not) be a re-embodied revolutionary named Quellcrist Falconer.
I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that you see more of Kovacs' humanity than in previous novels. NOT that Woken Furies is a "group-hug" kind of book. Far from it. In fact, Kovacs seems even more violent and misanthropic than in the first two books. However, we understand "why" a bit more and we see more of the effects 2 centuries of war and crime have had on him.
Kovacs has firmly established himself as my new favorite literary character. As in his other 2 Takeshi Kovacs novels, Richard Morgan gives us a character of suprising depth and humanity that is still capable of incredible savagery; in addition to a perfectly-realized vision of a future in which technology hasn't eliminated war or crime, but has grown with it.

It's always a delight to find an author who creates characters in three dimensions instead of the more usual two; Morgan seems to stretch his people to five or six. This is the third novel in the series about Takeshi Kovacs, ex-Envoy, stone killer, freelance renegade, and very dangerous man to be on the wrong side of. It's been three centuries, objective time, and Kovacs is back on Harlan's World, where he originally came from. It's also been a couple of centuries since the Resettlement, the failed Quellist revolution that gave the Harlan family oligarchy a run for its money, and Kovacs -- who only wants to continue killing fundamentalist priests (it's personal) -- finds himself caught up, first, in the attempt to reclaim the nanoware-drenched continent the revolution produced, and, later, in a new revolutionary plot. Because it's part of Quell's teachings, that when things go against you, you retreat and you wait -- for generations, if necessary. But now, just maybe, Quellquist Falconer might be back, in the flesh. But that's just this novel's top-level plot. There's also Kovacs's vendetta against those who let die the only woman who mattered to him -- Real Death, no resleeving. And there's his longstanding relationships with the several criminal cultures of Harlan's World, and with his old Envoy trainer. Not to even mention being hunted by a younger, smart-assed version of himself. And, just out of sight, there are the vanished Martians, about whom we learned a lot in Morgan's second book, Broken Angels. There's military and political philosophy here, all of it cynical, there's imaginative anthropology, there's a certain amount of gruff sex, there are some great quotes, there's considerable death (some deserved, some not), and there are breath-grabbing battle scenes like you haven't read in years. Morgan's second Kovacs novel was twice as good as his first. This one is three times as good as his second. If this one doesn't win both the Hugo and the Nebula, there's no justice. But, hey -- Kovacs already knows that.

PS -- I was astonished a previous reviewer compared this to Bester's _The Stars My Destination_. A great book, don't get me wrong (I even own a First Edition copy of it), but Gully Foyle is pretty and pale and poetic beside the dark and blistering Takeshi Kovacs!

Before I read the last 100 pages of this book, I would have given it 3 stars. Woken Furies suffers from a common affliction among many sci-fi series: same-samey-ness. Once you're introduced to the world, the technologies, the aliens, whatever, unless the author can keep the creative curve balls coming (Peter Hamilton often has the ability to keep things fresh), the joy and surprise of discovery quickly fades. And so it goes with Woken Furies. Two thirds of the way through and I thought Harlan's World just wasn't different enough from Venice Beach to keep me riveted. And assembling the deCom team, going into battle, using the cybertech - I might as well have been re-reading Broken Angels, Morgan's best by far.
BUT! Just when I was resigned my disappointment, the last few chapters cranked the book out of its nose dive. Morgan lets loose with some Big Ideas, and the final showdown is spectacular fun. Sci-fi writers often have problems ending their books (Stephenson, Gibson anyone?), but Morgan always ends with a satisfying crunch, and this one wrapped up the nicest of them all.
A word of warning - this is by far the most violent book I have ever read, and that includes Morgan's previous books. If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. And Morgan's graphic sex scenes seem gratuitous and perfunctory to the point of being boring porn.
In Morgan's favor, as usual his prose is taut as a drum and hits hard. Characterization has always been his strong point, and this is perhaps his best: Kovacs's anger seethes off every page. The self-loathing loose cannon may be a cliché, but with Kovacs you can feel it, to the point where character is basically a psychotic serial-killer, and you're right there with him.
I think Morgan was wise to retire Kovacs with this novel. One more and the sameyness would have made the series a bore. (I've given up on Hamilton and Reynolds for that reason - I get it already.) If you're a fan of the Kovacs books, this is definitely worth some tedium (albeit entertaining tedium) to get to the payoff. I'm looking forward to what Morgan will do next.

The prodigal envoy has sleeved home and Harlan's World is awash in violence - nothing new for a planet that is 10% dry land and 90% rebellion. Takeshi Kovacs is back and has scores to settle, scores to kill, and scores to sleeve. Now that he is in the comfort of his home world, Kovacs has assumed a more focused, more mature, and more deliberate persona for his latest vendetta of annihilation and revenge. Troubles soon escalate for him and his colleagues-du-jour. Quicker than you can shoot "angel-fire" he is throttled into an epic conflict between the ancient, the past, the present and the future where ultimately humanity itself hangs in the balance. This time however, he confronts an enemy that is more than a match for him... himself.

Richard Morgan weaves a lavish tapestry of characters, storyline and mayhem in his latest tour-de-force, "Woken Furies." The characters come fast and furious and are all quite memorable. The pages of the book drip with neura-chem as the storyline grabs you not only by the throat, but also by your heart and mind as well. As usual, Morgan creative talents present a tale of murderous intrigue, complex social interaction and wonderful science fiction. This time Morgan augments his literary repertoire with deep psychological drama. On a personal level, we witness the Furies awaken once more, unleashed on society in order to fan the passions between dogma vs. change, conformity vs. revolution, justice vs. revenge, safety vs. sacrifice, loyalty vs. expedience.

Morgan explodes the bounds of science fiction and produces a tremendous literary effort. Morgan transforms extreme violence, shocking brutality, carnal lust and ultimate technology into an Odyssey-like adventure with a Quell twist. Kovacs' torment is exposed and his guard is dropped as he tumbles into ever-intensifying physical conflicts and emotional rage. He comes down to earth, so to speak, from his UN-envoy conditioning and must confront his demons and measure the scope of his humanity.

If you have enjoyed Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, then you will enjoy Woken Furies. If you have not read the first two, it is recommended for although this isn't a directly sequential trilogy, the first two books set up Morgan's universe and Woken Furies will read easier and make more sense with the first two books under your belt.

That said, Woken Furies ends the Kovac's books (at least according to Morgan). Morgan ends his small group, military tactical operations novel series by expanding the scope to events with implications throughout the Protectorate. Kovac's has to grapple with his inner demons while dodging an onslaught of yakuza, military and religious opponents. In the end, Kovacs' attempt to become something more than an ex-Envoy criminal, and his struggle against his own pessimism, lifts this novel from what would otherwise be a typical SF adventure novel.

Like the previous books, there's a brain and a heart here. Recommended for readers who enjoyed the previous novels and whose looking for fast-paced SF adventure with more brains than average.

I thoroughly enjoyed Altered Carbon and was enthusiastically looking forward to reading his other novels. I thought I had discovered a new genius of Sci-Fi; a vein of gold. I then read both Broken Angels and then Woken Furies. Broken Angels is a slight bit better than Woken Furies, but without giving a detailed literary review, on a scale of 1-10 for Morgan's works, Altered Carbon is a 10 and these aforementioned other two novels are 7's at best. They just don't have the tension, vision, plot arcs and characters of Altered Carbon. In addition, I found the futuristic erotic and sexual imagery of Altered Carbon an excellent ancillary backdrop to the plot. These other two novels didn't come close in that regard. I couldn't put Altered Carbon down, but with these other two, I had to struggle to finish them both. Poor pacing and some very droll extended abstractions of the characters thoughts as well. I was very disappointed. I'm finished with Morgan until I hear he has something as good as Altered Carbon. It's reminds me of a rock group that has one hit song and then builds an entire career off of it. Altered Carbon was It!

In the distant future, Takeshi Kovacs heads home to repressive Harlan's World to eerily confront himself when he was an Envoy working for the UN as a super soldier to keep people on the remote planets in check. Since he could afford to leave that body behind, Takeshi downloaded his personality into a new "sleeve" and left for another world to start life anew.

On Harlan's World, Kovacs soon finds himself protecting Sylvie, an apparent reincarnation of a long dead messiah, from the First Families, who need her dead as her message interferes with the power they yield. The First Families send an Envoy to kill Sylvie, but Kovacs believes the killer is a younger healthier him.

This is an action-packed science fiction Noir that starts in hyperspeed before accelerating into faster than light velocity. The suspense laden story line is all action except when Richard K. Morgan chooses to pontificate against any form of religious fundamentalism, which Kovacs believes by its essence means its burden requires either altering carbon structure or breaking the angels of those of other belief systems. Kovacs is at his best when affirming you can't home, at least not safely. Fans of electrifying futuristic thrillers will appreciate the award winning author's latest triumph.

Harriet Klausner

Look gang, obviously almost everybody likes the work. Here's why my review might be different: It's literary.

Morgan's newest work in the series brings about a character meltdown for Kovacs and if you think about it, it was about time. The character has his usual action packed kill fest, but the events of his life and the previous 3 books are changing him.

Now if you like character driven books then you will like this, because the Kovacs series (and Morgan for that matter) had a choice to make, either become a one dimensional outlet miliporn or become a real science fiction series. Morgan decided he wanted to be a writer, not a hack.

So here we have a being who has done the lousy evil work for years through multiple bodies, all the while with only a version of super advance analysis to keep him from being a psychotic serial killing sociopath. Remember in the other two books, Envoys are directed sociopaths, but they have their conditioning to keep them from going all the way. Kovacs on the other hand has had to go through more than the average Envoy so it stands to reason he will face a reckoning.

And to be honest who would want to read a constant, silly, innane rehashing where the main character just kills with no thought or regret? A long formulaic series of empty books with no real plot? (Drake, Webber, and Sherman fans aside of course)

So here is Kovacs event and it is a doozy. What will the result be? I'll tell you this: The possibility of a sequal is not a given.

This is a good work, yeah it echoes Flandry of Terra and All My Sins Remembered, in that you have a writer asking, What happens when your despicable acts reshape your soul? I am happy to say that Morgan answers the question in a different and new way than his two excellent predecessors.

Get the book.

But this book just didn't hold my attention. About halfway through I skipped to the end to find out what happens.

I loved Altered Carbon, and liked Broken Angels, but couldn't get into this book. I enjoyed Thirteen also, and am half way through Market Forces, which is 'ok'. (A friend of mine is a big fan of Morgan's and loaned me the books) Every character is like a bristling rabid animal. Everyone is over the top, and I guess it just gets tiring. It sometimes feels that people get angry and there is tension... but there isn't much reason for the tension to be there. Or at least, not enough reason for there to be SO much tension and anger in the scene. Not much happens in the first half of the book, maybe it got better in the second half but I just couldn't keep reading.

Compare Kovacs to say... Tony Soprano from the Sopranos. One of the interesting things about the show was that Tony would be happy and smiling and jovial for part of a scene, and then in an instant 'turn gangsta' and you would see his dark side.

Kovacs just broods a lot and is ultra serious in every scene. You would think after a few hundred years of life that people would mellow out a bit, but apparently for some teenage angst just never goes away. For an example, there is the scene where Kovacs is going to rent a boat and is talking to a kid (son of the captain of the boat) and gets angry with him because the kid is apparently more involved in his virtual world/matrix style life than real life. Kovacs is over the top as usual, but again, you would think someone with as much life experience as he has would just smile and shrug and maybe try to give the kid some advice. Getting *emotional* over it seems a bit ... melodramatic. Which is typical of the whole book, and really my main gripe with Morgan's writing overall.