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A review by taseenmuhtadi
Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan
4.0
“The difference between virtuality and life is very simple. In a construct you know everything is being run by an all-powerful machine. Reality doesn’t offer this assurance, so it’s very easy to develop the mistaken impression that you’re in control.”
-- Richard K. Morgan
Despite being designated as the book #2 of the same trilogy, this is an entirely different beast from Altered Carbon. Where Altered Carbon was a neo-noir cyberpunk murder mystery following a hard-boiled detective in a neon sprinkled metropolis, this is a set in a warzone where most characters are soldiers or mercenaries. This better qualifies as a military SF rather than cyberpunk. This is also not a continuation of the plot from Altered Carbon and the only returning character is Kovacs himself. All this refers to how different it is from Altered Carbon. This novel is more of a standalone story set in the same universe. None of that detracts from the quality of book however.
Richard K. Morgan is as engaging as ever. Once again he brings his elegant writing style to the book. The plot is as twisty and opaque-until-the-last-moment and more full of intrigue and double-crossings then Altered Carbon. He paces it perfectly to keep the reader hooked and turning pages. You'd think that having a device like the cortical stack would make death less dramatic and have less narrative weight in the story; but the authour manages to kill his characters in increasingly spectacular fashion as the story progresses; and he also keeps introducing new plot elements that kills them permanently to negate the cortical stack advantage. Violence and gore, as is expected in a military SF, are prominent features in the narrative.
The authour’s world-building very good. Some elements mentioned in Altered Carbon are picked up and elaborated upon. We find out more about the Martians, who are more relevant to the plot this time, rather than being the mere curiosities they were in the previous book. We find how exploration and exploitation of ancient Martian technology created the Protectorate as we see it in Kovacs’s world. And of course we see the politics and greed that come with said exploitation play out. It all feels natural and fits into what we’ve been shown till now. Things don’t feel like they were invented to move the plot forward.
The only purpose Altered Carbon serves in this book is that it relieves the authour of introducing Takeshi Kovacs to us. He is the only returning character and he is as badass as last time. Only this time he’s equipped with an even more badass sleeve. His character is essentially the same, perhaps a little bit more introspective this time, but otherwise unchanged. Here he is working as a mercenary instead of a detective. Given what we know of his history from book #1, this is actually what he was trained for and spent most of his professional career doing. He frequently thought about his previous military operations in both books. In retrospect, it is the events of Altered Carbon, where he worked as a detective, that might actually have been an unique experience in his career. Here, he is right back in his element; fighting a war and helping the Protectorate maintain control. The other characters play their part well. They aren’t cardboard cutouts or placeholders in the team to be killed off for escalation of events. Several have thought-out backstories and add depth to the plot. They also have their own initiative and agency.
Kovacs’s near constant reminding us of his Envoy conditioning and his sleeve’s neurochem does become repetitive. There are a several sex scenes that felt added-on. While such scenes in Altered Carbon may have played a part in the plot, here they feel superfluous. And the authour’s attempt to use the scenes and references to these events later in the book to convey emotional connection between characters just fall flat.
All in all, a very enjoyable book to read. The plot never stays where you left it a few pages ago. The ground is constantly changing under the characters’ feet, which makes for a gripping read. And the action doesn’t hurt either.
-- Richard K. Morgan
Despite being designated as the book #2 of the same trilogy, this is an entirely different beast from Altered Carbon. Where Altered Carbon was a neo-noir cyberpunk murder mystery following a hard-boiled detective in a neon sprinkled metropolis, this is a set in a warzone where most characters are soldiers or mercenaries. This better qualifies as a military SF rather than cyberpunk. This is also not a continuation of the plot from Altered Carbon and the only returning character is Kovacs himself. All this refers to how different it is from Altered Carbon. This novel is more of a standalone story set in the same universe. None of that detracts from the quality of book however.
Richard K. Morgan is as engaging as ever. Once again he brings his elegant writing style to the book. The plot is as twisty and opaque-until-the-last-moment and more full of intrigue and double-crossings then Altered Carbon. He paces it perfectly to keep the reader hooked and turning pages. You'd think that having a device like the cortical stack would make death less dramatic and have less narrative weight in the story; but the authour manages to kill his characters in increasingly spectacular fashion as the story progresses; and he also keeps introducing new plot elements that kills them permanently to negate the cortical stack advantage. Violence and gore, as is expected in a military SF, are prominent features in the narrative.
The authour’s world-building very good. Some elements mentioned in Altered Carbon are picked up and elaborated upon. We find out more about the Martians, who are more relevant to the plot this time, rather than being the mere curiosities they were in the previous book. We find how exploration and exploitation of ancient Martian technology created the Protectorate as we see it in Kovacs’s world. And of course we see the politics and greed that come with said exploitation play out. It all feels natural and fits into what we’ve been shown till now. Things don’t feel like they were invented to move the plot forward.
The only purpose Altered Carbon serves in this book is that it relieves the authour of introducing Takeshi Kovacs to us. He is the only returning character and he is as badass as last time. Only this time he’s equipped with an even more badass sleeve. His character is essentially the same, perhaps a little bit more introspective this time, but otherwise unchanged. Here he is working as a mercenary instead of a detective. Given what we know of his history from book #1, this is actually what he was trained for and spent most of his professional career doing. He frequently thought about his previous military operations in both books. In retrospect, it is the events of Altered Carbon, where he worked as a detective, that might actually have been an unique experience in his career. Here, he is right back in his element; fighting a war and helping the Protectorate maintain control. The other characters play their part well. They aren’t cardboard cutouts or placeholders in the team to be killed off for escalation of events. Several have thought-out backstories and add depth to the plot. They also have their own initiative and agency.
Kovacs’s near constant reminding us of his Envoy conditioning and his sleeve’s neurochem does become repetitive. There are a several sex scenes that felt added-on. While such scenes in Altered Carbon may have played a part in the plot, here they feel superfluous. And the authour’s attempt to use the scenes and references to these events later in the book to convey emotional connection between characters just fall flat.
All in all, a very enjoyable book to read. The plot never stays where you left it a few pages ago. The ground is constantly changing under the characters’ feet, which makes for a gripping read. And the action doesn’t hurt either.