Woken Furies: 3 (Takeshi Kovacs) - Softcover

Morgan, Richard K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345499778 ISBN 13: 9780345499776

Publisher: Del Rey, 2007

Synopsis

Mixing classic noir sensibilities with a searing futuristic vision of an age when death is nearly meaningless, Richard K. Morgan returns to his saga of betrayal, mystery, and revenge, as Takeshi Kovacs, in one fatal moment, joins forces with a mysterious woman who may have the power to shatter Harlan's World forever.

Once a gang member, then a marine, then a galaxy-hopping Envoy trained to wreak slaughter and suppression across the stars, a bleeding, wounded Kovacs was chilling out in a New Hokkaido bar when some so-called holy men descended on a slim beauty with tangled, hyperwired hair. An act of quixotic chivalry later and Kovacs was in deep: mixed up with a woman with two names, many powers, and one explosive history.

In a world where the real and virtual are one and the same and the dead can come back to life, the damsel in distress may be none other than the infamous Quellcrist Falconer, the vaporized symbol of a freedom now gone from Harlan's World. Kovacs can deal with the madness of AI. He can do his part in a battle against biomachines gone wild, search for a three-centuries-old missing weapons system, and live with a blood feud with the yakuza, and even with the betrayal of people he once trusted. But when his relationship with "the" Falconer brings him an enemy specially designed to destroy him, he knows it's time to be afraid.

After all, the guy sent to kill him is himself: but younger, stronger, and straight out of hell.

Wild, provocative, and riveting, Woken Furies is a full-bore science fiction spectacular of the highest order--from one of the most original and spellbinding storytellers at work today.

About this title

Review:

Woken Furies is Richard Morgan's third noir SF adventure starring combat veteran Takeshi Kovacs, who debuted in Altered Carbon (2002; winner of the Philip K. Dick Award). Kovacs operates in an interstellar future of extreme violence and exotic weaponry, where swapping bodies is as easy as trading in an old car.

The setting is Harlan's World, 95% ocean, where ancient alien orbital systems still vaporize anything that flies too high. Kovacs, older and madder, is running a private vendetta against Taliban-like fundamentalists whose principles--in a world where death is reversible--forced an old girl-friend and her child to die permanently. Wounded and on the run as usual, he escapes by joining a "deCom" squad hunting down human-built weapons systems that don't want to be decommissioned. Soon he's entangled with a woman who (some of the time) seems to be a reincarnation of long-dead revolutionary leader Quellcrist Falconer...

Meanwhile, the dictatorial ruling family of Harlan's World has set the deadliest possible assassin on Kovacs' trail--an illegal copy of his younger self, in a brand-new body.

High-energy complications follow. There's unexpected violence in a virtual-reality monastery. Kovacs and "Quellist" sympathizers plan a crazy James Bond assault on an impregnable island fortress, an attack that ends in a surprise twist. The idealistic Quellcrist (if that's who she is) has the key to a genetic time-bomb never before used: "A whole new form of death." Even those implacable orbital weapons that smite high-fliers with "angelfire" have secrets of their own.

Morgan's knack for grisly set-pieces and heart-stopping violence makes for compulsive reading--emphatically not for the squeamish. Against all odds, his fast-moving choreography of pursuits, escapes, shoot-outs, reversals and betrayals finally ends in a satisfying touch of compassion, a trace of hope. A superior SF thriller. --David Langford

Review:

Praise for Richard K. Morgan

Market Forces

"Morgan is one of science fiction's bright young lights, a crisp stylist who demonstrates equal facility with action scenes and angst."
-The New York Times Book Review

"Forces is turbo-injected with moral ambiguity, Wag the Dog political scenarios, and action sequences fit for a Bruckheimer movie."
-Entertainment Weekly

Altered Carbon

"Compelling . . . immensely entertaining . . . full of duplicitous characters, murky motives, and a detective who's as tough as he looks."
-The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Gritty and vivid . . . Looks as if we have another interstellar hero on our hands."
-USA Today

Broken Angels

"Clearly the work of a gifted, ambitious writer."
-The Washington Post Book World

"A superior, satisfying cyberpunk noir adventure."
-Publishers Weekly

About this edition

• Publisher: Del Rey
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0345499778
• ISBN 13: 9780345499776
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 480