Woken furies
I have now finished a third volume by Richard Morgan, Woken Furies. As a third book, the incredible novelty has somehow worn out (in terms of a new Universe, new characters, etc.) but it remains a very good book, exploring the society and the political structures glimpsed during Broken Angels. On the positive side, the book explores at last the possible paradoxes created by resleeving as the occurrence of autonomous doubles, uncontrolled reincarnations, and the permanent loss of a person. The main character, Kovacs, is as ambiguous as in the previous novels, with terribly dark sides—as in his “crusade” against a religious order responsible (in action or creed) for the definite death of his lover—and a beginning of a self-questioning that is rather interesting. A wee related with [my favourite] Chandler’s The Long Goodbye. Religious orders are thus more present than in the earlier volumes, maybe too close to existing situations, but interesting nonetheless. The fact that the reincarnation happens with the lost leader of the main revolutionary movement of the past centuries has obvious consequences on the political setting of Kovacs’ universe. The pace is as fast as in the other books, with a lot of unexpected deaths and combats, even though both the sleuth work and the military perspectives of the previous books. On the less positive side, I find some dialogues rather poor and lacking in perspective, some characters difficult to understand or improbable, a lack of constancy in Kovac’s beliefs, and (as previously) some chance occurrences completely unbelievable. All in all, this remains a high quality and enjoyable scifi’-cyberpunk novel! (Now is time to switch to another author, for a change!)
November 27, 2011 at 12:11 am
[…] is the last book by Richard K. Morgan I read (after the Kovacs series, Market Forces, and The Steel Remains). It has also been published under the title Thirteen (or […]
August 28, 2011 at 11:31 pm
Finished reading Kovac’s novels last week. I really enjoyed that last one [as much as the others, actually], and I indeed can see why it could be the last one: each of the three novels tackled a new angle of the character and the universe. Adding more facets will be difficult, especially if trying to keep up with the remarkable progression in challenges encountered.
Nonetheless, I hope Morgan will situate some future novels in the same universe: he has a knack for exploring the possibilities of his axioms (especially the possibilities of mind digitization). While too many book leave me pulling my hair in despair because obvious avenues of logical consequences of such or such invention were purely ignored for the sake of the plot, Morgan really goes the extra mile in looking at the idea through all angles.
In this respect, he reminds me of Donald Kingsbury in “Psychohistorical Crisis” (have you liked it?): although the styles are very, very different (Kingsbury going into hard-science-fiction developments where Morgan will switch to action), the same care about the central technological idea is taken — and equally enjoyed!
August 29, 2011 at 7:36 am
In complete agreement! If you read my review of Market Forces, you will hopefully skip it, as Mad Max has presumably less appeal for greenhorns of your generation!!!
August 16, 2011 at 12:12 am
[…] forces is the fourth novel by Richard Morgan that I read. It is much less successful than the other ones, telling the story of a corporate Mad […]