John Topley's WeblogBroken Angels by Richard MorganThursday, 19 June 2003
Broken Angels rejoins our hero Takeshi Kovacs (that's “kovach”) whilst he is fighting as a mercenary in a war on the distant planet Sanction IV. He's been re–sleeved in a custom combat body. He is offered a way out of the war in return for leading an archaelogical expedition through a hyperspatial gateway left behind by the Martians, who feature quite heavily in this book, after being hinted at in Altered Carbon. Kovacs assembles a “dirty dozen”–esque collection of renegades as well as archaelogist and central character Tanya Wardini. The book follows their quest, with plenty of back–stabbing—both metaphorical and literal—along the way. In many ways I found this novel to be quite distinct from Morgan's first book. It can be read as a sequel (there's some interesting back story filled in) but also stands alone in its own right. I found the plot to be more straightforward than Altered Carbon. It's worth pointing out that there's a fair amount of stylised, ultra–violence to contend with but I haven't found it to detract from either novel, quite the opposite in fact. Judging by the reviews on Amazon, some people have difficulty with this aspect of Morgan's creations, but it didn't bother me and I consider myself quite squeamish. The back cover of Altered Carbon says that Morgan is a tutor at Strathclyde University; as Broken Angels doesn't mention this I assume that he's left to concentrate full–time on his writing. On the strength of his two novels to date I'd say that's a good thing for sci–fi fans. I'm certainly looking forward to Kovacs' next outing. 4/5.
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