Broken Angels by Richard Morgan

Face the facts. Then act on them. It's the only mantra I know, the only doctorine I have to offer you, and it's harder than you think, because I swear humans seem hardwired to do anything but. Face the facts. Don't pray, don't wish, don't buy into centuries-old dogma and dead rhetoric. Don't give in to your conditioning or your visions or your fucked up sense of... whatever. FACE THE FACTS. THEN act. -- Quellcrist Falconer, in a speech before the Assault on Millsport

I've not had enough time to read lately, but Richard Morgan's Broken Angels is one of those books that you can't put down after you've started it. This book is a sequel to Altered Carbon - or at least it features the same main character, Takeshi Kovacs. Genre-wise the books are very different - Altered Carbon was Film Noir style detective story, while Broken Angels is pure hard core science fiction (in many ways it reminds me of difference between Alien and Aliens). The events take place decades after Altered Carbon, and Kovacs signs up to join a covert team trying to secure an archeological artifact whose value is limitless and for which corporations and armies are willing to kill for.

More I read Morgan's books, more impressed I am. He's a brilliant writer, and can only get better. Although he doesn't always follow the rule of "show, don't tell", it doesn't matter because you so desperately want to hear what he has to say you don't mind and just gulp everything he offers. His characters are never two-dimensional - for example in this book the corporate shark Matthias Hand would have been so easy to just leave as a typical greedy corporate bastard, but his character is multidimensional and rich with detail. Kovacs is not an easy character either - he's the main character, likeable yes, but not a nice man by any accounts. He's tough and almost unbeatable - yet not omnipotent, he's cold and methodical murderer - yet not unsympathetic nor cruel.

Wonferful writer, brilliant book. Read it.

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