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Woken Furies (Gollancz S.F.) | 
| Author: Richard Morgan
Publisher: Gollancz
Category: Book
Buy New: £6.99
New (7) Used (4) from £0.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 31876
Media: Paperback
Edition: New edition
Pages: 576
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.6
ISBN: 0575076526
EAN: 9780575076525
ASIN: 0575076526
Publication Date: September 5, 2005
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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Amazon.co.uk 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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 27 more reviews...
Kovacs comes home and faces the music. December 15, 2008
Takeshi Kovacs, an ex-Envoy now working for his own agenda, has returned to his homeworld of Harlan's World on a personal mission of vengeance. During his task he falls in with a gang of freelance mercs assigned to cleaning out the continent of New Hokkaida, where intelligent robots left behind from an old war are still making the land too unsafe for re-colonisation. A chain of events is set in motion that will transform the face of Harlan's World and bring Kovacs face-to-face with his own past in a very literal way.
Woken Furies is the third and, to date, final book featuring Morgan's protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. This time Kovacs is out for blood on his own terms when he is swept up in a very different and fuzzy chain of events which focuses on his own past. If Altered Carbon was a detective story and Broken Angels was a war story, Woken Furies is more of a political story and offers more of a glimpse into Kovacs' mindset, brought into sharp relief as he encounters old friends and enemies on his home planet. These events also allow Morgan to explore some more of the consequences of his body-swapping, re-sleeving universe, with subtle nods towards its implications for consciousness, sentience and what it precisely means to be human (a slight and barely perceptible nudge compared to Bakker's Neuropath, which yelled it into the reader's face loudly until we got it).
As usual, this is an ultra-violent, bloody, sexually explicit and generally pretty hardcore story of revenge, rebellion and fear, with some exploding robots, surfing and extreme rock-climbing thrown into the mix. Those who've followed Kovacs' adventures before will be at home here, although given that the events of the first two books do impact on the story here I would advise newcomers to start with Altered Carbon first.
Woken Furies (****) is the last Kovacs novel for the time being, although Morgan has not entirely ruled out a return to him later on. The book is available from Gollancz in the UK and from Del Rey in the USA. Morgan's latest novel, The Steel Remains, is out now in the UK and in February in the USA.
 Worst audio book of the series April 25, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
They apparently changed the narrator on this last audio book of the trilogy and forgot to tell him how to pronounce the name of the protagonist. This becomes very irritating. The story is still good, but you better read the book to enjoy it.
 Kovacs Just Gets Better ad Better October 16, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having just finished the third of the Takeshi Kovacs novels (the first was the excellent 'Altered Carbon', the second the fantastic 'Broken Angels') I am sat here missing Kovacs already and dealing with an overwhelming sense of wanting more! That usually tells me it's been a good read: and boy - 'Woken Furies' is a simply stunning read.
The significant difference between this outing and the previous two is that we find Kovacs a lot older, more world weary, even more dissatisfied with the life he leads and looking for something 'more' - though throughout the novel he clearly doesn't know what that 'more' is. Morgan's inspirational idea which drives the main point home is that the ruling Family of Harlan's World send a much younger version of Kovacs out to kill the older Kovacs; in essence, he pits the young, brash, wild and mad killer who ran amok in 'Altered Carbon' against the more mature, more experienced - and yes, more mellowed Kovacs that we find at the start of this novel. The difference between the two Kovacs versions is amazing - to the point that we actually begin to feel the rediscovery of the humanity of the older Kovacs. By the end of the novel we even, perhaps for the first time, begin to like Takeshi and share a sense of optimism not only for his future but for the world in which he lives. This is Morgan's greatest achievement in 'Woken Furies'.He begins to let us care for the lead character, and he begins to let his main character start to care again about the people he is living and working with. Remarkable.
The story itself is a wild malestrom of subtle clues, double-twists and highly unexpected plot twists; the action is frenetic, always well informed in terms of the technology and science being used, and blended to create a set of scenarios that draw you in both intellectually and emotionally. By the end, Morgan has us literally not wanting to leave Kovacs behind. He is facing a new dawn; there is real hope beginning to emerge in the man - and we desperately want to see what happens next.
Roll on the next Envoy novel; I can't wait. In the mean time, this merits reading and re-reading to pick up all the clues and brilliant characterizations that Morgan creates for us. Excellent novel; stunning writing; fantastic character. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Morgans' Best? May 10, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed Altered Carbon, loved Broken Angels and ... kind of liked Woken Furies. Having re-read this, I think it's possibly Morgans' best book. Expanding on Kovac's character further (his vendetta against the priests and what he does with their stacks is quite shocking) and his world, Morgan has created a dense, political novel that grips far beyond most 'science fiction'. If anything, the book is almost too full of ideas for its own good, but that's at worst a back handed compliment. It's very dense at times, and I think that's why it took me a second pass to really get into this.
I'd wondered if any of Morgan's titles would be made into films, but in the end, it's hard to see how they could be done justice. Intelligent, thought-provoking, funny and violent. Highly recommended.
Brilliant May 6, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
For those who are new to the world of Takeshi Kovacs, it's well worth reading the previous two novels in the trilogy (Altered Carbon and Broken Angels). Nevertheless, this book can be read on its own as a "standalone" novel.
The story is set about 500 years in the future and takes place on Harlan's World, a lush planet several light years from Earth. Technology is so advanced that people have achieved a kind of immortality. Their minds can be digitized and backed up on disks, then downloaded into new bodies following their death. This can lead to its own unique problems, however, which becomes clear as the novel progresses.
Without giving anything away, the plot centres around Kovacs - a man who once belonged to a group of elite soldiers known as the "Envoys" but is now on the run, having been involved in a number of incidents. The story follows him on a series of heart-stopping chases around the planet, during which he encounters a number of characters from his past, including one extremely important woman whose presence could change the world. There are various subplots, which ultimately converge and lead to a thrilling climax.
Overall, I loved this book, just as I loved the previous two novels in the series. There are some fascinating twists and turns, betrayals, and unexpected appearances from various people. The action scenes are particularly good, and this is where Richard Morgan really excels. In fact, I can't think of another writer who describes action scenes as well as he does. His style is excellent.
If you love sci-fi with a nice blend of action and dialogue, then you'll love what this novel has to offer. There are tons of original ideas and concepts here, futuristic technology, cool characters, breathtaking chases and surprises, interesting cities and locations... all of which make for a very absorbing setting. Takeshi Kovacs is violent and often flawed, a kind of anti-hero - but at the same time you're really rooting for him throughout the story.
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