- The Good: Pure pulp in a dark and gritty scifi space military package
- The Bad: Hyper-violent and hyper-sexual, which may not be your thing
- The Literary: Exploration of the moral and social implications of separating mind from body
Thirty years after the events in Altered Carbon, Takeshi Kovacs is still out for number one. He’s given up the private eye business, now soldiering for hire in a new body, working for some far-off planet’s government to help put down a rebellion. When a new, even more lucrative opportunity arises, Kovacs goes AWOL with a small band of soldiers to salvage an ancient wreck of an alien spacecraft.
Takeshi Kovacs lives in a world where human consciousness can be uploaded into one new body after another. Of course, bodies cost money, but with resources, death is just a break in the action. The first novel in the series, Altered Carbon, is a futuristic gritty noir in which Kovacs investigates a murder mystery and explores the world of the wealthy class who grow bodies indefinitely and have the means to live forever.
Broken Angels is a very different book, both in tone and setting. Kovacs is mixed up in scheming military warfare, political and corporate deals, complete with multiple double crosses. Kovacs is still a great character, hard and bitter, but with his own solid moral compass. The concept of human bodies as other is also explored well here, with lots of bashing on religious types who believe in souls.
The majority of the plot finds our characters exploring and fighting for their lives, especially dealing with radiation sickness, in the remains of a Martian civilization millions of times older and more advanced, as we learn the true source of the body-swapping tech. Being amongst such greats definitely conveys a sense of wonder, and maybe horror as well.
Unfortunately, I find the story trying to be a little too big. There’s plenty of hyperviolence and death and torture, corporate greed, as well as enhanced sex, but it doesn’t serve the plot in the same way as in Altered Carbon. I actually think it’s quite clever for Morgan to switch genres between books like Kovacs switches sleeves, but in reality, the sequel doesn’t grab me like its predecessor.
Recommended for fans of military hard scifi with lots of adrenaline and violence.