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Le deuxième épisode des aventures de Takeshi Kovacs est très différent du premier. Après le mélange de science-fiction et de roman noir dans Altered Carbon, nous avons affaire ici à un roman de guerre mêlé d'aventure archéologique.

C'est plutôt bien fait, même si j'ai regretté quelques longueurs à plusieurs moments du récit. J'ai trouvé ce deuxième roman un peu mieux réussi que le premier, peut-être parce qu'il innove moins et que le genre sur lequel il s'appuie (le roman de guerre) me plait moins a priori.

L'auteur en profite tout de même pour étendre la mythologie de son univers de science-fiction, et livre surtout une description parfaite de la guerre et de ce que cette expérience représente pour les combattants et les civils.

Je me demande quel style et quel genre sera revisité dans le troisième volume de cette saga. Je le saurai sans doute très vite :-)

How quickly style can turn to crutch, spicy phrases turn into tics, and a streetwise narrator turns into your cranky coworker that keeps coming around to complain to you! I really liked Altered Carbon, but it seems like maybe one was enough. This time around, I can't unhear the way that wildly different characters rely on the same cliches, and the way that a post-biology post-human world opens up space for Morgan to describe human racial/ethnic characteristics in a really creepy colonial pseudo-scientific way. Also, unforgivable for a pulpy novel, really really boring. Boo! I was really expecting to like this one.

“You have a faith as deep as mine. The only thing I wonder is why you need so badly not to believe.”

So, I really liked the first book in this series when I read it last year. Sci-fi! Cyberpunk! Murder mystery! Detective noir stuff! All of that hit just the right notes with me, and I really appreciated the psychological spin the author put on the whole concept of resleeving. I was excited to pick up this book!

But then I discover that it's its own thing. Completely stand alone. And not even involving mysteries. Way more sci-fi, way more (unnecessary) sex. I thought the meat of the book was interesting, but I also felt like all the sex scenes in this one weren't quite necessary to advance the plot any. They just seemed like (un)interesting diversions the author wanted to go on while writing this book. Like if Morgan's editor was really Shatner, and he was whispering in Morgan's ear about sci-fi sex selling in entertainment media.

Also. There was. Another thing that bothered me in this book. I. Don't exactly know how to describe it. Except that it involved lots of periods instead of proper punctuation. Like ellipses. Or. Commas. No. Instead we get. Paragraphs like these where the speaker would pause in the middle of a sentence. For effect. And then a new sentence would start up with the rest of their thought. It was. Super distracting. And kind of unnecessary. I'm not a writer. But I feel like I could write better sentence structure.

Still, I gave this book 3 stars, if only because I (still) really like the premise behind this series and the sci-finess of it all. The story was entertaining enough, if a little basic when compared with the plot and twists of the first book. I was still glad to have read it, but am hoping the third book recaptures a bit of the magic of the first for me.

Less porn scenes than [b:Altered Carbon 40445 Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1) Richard K. Morgan https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1387128955s/40445.jpg 2095852], but still nothing I would let my daughter read.I liked learning more about the Martians.Time to dive into [b:Woken Furies 29397 Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs, #3) Richard K. Morgan https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1388198991s/29397.jpg 1745528] and see what happens next!

Really didn't love this one like the first book in the series.

Where the first book was a noir detective novel, this one is more of a military heist story. It's still gritty and graphic, but I had a harder time following the mystery or even really caring as much about it as I did with the first book.

It's fine, though. I would still recommend this as a really solid story with a unique voice and excellent world-building.

Back in the brutal world of Takeshi Kovacs. I enjoyed the writing that just plunges you into this dark and grimy future with all its tech, weapons and warring factions, without taking much of a breath to ease you into it. Kovacs' cynical voice is fun read. And the whole book seems a meditation on the nature of war and why we fight them and why we might never escape them.

The Martians felt like a new further-out, slightly mystical level to this scifi world. Which was a bit surprising. And the ending is a bit unclear to me. Why'd he attach so tightly to his “pack” from the expedition and could so easily kill his old “pack”? Does his wolf conditioning only apply to recent memory?

3.5

Takeshi heads of into more hard core campaigns and I find myself not wanting to follow him anymore. The plot is also more complicated requiring some back and forth to keep abreast of the story and thus I lost interest somewhere along the way. While the concept of sleeving remains I find myself longing for the crime suspense of the first book.

Angeli spezzati, in originale “Broken Angels” è un romanzo di genere fantastico e noir del 2003, dello scrittore britannico Richard K. Morgan. Fa parte della trilogia di “Takeshi Kovacs”, questo è il secondo dei tre romanzi.

Il protagonista principale della serie è Takeshi Kovacs Lev, un nativo del pianeta di Harlan, di origine giapponese e dell'Europa dell'Est, diviene membro di una gang di adolescenti prima di arruolarsi nelle forze armate. Dopo aver lasciato l'esercito di cui faceva parte come membro di una forza militare d'elite, Kovacs torna alla vita criminale e diviene un mercenario, poi catturato sarà imprigionato e il suo corticale “stack” verrà memorizzato senza un corpo per decenni come punizione, prima di essere rilasciato sulla parola ed essere impiegato in situazioni ad alto rischio. Kovacs è un ex inviato, un tipo di soldato futuristico, facente parte dell'intelligence e in parte soldato, addestrato per adattarsi rapidamente a nuovi organi e nuovi ambienti.

Questo secondo romanzo è ambientato cinquant'anni nel futuro rispetto alle vicende di Bay City. L'ex “spedi” ha cambiato custodia e lavoro: ha dismesso i panni dell'investigatore privato e indossato quelli a lui più congeniali del mercenario al soldo del governo di Sanzione IV, pagato per soffocare una rivolta. Combatterà con la compagnia del Cuneo di Carrera a sostegno delle forze governative contro i rivoluzionari di Kemp, finchè una straordinaria scoperta archeologica: il ritrovamento e il recupero di una nave marziana, la civiltà più antica e più evoluta dell'universo.

Purtroppo le ambientazioni alla Blade Runner e lo stile hard-boiled che avevo apprezzato molto nel romanzo d'esordio (Bay City) sono assenti; l'autore ha preferito sostituirli con scenari di guerra tra ribelli, mercenari e Corporation su una lontana colonia. Richard K. Morgan rimane comunque grandioso per l'immaginario che inventa, perché abbina un ritmo frenetico con profusione di adrenalina, combattimenti ed inutizioni ad una contestualizzazione sociologica futura da grande scrittore di fantascienza, forse uno dei migliori degli attuali.

In ogni caso, secondo me, la trama delude leggermente rispetto al romanzo precedente, ma confermo comunque il mio applauso a Richard Morgan, uno dei migliori scrittori di fantascienza attuali. Nelle quasi cinquecento pagine c'è spazio per tutto ciò che un accanito lettore di fantascienza hard desidera avere.

I enjoyed this cyberpunk adventure featuring Takeshi Kovacs. While it was confusing at times remembering who was who and where they were, I liked the mix of [b:artificial intelligence 27543 Artificial Intelligence A Modern Approach (2nd Edition) Stuart J. Russell http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167881696s/27543.jpg 1362] and human interactions. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, Woken Furies.