Woken Furies (Takeshi Kovacs Novels Book 3)

Back on his home planet of Harlan's World, Takeshi Kovacs is trying to mind his own business -- which happens to be a personal open season on the priests of a fanatical religion. However, he soon becomes a target of the Yakuza, hiring on with some machine-killing mercenaries, on the outs with the ruling family, in bed with a resurrected legendary rebel prophet, and throwing in with surfer revolutionaries, all while being hunted by a younger version of himself. Despite being so darned adorable Kovacs just can't get an even break, but he does kind of bring it on himself.Woken Furies is Richard K. Morgan's third and latest TAKESHI KOVACS novel. Raw-edged violence, graphic sex, and bad attitudes continue to be a mainstay of this series. (Can you say awesome?) Altered Carbon is still my favorite but Woken Furies comes in as a very close second. Without risking a spoiler, I will say the conclusion of Woken Furies is the most satisfying of the three books.If you've read the proceeding TAKESHI KOVACS novels, you already know that the most crucial element of this series is the technology that allows a person's consciousness to be uploaded into a "cortical stack" which in turn can been implanted into another vacant body or "sleeve." As long as a person has the means to acquire their next sleeve and as long as their cortical stack remains intact, they will never die. What makes Mr. Morgan's take on immortality different is that except for the extremely wealthy who can afford to be cloned, there's no telling who, or sometimes what, someone will be "re-sleeved" as. This makes for intriguing twists because Takeshi changes bodies like we do cars. Sometimes he gets a top-of-the-line, high-performance model. Other times, his sleeve is just something he's stuck with until he can do better.Kovacs has got to be one of the angriest and self-loathing characters in fiction. He racks up a body count that rivals CONAN THE BARBARIAN. If that's not enough incentive to stay off his bad side, Kovacs makes revenge an art form of which he is the master. Just like the Pale Rider of the apocalypse, where Takeshi Kovacs goes, Hell follows.Harlan's World is a very interesting setting with its high ocean-to-land ratio and ancient Martian satellites that blast most everything out of the sky. The largest landmass on Harlan's World is currently uninhabitable due to evolving artificially intelligent machines which mercenaries called deComs make a good, but dangerous, living destroying. Not to mention that the planet's three moons make for a courageous -- or maybe suicidal -- surfers' paradise. Three centuries previous, after a failed revolution, the all-powerful Protectorate granted the rule of the entire planet to the Harlan family, who has a truce of sorts with the rampant criminal underworld. Also a twisted religion -- much like the beliefs of al Qaida -- has been growing steadily. And this is Takeshi Kovacs' hometown. Add that to an abusive father and it's no wonder he's so screwed up.While Kovacs' antisocial behavior, violent tendencies, and authority issues may make him self-destructive and a danger to society, they make one helluva a dark adventure for readers. Kovacs holds a special place in my jaded heart.

I really enjoyed this novel, which is the third in Richard K. Morgan's series about a mercenary, Takeshi Kovacs, who lives in a far future where personalities are digitized, stored in metal canisters called "stacks," and downloaded into a series of "sleeves," or bodies. Although this novel does not have as profound an impact as the first in the series, Altered Carbon, it is a big improvement over the second book, Broken Angels, in terms of plotting and the cast of secodary characters.This time, Kovacas is back on his home planet, Harlan's World, where the "first families" -- decendents of the original settlers from a dying Earth -- are running a repressive oligarchy that (what else is new?) lives off the backs of average workers. It has been centuries since the workers rose up in revolt, originally led by the mythical Quellcrist Falconer, a sort of female Che Guevarra figure. Now, it appears, Falconer is back, having been digitized and stored for almost 200 years in a data dump somewhere in the depths of a Harlan's World stack warehouse. Kovacs runs into Falconer and, skeptical though he is, eventually finds himself helping her and the descendants of her followers challenge the first families' dominance of his home planet.There are lots of sidelights in the plot, including a group of surfers who are underground Quellists, Japanese yakuza gangsters and their Slavic equivalents called "haiduchi," and a bunch of "deComms," who are teams of young risk-takers that go around disarming war machines left over from the last time that Quellcrist Falconer led a revolt against the first families. While all of this may sound a bit confusing, it is not; in fact, the plot lines make perfect sense and are totally believable, which I would argue is the single most important mark of a great science fiction story.Morgan's characters are well drawn and his attention to detail is impressive, particularly in the way he provides realistic explanations for things such as the weather patterns on a planet that is 98% water and has two moons. He endows Harlan's World with interesting plant and wildlife too, such as the swamp panthers that are raised to fight one another to their deaths in gladiator-like pits run by haiduchi, or the formidable ripwings, which are reptile-like creatures that fly pteradactyl style around "the World" preying on mountain climbers and other unwary humans.The novel ends in a perfect set up for the next installment in the adventures of Takeshi Kovacs and the presumptive Quellcrist Falconer -- Is it really Quell, or is this personality a mere trace copy left floating around in the planetary data banks? Will Takeshi ever find the stack of his great love, Sarah, who may be drifting somewhere at the bottom of the Harlan's World sea? Are the ultra-high tech Martians still alive and, if so, where are they? Can a far-future mercenary find happiness in a cheap, synthetic sleeve without neurochem and a gecko gene splice for climbing cliff faces? Some, or perhaps even all, of this will be revealed in the next installment, which I hope comes very soon. Kovacs is addictive, and Morgan a welcome supplier of top flight story-telling.

Hard, bloody scifi with plenty of detail, sex and politics. It all sounds fine but for some reason this, last of a very loose trilogy, just lost me. It's very much a book of two halves, at least in my mind, and it's just too long. The ending is also just a bit disappointing.I have to finish by saying that parts of this book were used in Season 2 of the Netflix series but only small parts. In some ways the series is clearer and better story telling although, even then, it's gets confusing if you haven't read the books background.

This book is a long read but due to the things that Takeshi Kovacs goes through in this book it will make you feel its even longer (not a bad thing) - it also answers a few questions from the previous 2 booksAlthough at the same time if you are reading this review chances are the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy already has you hooked & there is a 99% chance you will buy this book regardless, do it & you wont be disappointed.

There is a school of thought that holds ALTERED CARBON to be the best in this series because its narrative is so tight. True, its story is tighter - but the looser, broader story of WOKEN FURIES actually makes it bigger, more of an epic tale. I love the act of imagination involved in this novel - the leftover military machines and the revenge story, sure, but also the fundamentalist cult (don't say Morgan's books aren't relevant), and especially the image of the Little Blue Bugs, a surfing, turned-on revolutionary group that evokes the Weathermen, the RAF, etc. Such echoes give the book more texture, make it resonate. God, I love this.

Excellent book series totally recommend it this is the third book in a series of three I watched the show on Amazon and I really wanted to read the books it different to the show but like most series based on books but I love the books more than the TV show well written and I personally could not put it down

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.