from Jordan:

Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan is the sequel to the cyberpunk novel Altered Carbon, which I reviewed some time ago. While it's not a direct continuation on the plot, it shares the main character and the same broad setting.

Whereas Altered Carbon was a sci-fi laden noir story where protagonist Takeshi Kovacs investigates a murder on a future earth, Broken Angels is a combination of military and horror sci-fi with a twinge of a heist story. If Altered Carbon was the equivalent of the movie Blade Runner, Broken Angels is closer to the movie Alien.

Kovacs is working for a private military contractor on a recently settled planet named Sanction IV. The PMC has been hired by the Cartel, an alliance of various megacorporations, to quash an upstart rebellion. In the history of this universe, Martians were a highly advanced civilization that mapped the universe and settled various habitable planets, and subsequently died out, long before humans had evolved from our primate ancestors. When humans finally landed on Mars and started excavating, they found star charts and technological relics that assisted them in travelling to and settling on planets far from Earth. Sanction IV is one of those planets.

Through a series of events, Kovacs finds a Martian gate that leads to a long abandoned Martian warship. The series follows Kovacs as he goes AWOL from his PMC, signs on with a corporate sponsor, and then sets to work opening the gate and travelling to the ship.

The story itself is somewhat meandering. Interesting things happen, but it doesn't always feeling like a cogent plot. The awkward sex scenes that I condemned in Altered Carbon are back, though they're fewer in number. The occasional bouts of overdescriptive gore are here as well, although they at least serve to reinforce the tension and fear of the book's horror ambience.

Overall, it's a worthwhile, if imperfect, read for fans of science fiction or thrillers. ( )

Recently I've been told I'm tough to please.

Here's what I know about books: their experience is highly subjective. Not only to book details like plot, setting and characterization, but also to the reader's place and time, to their mood, the book format and any distractions.

What appeals to me will not necessarily appeal to you, even if we are best friends. Or hate each other. Or don't know each other. I write these reviews first for me--I have a terrible memory, and if someone asks me if I liked it, or what it was about, or wants to discuss the role of women in that author's writing, I often have only foggy details stored. A review reminds me of what I liked--or didn't--and why. Because I've learned my lesson with Goodreads after the great Deletion Debacle, I no longer keep all my reviews here. Thus, my reviews include a synopsis.

I also write reviews for readers that are seeking to match their read with those nebulous concepts mentioned above. I will rarely warn readers off a book. Likewise, I will rarely give a book a universal recommendation. It's very clear to me that many of my treasured authors and reads lack universal appeal. That's fine. I don't want people reading Peter Beagle and hating him. But if you find yourself in the mood for whimsy, characterization, and short stories to break your heart and then heal it, I want you to be able to read my reviews and think, "That sounds perfect."

Thus, it was with relief after a string of indifferent reads that I picked up Broken Angels. I confess, I had minimal hopes despite enjoying Altered Carbon immensely. I'm the sort of reader that reads through other reviews for some books, and I noticed that many people felt this wasn't as strong as Altered Carbon.
They were wrong, for me. It was actually much better.

The on-topic part of my review will be continued at Wordpress and Booklikes, because that's just the kind of person I am. Like Kovacs, I never want to forget that the system doesn't exist for me.

Review at:
http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/broken-angels-by-richard-k-morgan-if-y...
or
http://carols.booklikes.com/post/831234/post ( )

8/10
Violent and gory yet full of mystery and a closer look into who Takeshi Kovacs is. Like [b:Altered Carbon|40445|Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1)|Richard K. Morgan|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1387128955s/40445.jpg|2095852], the first Takeshi Kovacs book, there are twists and double-dealing aplenty, but the settings--a non-Earth planet at war and a ship hanging in deep space--are very different from the noir-Earth of the first book. We see Kovacs as leader of a team and yet separate from his team because of who he is. A page-turner that still manages to make the reader think! ( )

Excellent second installment in Takeshi Kovacs series. Plenty of action, twists and turns and just as you think you got it all comes the biggest turn ever :-) Highly recommended. ( )

After the fantastic, 'Altered Carbon', it was straight into this, the second book in the trilogy.   And after 'Altered Carbon' i had exceptionally high hopes for this book, which, admittedly, one should maybe not do, but one can but hope.   Did it meet the expectations?

Not quite.

But i certainly wasn't disappointed.   Like 'Altered Carbon', it kept me turning the pages, but whereas 'Altered Carbon' is set on Earth, 'Broken Angels' is set on a planet far, far away.   And its that one single difference that, for me at least, lets this book down a tiny, tiny bit.   I just didn't feel involved any more, because it's so far out from the world as i know it that it doesn't capture me like a book set on Earth does.

Normally one doesn't notice these things.   Usually a sci-fi trilogy is set solely on other planets in a different time with lots of the same characters re-appearing, and it all just flows nicely and feels complete within itself.   But this jump from a story based mostly on Earth, with towns and places that we can all relate to, to being based completely on another planet, far, far away, with only one common character, is like reading something that's not a trilogy any more.

Having said that though, it's still a good book.   But it's just not the flowing trilogy that i had hoped for and expected from the first book.   As the saying goes... 'Expectation is the mother of all fuck ups'.

Yeah, maybe i shouldn't have expected that, and to be fair, this book does point out that if you don't have any expectations and then you will be ready to deal with anything.

Anyways, now i'm not expecting anything with the third book, 'Woken Furies', but more of Takeshi Kovacs running amok while killing lots of people, causing lots of mayhem and thinking lots of philosophical points to justify doing so along the way.   And he's already doing that in the first 10 pages.

Although, maybe i lied.   I do expect a couple more rampant sex scenes written into this and i'll be quite disappointed if they're not there.   Both the first two books have had 2 very descriptive and very inventive sex scenes, so this book had better do as well.

All in all though, to sum it up, a very good read if you like lots of death, mayhem, corporate villains, with some highly descriptive sex scenes thrown in.   Oh, and i almost forgot... there's even some Martians as well -- yeah, like real Martians. ( )