Page 1 of 1
Richard Morgan - Takashi Kovachs
Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 1:38 am
by FizbansTalking_Hat
So I consider this my own personal greatest find of the past year. He's been around for some time, but the story he's centered around his main character amazes me.
My own review of Altered Carbon, his first book is as follows:
A kind of science fiction mystery thriller. It's almost like a world similiar to Blade Runner. An insanely intense and very fast paced science fiction thriller mystery read. It's like this Punisher style urban street ex-commando punk Columbo investigator, set in the world of Blade Runner, thats how I feel when I am reading, cheers for Morgan.
Worth checking out, if you haven't, pick it up, cheers.
Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 10:44 am
by Nav
I very nearly started a thread about this series yesterday. I got the new book, Woken Furies, at the weekend, unaware that it was the third in a series. Initially I found it to be too overtly cyberpunk for my tastes, and the violence a bit gratuitous, but I'm slowly being drawn in as I progress through it. Some of the concepts have not been clearly explained yet (and they appear to be quite complex), but I'm not sure if that's because of the big time gap between this book and the last or the author not bothering to fill in new readers.
One thing that has annoyed me is the inclusion of the angelfire defense platforms, which are similar to an idea I was developing for one of my own projects. *sigh* Back to the drawing board.
Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 2:48 pm
by FizbansTalking_Hat
His reading order is as follows:
Altered Carbon (Book 1- Takashi Kovachs Novel)
Broken Angels (Book 2- Takashi Kovachs Novel)
Market Forces (Book 3 - Doesn't deal with Takashi Kovachs, set in same world and universe, but different character)
Woken Furies (Book 4- Takashi Kovachs Novel)
Well almost done with his second book, and I have the others sitting next to me waiting to be read. He doesn't explain TOO much of the whole concept of "re-sleeving" in successive books, he assumes you've read the others, and even the first book Altered Carbon is vague at times, instead the more he uses the terminology, the more you come to accept what he refers to as a commonplace thing, and the more you read little hints follow. It was a bit harsh at times during the first novel, cuz he assumes that the world that Kovach lives in is just commonplace, which even though its frustrating it helps give a sense of realism but just assuming you already know about it.
Go back and read the first one, cheers.
Posted: Tue May 17, 2005 9:53 pm
by Nav
I wonder what Market Forces is like. I suspect that it might lay everything out clearly, as I believe it is set earlier on and the publishers might have decided to monkey around with the order so as to start with a more action-orientated book.
That happened to Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series in which Revelation Space was actually the second book, with Chasm City being set much earlier and with a different central character.
Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 2:40 pm
by Reave the Just
really enjoyed Altered carbon. sort of sci fi Ray Chandler. personally I didn't find the violence overly gratuitous - that's what the critics said (presumably to excite the young male readers), but it's really not that bad. Not a huge fan of violence meself.
will be reading broken angels soonish
Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 3:03 pm
by Nav
From the premise I wouldn't expect Market Forces to be as bloody as the rest, but the violence seems to have been toned down after the first couple of chapters of Woken Furies. It was probably just the good old 'opening pages bloodbath' that gets the publisher's attention.
I'm on to the second act now and it's really good. I still don't understand a lot of what's going on, but I don't think Takeshi does either so that's probably intended.
Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2005 4:10 pm
by Encryptic
I've recently read Altered Carbon and just finished Broken Angels last night, both of which were very good.
Altered Carbon in particular read like a sci-fi version of James Ellroy's crime fiction: very tough and gritty. Broken Angels was also very good, and I'm glad he didn't repeat the same kind of plotline for this one, but went off on a different tack, which made it very interesting.
I really like what he does with the myriad possibilities afforded by the re-sleeving concept in both books.
Can't wait to check out Market Forces and Woken Furies....
Posted: Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:40 pm
by Nav
I've just had a look at Richard Morgan's (albeit skeletal) website to see what he's up to. It looks like he intends
Woken Furies to be the last Kovacs book, which is perhaps a bit of a shame, but he's currently working on a new novel called
Black Man, set around 100 years into the future. The release has been put back until next October (apparently he's finding it difficult to flesh out the new universe because "I can't just make up whatever the **** I want and call it realistic") but here's the blurb on amazon:
One hundred years from now, and against all the odds, Earth has found a new stability; the political order has reached some sort of balance, and the new colony on Mars is growing. But the fraught years of the 21st century have left an uneasy legacy...Genetically engineered alpha males, designed to fight the century's wars have no wars to fight and are surplus to requirements. And a man bred and designed to fight is a dangerous man to have around in peacetime. Many of them have left for Mars, but now one has come back and killed everyone else on the shuttle he returned in. Only one man, a genengineered ex-soldier himself, can hunt him down and so begins a frenetic man-hunt and a battle survival. And a search for the truth about what was really done with the world's last soldiers.
What really did grab my attention on Morgan's site was this:
Richard Morgan wrote:"Land fit for Heroes has made the transition from tentative idea to confirmed (and contracted for – yikes!) noir fantasy trilogy. I'll be writing the first of these novels once Black Man is done and dusted, thereafter alternating between these and SF – and I soberly promise that each book will be a standalone with its own narrative arc and self-contained satisfactory conclusion. Thus, if you don't like what I'm doing, you'll be free to jump ship after book one – and if you do like what I'm doing, you won't be left hanging for two years while I make up the next instalment. Does that seem fair?
Now that I'm familiar with Morgan's work to date I have to say that I'm
very intrigued by what his take on Fantasy will be like.
www.richardkmorgan.com