Broken Angels

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Cynical, quick-on-the-trigger Takeshi Kovacs, the ex-U.N. envoy turned private eye, has changed careers, and bodies, once more, trading sleuthing for soldiering as a warrior-for-hire and helping a far-flung planet's government put down a bloody revolution.

But when it comes to taking sides, the only one Kovacs is ever really on is his own. So when a rogue pilot and a sleazy corporate fat cat offer him a lucrative role in a treacherous treasure hunt, he's only too happy to go AWOL with a band of resurrected soldiers of fortune. All that stands between them and the ancient alien spacecraft they mean to salvage are a massacred city bathed in deadly radiation, unleashed nanotechnolgy with a million ways to kill, and whatever surprises the highly advanced Martian race may have in store. But armed with his genetically engineered instincts, and his trusty twin Kalashnikovs, Takeshi is ready to take on anything...and let the devil take whoever's left behind.

Broken Angels is the second Takeshi Kovacs novel. Don't miss the first, Altered Carbon, or the third, Woken Furies.

©2003 Richard K. Morgan (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A superior, satisfying cyberpunk noir adventure." (Publishers Weekly)
"A lively follow-up to an energetic debut, with a still refreshingly cynical hero." (Booklist)

great without the longwinded

I really enjoyed Altered so was anxious for the second Broken. Morgan didn't back away from his gritty and sensational as in the first so the second continued on queue. The only that thing that took away from Broken which seemed to get worse the deeper you went was the long-winded narration or explanation of history and technology where, I feel, a brief review would have been suffice. It slowed the pace considerably especially at the end when all the lose ends needed to be tied up.

Great follow up

Just as good if not better than the first. Im excited to see how Netflix portrays the world's the author has built.

excellent all around audio book.

I found it hard to put it down. good sci-fi. good fights. good story line with mystery, intrigue, suspense and a couple raw sex scenes to boot.

Good Listen

Good continuation of the Altered Carbon series. Impressive narrator with an ability to utilize many voices. The constant fallback to the main character's "envoy" skills is wearing a little thin, though.

First book was better

First book was better. This one just stretched out slowly for me. I was often apathetic about the characters and the story. Around the 2/3rds mark the story finally picked up and became exciting again. I enjoyed the last third of the book and the ending. I am not sure whether or not I will continue with the series.

Excellent

The recording quality was definitely better than in the first book. This second book was as good or better than the first, in terms of both story and narration! Highly recommend!

all great as usual

even though his style of "adult bedroom scenes" improved fro the last book, I seriously think this writer should use a "shadowwriter" for these scenes. with so much detail of colors and emotions and raw material turned into this insanely beautiful picture that is written, I feel as though a climax is spoiled as I laugh at the sex scenes. it kills the chapter. if this book is republished, please add the same imagination into the adult scenes as you do with their surroundings of beautiful blue sea.
that only argument aside, another fabulous book!

incredible story, tons of action.

You come to really love the characters, and at times, the phrase, "Indiana Jones in Space" comes to mind. if Indiana Jones were a super soldier with state of the art weaponry. Fantastic listen!

My favorite so far

Don't read this book until you've read the first novel (Altered Carbon). This is a futuristic world, with lots of new technologies and phrases that won't make any sense to you if you haven't read the first book. I liked the fact that the second installment just took off without the usual plodding re-hashing of details from the previous story. Kovach is the perfect lead character, sort of a cross between Han Solo and Indiana Jones but with out the moral code. His sarcastic sense of humor with an "I really don't give a damn" attitude make him very sexy. I've read other reviewers that were turned off by the strong language and explicit sex scenes, but many of you might actually find them refreshing. I enjoy Fantasy and Sci-Fi novels (Robert Jordan was my favorite), but the total lack of sex in Jordan's complex adult stories was very dissappointing and quite unrealistic. Morgan has written a trilogy (yes, the third one is out already!) with lots of very strong female characters who really enjoy sex. There are evil women in the book as well as righteous ones, but none of them are victims. The only part of the two books that I could have done without were the graphic torture scenes. Fortunately, they are only a small part of what is sure to become a classic trilogy. The movie rights have been snatched up by Holliwood already, but the dilemma will be, who will play Tak, when he's in a different body in each episode?

Great story

I must admit that at first I didn't think the sequel was going to be as good, then it all changed and I was in for an unpredictable wild ride. I'm going to knock off 1 star for three plot problems. He ended up 'solving' them by lying and having the character lie to us one right after the other. with a few sentences he tore the band-aid off and away we went. If you can't solve it better than that, I guess that's a fine plan. Cause if he drug it out and popped me out of the story three separate times, I very likely would have stopped reading. As it was, I laughed and learned a way past writers block!