Woken Furies

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: William Dufris

Length: 22 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

Richard K. Morgan has received widespread praise for his astounding 25th-century novels featuring Takeshi Kovacs, and has established a growing legion of fans. Mixing classic noir sensibilities with a searing futuristic vision of an age when death is nearly meaningless, Morgan returns to his saga of betrayal, mystery, and revenge, as Takeshi Kovacs, in one fatal moment, joins forces with a mysterious woman who may have the power to shatter Harlan's World forever.

Once a gang member, then a marine, then a galaxy-hopping Envoy trained to wreak slaughter and suppression across the stars, a bleeding, wounded Kovacs was chilling out in a New Hokkaido bar when some so-called holy men descended on a slim beauty with tangled, hyperwired hair. An act of quixotic chivalry later and Kovacs was in deep: mixed up with a woman with two names, many powers, and one explosive history.

In a world where the real and virtual are one and the same and the dead can come back to life, the damsel in distress may be none other than the infamous Quellcrist Falconer, the vaporized symbol of a freedom now gone from Harlan's World. Kovacs can deal with the madness of AI. He can do his part in a battle against biomachines gone wild, search for a three-centuries-old missing weapons system, and live with a blood feud with the yakuza, and even with the betrayal of people he once trusted. But when his relationship with "the" Falconer brings him an enemy specially designed to destroy him, he knows it's time to be afraid.

After all, the guy sent to kill him is himself: but younger, stronger, and straight out of hell.

Wild, provocative, and riveting, Woken Furies is a full-bore science fiction spectacular of the highest order from one of the most original and spellbinding storytellers at work today.

Woken Furies is the third Takeshi Kovacs novel, following Altered Carbon and Broken Angels.

©2005 Richard K. Morgan (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"The author's eye for detail and feel for the atmosphere and nuances of SF noir result in a story packed with action and angst that will also appeal to general suspense readers." (Library Journal)
"Morgan's anxiously awaited third Takeshi Kovacs novel makes a terrific addition to an award-winning series....Highly recommended for followers of the series, cyberpunk devotees, and hard-boiled detective fans not averse to a little genre-bending." (Booklist)

Futuristic scifi with no fantasy- Hard Science :)

What made the experience of listening to Woken Furies the most enjoyable?

Morgans writing about the main character is superbly done, and the voice fits the narrative style in your head. The sex is embarrassingly frank and calmly laid out- as real life happens to us in our own heads- which is extraordinarily like peeking through someones curtains... a feeling of explaining things we have all done (or thought of) as we would tell it to ourselves.

So the words on the page are definitiely there for the Voice actor- who delivers an amazing range of subtle vocal depth.

What other book might you compare Woken Furies to and why?

DuFris may be the best I've heard so far in acting, and Morgan is simply one of todays great writers. In many ways better than Clancy or Martin.

Which character – as performed by William Dufris – was your favorite?

Takeshi of course.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I laughed out loud at several points. I writhed in awkward embarrassment for some of the characters plights.

Any additional comments?

If you like Morgan, or if you like SciFi with Hard believable science, or if you like detective novels or action novels, Morgan never fails to deliver on all counts.

Still a great book

Would you consider the audio edition of Woken Furies to be better than the print version?

So as others have stated, the narrator isn't very good and the studio that recorded this book decided that an echo effect would help us understand the difference between the story and the main characters thoughts. If you can ignore that condescending little part, go into the playback settings and increase the narrator speed to 1.25, the experience is noticeably better. Cheers!

What did you like best about this story?

The only thing that salvaged this audiobook is the story.

Did William Dufris do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Once the narrator speed was increased, yes. Dufris talks really slow and somehow makes the main character sound like Jack Nicolson. The small subtle differences he uses are noticeable with the increased speed.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

"If people liked the tagline, it didn't show."

attention producers and narrtators

This trilogy is great. the first two. installments were flawlessly produced and narrated, This one is not.
To the producers and engineers,
there is no need to add reverb and delay effects to any narration. EVER. You see, the great thing about well written literature is that the words themselves are what put us in the moment being read about. If I need to know that a flashback is happening it will be revealed by the words. Very certainly if I need to imagine the tone of a voice over a loudspeaker I can certainly handle it. I don't require tinny eq. effects to drive the point home, it is distracting.
To the narrator,
IT would have added a star to your review if you had just listened to or read the other two books.
Then you would have known that it's pronounced KO-votch. my only other beef with your performance is that you sometime try to ACT the part. Man just read. give us a little difference with the accents but don't go over the top, most especially when reading high action sequences. when any narrator tries to take dramatic liscense too far it snaps me right out of the world back to reality.
thanks
the listener

Not as good as the first two...

The story line itself is great, BUT...

1) The Kovacs character is more unhinged than in the previous stories; seems preoccupied with rage, selfishly childish drives, not as competent or in control.

2) Too many pointless sexipades that don’t contribute anything to the story.

3) Several times the director tries to go for a sound effect that I think was an attempt at indicating reflection, or dreaming maybe... it didn’t work. Sounds like the narrator is sitting in an echo chamber talking through a vacuum hose. It is distracting and lends nothing to the narration imo.

Still, it’s a Kovacs story and a good one, worth the listen once you get yourself past the minor stuff.

After the initial shock, it’s worth finishing

Like many people I found the narrator change disappointing. I also was initial annoyed by the echo effect when Kovacs recalled the past. However, once I got past that it turned out to be a pretty good story. It is a good ending to the trilogy.

my least favorite of the 3 books

it's a little forced this time around. Not terrible but not up to the first two books.

Great ending to this series

Loved the story. I could do without some of the sounds effects the narrator tried out. It sounded more like he was reading in a bathroom than anything useful. Other than that, I loved both the story and the narration.

Quite satisfying, yet the different.

The narration was somewhat disappointing, the name Kovach was seemingly emphasized thru books 1 &2 , became Kovack in this final episode. Made it a little confusing. Overall quite a wonderful tale.

Ugh... the echo sound effect is awful

The story was a little hard to get into at first but became very interesting by the time it concluded. The narrator is very good but I do prefer the narrator of the first two books, Todd McLaren. What was awful was the sound effect used to indicate recollection, imagined conversations, or dreams. Annoying AF. Also, the tacky 5-10min erotica scenes are still present and are equally nonsensical and unimportant to the plot, just as they were in the first two books.

Never enjoy narrator changes

It was hard to listen to this at the beginning, especially since I'd been marathoning all 3 within a week. The narrator shift is jarring at first, and he seems a bit too enthusiastic. There are odd changes to the narrative, but as time goes on the narrator calms a bit, and I got used to his voice. He's not a bad reader. My biggest issue, and the only thing that still bothered me throughout the book, was his differing pronunciation of names and locations. It kicked me out of the headspace every time I heard it, which was annoying to say the least, but overall I enjoyed the book and the new narrator once I got used to him.