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)

Narration sucks

Narrator ruined the book for me. Wish I had 2 more hands so I could give him 4 thumbs down.

Good story, terrible narration.

The story is great as always, but man is the narration terrible. Go ahead and skip this one, pick up a physical copy.

Great Third Title!

After listening to the previous two titles, Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, I thought this title was a good follow-up. In fact, I personally prefered this title to Broken Angels, with Altered undoubtedly slated in the future to become a true "Classic" in noir-SF, but alas reading, like everything else is subjective. I found the oft referenced narrator to be better in some ways, and worse in others, by the standard of the previous two titles; his best line being "bye-bye head, bye-bye stack". I recommend ALL of the titles, and I hope that Mr. Morgan considers a retro series that builds upon the already established history based upon this series.

Great story, sub par performance

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I enjoyed the first 2 books and glad to see that, once again, we were tackling a different kind of story with the same protagonist.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Woken Furies?

It was nice to get to explore Harlan's World and to have Virginia as a full character, rather than just a memory.

Would you be willing to try another one of William Dufris’s performances?

There were some moments, especially with neo-quellist surfers, where I thought to myself "really? that's the read you went with on this line?" It, quite possibly, isn't Dufris fault. Who knows what direction he was getting. Initially the audio effects annoyed me but once I was used to them I thought they were tolerable. There were a lot of moments where I had to stop, go back, and listen again to see if he seriously pronounced a word "that way." Not just for proper names, either. There was a voice about halfway through the 2nd file reminding me to change discs. Throughout the entire novel Dufris pronounces Kovacs with a cks instead of a ch at the end. After how the pronunciation point was made in the first two books that was really grating.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

I wish this whole series were movies, so long as michael bay doesn't direct.

Not Bad

just wanted to say the echo is not in the entire book, once you get past that and the "Kovacks" it's a pretty good listen.

Great story, not great voice acting

The series is incredibly well written. The narrator can't even pronounce the main characters name.

Different narrator, different feeling

William Dufris is an excellent narrator in his own right. I especially appreciate his narration of the Destroyermen series. The change in narration style changes the flow of the book and the flavor of the story. There’s more emotional valence with his narration compared to the previous books, and when adding in his pronunciation of Kovacs (hard k-s at the end) versus the previous narration (soft Slavic ch at the end) it led to a disconnect for me at least. Not the narrators fault. Wish the editor had caught it.

reverb?

I loved the story and narration but the echo during flashbacks is absolutely terrible. it makes the dialog hard to follow. I did enjoy the other effects used, however. such as the the distortion for radio communication.

Not the most polished

The story is good. Not my fav of the series but good. My biggest issues are with the production. The extensive use of the exhibeffect for flashbacks is terrible. Plus there is the odd "this is the end of the CD" announcement in the middle. Why not clip that?

Good epilogue to the trilogy, awful performance

Very poor performance of the new narrator. can't even bother to pronounce the main character's name correctly when it's explained in each book.