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)

They changed narrators

if you got this book after listening to the first two, you are probably in for a disappointment. This narrator doesn't even pronounce the main character's name properly (not really his fault, it was explained in the first book), and his narration changes the feel of the book completely. He makes the main character sound like some sort of overly dramatic macho gumshoe. His narration cheapened the content. It was just too hard to listen to. A real pity; I was looking forward finishing the trilogy.
I've heard this narrator before and haven't had a problem. I can now see that picking the right narrator is pretty important, it can change a book completely.

The narrator was re-sleeved.....

William Dufris is one of my favorite narrators. It’s just very unfortunate that he took on this third in a series of three books, where another fine narrator did the first two in the series. I listened to the series one right after the other, and the change in narrator is jarring and, to me, changed the personality of the protagonist dramatically. As others have stated, the first book went to great lengths to include the significance to the story of the correct pronunciation of the protagonist’s name, Takeshi Kovacs. Yet in this 3rd book they get the name wrong, which is really wrong and weird.

Other than that, this is another well-written and enjoyable story.

Give it a chance...

Cardinal sin of mispronounced name aside, the performance quickly grew on me. The audiobook narration is certainly jarring to experience directly after the first two entries in the series, but the story is what it is; and I love it regardless.

Pronunciation is important.

Especially the main character's name. Story was decent. The Netflix series really made something of it though.

Ignore the hyperventilation over the narrator and sound effects

This is a great production of an outstanding novel. If you avoid it because these prissy arses can’t handle some light hearted originality you’ll be seriously missing out.

KovaKS?

firstly my gripe - what a pity that the name of the main character is butchered throughout :( especially since it was a whole point in the previous book. a small needle of pain every time i hear it. its KovaCH, its polish ancestry… its worth worth re-recording, producers, please fix it.
well other than that it’s a great finale to the trilogy. it’s dark and gritty, eating at your sense of mortality and expectations for a distant future. i will miss this world.

Change in narration

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes, the story and characters are really good.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Takashe because he is the focus.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Unfortunately this a different narrator from the previous two books in the trilogy. The change is jarring and destroys any feeling of continuity. Even worse is the addition of cheesy reverb effects to certain passages that take place in Takashe's mind. However the most unforgivable part is that Takashe's last name is pronounced Kova(ch) not Kova(cs). The authors spends time explaining this in detail in the first chapter of the first book. The new narrator pronounces it Kova(cs) and it's really annoying.

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

The new narrator made me cry.

feh

I'm in agreement with the prevailing criticism of the narration. Mispronouncing of the main character's last name, when the pronunciation of Kovacs was mentioned specifically in a previous novel is pretty slack. The echo chamber used for prologue/flashback/etc is so echo-y that the narration is difficult to understand at times. Good book, cruddy narration.

Performance Detracts from Story

I usually like William Dufris. I've listened to him read books by John Scalzi, Neal Stephenson, and Mark Twain, and given him high marks for each effort. He's just wrong for this book, though. Something about his treatment of the material comes off as an attempt to be humorous where it doesn't really belong or over-emotional when Takeshi Kovacs wouldn't really react like that. It doesn't help that he mispronounces the name 'Kovacs' throughout the book, even though the proper pronunciation is almost a plot point in the first two books.

Todd McLaren does a much better job on Altered Carbon and Broken Angels, so the difference in quality is that much more evident listening to Dufris trying to perform the same type of material.

Other than that, it's a good book. The story is good while still remaining as confusing and wide-ranging as the first two.

Fan of Dufris and Morgan, but not of reverb

Would you try another book from Richard K. Morgan and/or William Dufris?

I seek out books written by Morgan and narrated by Dufris.

What did you like best about this story?

The universe the characters operate in.

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

Takeshi

Could you see Woken Furies being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

This would make a pretty good series. I could see Nathan Fillion as Takeshi.

Any additional comments?

I'll operate as the dissenting opinion here. I've adored Dufris as a narrator since I listened to Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. He has an edgie, sardonic tone that I lends itself well to either very cynical character or characters in disbelieving circumstances (a la Randy Waterhouse in a very Kafka'esque unraveling). Todd McLaren, to my ear, comes off as heavy handed and melodramatic. His female voices come off as characitures and many of his male voices sound so cartoonish as to throw me out of the story. Richard Morgan, on the other hand, composes well serviced cyber-punk'esque fiction, if not some times overwrought. Also, the scenes of sex and sexuality are a bit overdrawn and over-the-top. I am by no means a prude, but these graphic depictions don't do much to push the story forward. It seems like pandering to a particluar (and socially inept) market segment.

Also, I'm not sure if this is a recording issue, but the reverb on this recording is horrific. I was hoping this was a cheesey effect, but no ... it persists.

TL;DR: Great story, great narrator, terrible production decision (reverb).