Woken Furies
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| Author | Richard Morgan |
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| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Takeshi Kovacs |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd |
| Released | 17 March 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 436 pp (Hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-575-07325-X (Hardback) |
| Preceded by | Broken Angels |
Woken Furies (2005) is the fourth published science fiction novel by Richard Morgan. It is a sequel to his two previous novels Altered Carbon and Broken Angels and features the anti-hero 'Takeshi Kovacs'.
This addition to the series casts light upon Takeshi's pre-Altered Carbon days providing information on his post-envoy activities. Fans of the series will recognise characters Virginia Vidaura (Kovacs' Envoy trainer) and Sarah Sachilowska (who appears in Altered Carbon). References to the legendary revolutionary Quellcrist Falcolner will also be familiar to readers of the earlier books.
Morgan's official website claims that Woken Furies is most likely the last Kovacs novel.
[edit] Plot summary
Having survived the brutal military conflict on Sanction IV, and corporate conflict over discovered Martian artifacts in Broken Angels, Takeshi Kovacs finds himself back on his home planet of Harlan's World. Largely oceanic, Harlan's World is surrounded by Martian 'orbitals' that were created by a species who departed their planet long before human settlement. These orbitals are programmed to destroy any object of sufficient technological level flying above a certain altitude.
Kovacs is on the run after making numerous bloody attacks against an extremist religious order (Beards). He has declared a personal vendetta on the Beards with the express intent of killing every single member, for reasons which are revealed much later in the story.
While trying to secure passage after his most recent attack, he saves a woman named Sylvie in a local bar from a group of religious zealots. In return, she allows him to take refuge with her mercenary crew as they head out to 'decommission' sentient military hardware that has run amok on a nearby Harlan's World continent. During one of these "decom" missions, Sylvie collapses, and upon recovery her personality appears to have been replaced by that of long dead revolutionary leader Quellcrist Falconer.
The crew return to base where they discover a younger version of Kovacs is looking for them on behalf of the Harlans, dictators of Harlans World. Most of Sylvie's crew is killed and Sylvie/Quellcrist is captured. (At this point, Takeshi is unaware that Jadwiga, one of the Slipins, survived the assassination.) Kovacs schemes to rescue Sylvie by approaching old criminal associates and followers of Quellcrist Falconer, The Little Blue Bugs.
The Little Blue Bugs mount a successful attack on a Harlan fortress and rescue Sylvie/Quellcrist. Hiding from Harlan forces in a floating mafia base, the quellists are sold out by its owner and recaptured. Another assault by Kovacs and a detachment of UN Envoys ends with Orbital weapon fire called down by Sylvie/Quellcrist killing their Envoy captors but sparing Takeshi and his former revolutionary comrade-in-arms Virginia Vidaura. Takeshi's younger self catches up with him at this point and after a brief struggle, Kovacs decides not to kill his younger self but instead allow him life and the chance to make the same decisions he himself had to make so many years ago. Unfortunately, Jadwiga torches him with a blaster, much to the annoyance of Kovacs.
The novel ends with Kovacs and Sylvie/Quellcrist planning to start a new revolution on Harlan's World using the power of the Orbitals, which she is learning to control.
[edit] Release details
- 2002, United Kingdom, Victor Gollancz Ltd, ISBN 0-575-07325-X Pub date March 17 2005, Hardback
- 2004, United States of America, Del Rey, ISBN 0-345-47971-8 Pub date September 27 2005, Hardback
