Broken Angels (novel)

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Broken Angels
Author	Richard K. Morgan
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Takeshi Kovacs
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Victor Gollancz Ltd
Publication date	March 20, 2003
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
Pages	400 pp (Hardback), 366 pp (Paperback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-575-07323-3 (Hardcover), ISBN 0-345-45771-4 (Paperback)
Preceded by	Altered Carbon
Followed by	Woken Furies

Broken Angels (2003) is a military science fiction novel by Richard Morgan. It is the sequel to Altered Carbon, and is followed by Woken Furies.

[edit] Plot

Set 30 years after Altered Carbon, Takeshi Kovacs has escaped Earth, fleeing both the consequences of the events in Altered Carbon, and the relationship he was forced to abandon. He is now serving in Carrera's Wedge, a mercenary platoon which joins a corporate war on a distant colony and fights the rebellion against the corporate-sponsored government; rebels are led by commander Kemp. While having his latest temporary body repaired after a disastrous campaign, Kovacs is approached by pilot Jan Schneider, who is looking for protection for an expedition to exploit a Martian artifact discovered just before the war broke out (background theme of the previous novel was that human colonization of planets was made possible by use of ancient Martian space navigation maps).

The artifact, located in the middle the war zone, is actually a portal linked to a point in outer space where a Martian starship lies. Kovacs and Schneider formulate a plan to recover the portal and begin by rescuing Tanya Wardani, the archaeologist who coordinated the pre-war dig, from a prison camp. Unable to reach the heavily contested location alone, Kovacs enlists the support of one of the major companies involved in feeding the war, the Mandrake Corporation, which is represented by an agent named Matthias Hand.

Kovacs and Hand buy hundreds of spinal stacks from dead soldiers and mercenaries and from them select a squad for the expedition. The selection happens in virtual world, and brings together a para-military unit composed by Ole Hansen, Yvette Cruickshank, Jiang Jiamping, Ameli Vorgsavath, Luc Deprez, and Markus Sutjiadi. A nuclear explosion is secretly authorised by Hand, which clears the dig site of opposing forces and the recovery expedition begins.

Near the location of the artifact, an abandoned fishing boat is found with two dead bodies, stacks missing, drifting in its net. The portal is located in a cave and Tanya starts her work to translate the Martian hieroglyphics on the artifact in order to activate it. While awaiting Tanya's progress the party are slowly being poisoned by radioactive fallout from the blast. During their first night at the dig site, an unknown member of the party attempts to sabotage the mission by using a grenade to destroy some equipment.

Upon securing the area, they encounter a group of nanobes - microscopical living components assembled into an intelligent bio-machine able to learn how to defend itself and fight. Hand reveals to Kovacs that nanobes were deployed by a rival representative of the Mandrake Corporation in an attempt to secure the dig site. The nanobes evolve into more and more aggressive forms which attack the squad several times, eventually killing two members. During the last and strongest attack by nanobes, Tanya succeeds in opening the portal which, when confronted by the nanobes, deactivates them.

The party continues through the active portal finding a huge and seemingly inactive Martian star-ship, along with the bodies of Tanya's original archaeological team. Kovacs' squad enters the starship in order to place an ownership claim buoy inside. Kovacs notices that Schneider is suspiciously unaffected by radiation sickness. When confronted he escapes in the shuttle, killing another member in the process. Unbeknownst to Schneider, Kovacs had mined the shuttle to explode on gate re-entry, seemingly eliminating the mission's traitor.

During their exploration, the Martian starship is attacked by an unknown ship which causes its automated defence systems to come online. During the attack the party begins to experience visions and emotions from the dead Martians and comes close to madness. Hand realises their imminent mental breakdown and orders Kovacs shoots the others with a stunning weapon to render them unconscious.

After the battle is over, the Wedge rescues and then imprisons the remaining members of the squad as Sutjiadi is wanted as a traitor. By this point Kovacs has become completely loyal to his new squad and retains no allegiance to the Wedge. During the torture of Sutjiadi, he lures and then kills a former Wedge friend, frees the rest of his squad and together they exterminates the entire Wedge platoon, apart from Captain Carrera, who escapes through the portal. Despite being almost dead from radiation exposure, Kovacs follows him through and kills him.

Kovacs suddenly realises that Tanya Wardani sabotaged the first archeological expedition, fearing that her team wanted to use the Martian warship as a weapon. She was responsible for the two corpses on the fishing boat and for closing the portal behind the others. Destroying the equipment in the shuttle was simply to cover her tracks. Tanya confesses everything to Kovacs and decides to stay and oversee the recovery of the portal, while Kovacs trades the rights to the Martian spacecraft for safe passage out of the war-zone for the surviving members of his team, who leave for Planet Latimer.

Kovacs understands that human race is a minor player in the universe, where older and much more developed civilizations by other sentient lifeforms have lived and fought each other since ages.

[edit] Release details

• 2002, United Kingdom, Victor Gollancz Ltd, ISBN 0-575-07323-3 Pub date March 20, 2003, Hardback
• 2004, United States of America, Del Rey, ISBN 0-345-45771-4, Pub date March 2, 2004, Paperback