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0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
0 of 1 copy available
Wait time: About 2 weeks
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.
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  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Working undercover, Kovacs falls into the clutches of a woman with two personalities, perhaps three. Together they search for an old weapons system, while fighting off the younger version of Kovacs sent to obliterate him from the universe. Special effects include digitized voices and extended use of echo chambers to suggest memory. The book opens with such a long echo segment that the listener is tempted to give up in the first hour. The effect simply doesn't work. While William Dufris's characterizations offer clear differentiation and personality, his over-the-top performance suits the over-the-top writing in a manner that will draw dedicated listeners but may repel the casual sci-fi observer. R.L.L. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 22, 2005
      In Morgan's powerful third cyberpunk noir SF novel to feature Takeshi Kovacs, whose consciousness is transferred from one ultra–combat-ready body to another in the service of various unscrupulous powers, the interstellar mercenary returns home to Harlan's World, thoroughly pissed and dangerous. Despite his justified cynicism, he finds himself trying to protect a young woman who may
      house the soul of a martyred revolutionary from centuries earlier. He also must fight a hired killer who's a younger version of himself. To succeed, he has to sift through his past to see which allies and memories he can trust. Morgan has become even more nervy since winning the Philip K. Dick Award for his confident first novel, Altered Carbon
      (2003). This book develops a baroque, appallingly complicated setting, full of opportunities for revelation and betrayal. Both violence and sex are troweled on thickly but appropriately; they have significant consequences for these people who are trying—in circumstances even more desperate than our own—to discover who they really are and who they might have a chance to become. Agent, Susan Howe at Orion (U.K.)
      . 8-city author tour
      .

    • Library Journal

      September 15, 2006
      This is the third Morgan title (after "Altered Carbon" and "Broken Angels") to feature Takeshi Kovacs, a homicidal mercenary with zero personality. In the 25th century, life on dystopic Harlan's World is cheap and people are ruthless. Those who can afford it use cortical -stacks - to store their conscious essence; these are -sleeved - any number of times in superhuman bodies. Takeshi ploddingly, bloodily untangles a mystery involving a fellow mercenary who might well be a resleeved version of Quellcrist Falconer, a nearly mythological embodiment of freedom. The plot stumbles toward planetwide revolution by way of a "yakuza" blood feud and religious zealotry; Takeshi battles sentient military hardware and a cloned sleeve of himself. Though the book brims with cyberpunk atmosphere, the characters are automatons. Where Harrison Ford's roguishness personalized "Blade Runner"'s protagonist, Takeshi's amorality and aimlessness merely homogenize the good and bad guys. Though skilled, narrator William Dufris sports a tough-guy accent that simply doesn't work; the jarring vocal effects and uneven loudness levels further detract. A rewarding read makes a dismal listen; for fans only." -Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford"

      Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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  • English

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