Description:

From Publishers Weekly

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.
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From

Starred Review Following Altered Carbon (2003) and Broken Angels (2004), Morgan's anxiously awaited third Takeshi Kovacs novel makes a terrific addition to an award-winning series. This time Morgan takes a giant leap into the cyberpunk future that William Gibson begin exploring 20 years ago. Unlike Gibson, however, Morgan combines the cyberpunk style with a fast-paced, first-person narrative that is as evocative of classic hard-boiled detective fiction as it is of cutting-edge science fiction. His protagonist, Kovacs, a futuristic version of a ronin ("for hire") samurai, is back on his home planet, Harlan's World. The ruling Harlan family awakens Kovacs from digital storage into a newly constructed body and launches him on a mission that weaves a dangerous course through labyrinthine politics and murderous hardware. But Kovacs also has his own agenda. Vengeance and a quest for a long-lost love continually put his loyalties into conflict with his powerful and ruthless new employers, in a future where death may or may not be forever. Highly recommended for followers of the series, cyberpunk devotees, and hard-boiled detective fans not averse to a little genre-bending. Elliott Swanson
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