I read Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan three years ago, and I found it an exhilarating novel. Morgan created a futuristic world that was vivid and compelling, and populated it with great characters, especially former Envoy Takeshi Kovacs. The book was gritty, hard-boiled, imaginative, full of new ideas and original blends of old ones. It was a terrific read, and I recommend its mixture of sci-fi and crime noir to everyone.I read Broken Angels, the second outing of good ole Kovacs, last week, and like I said then, it was a crushing disappointment. However, and judging by the Amazon customer reviews, I seem to be one of the very few who didn’t enjoy this book. Why didn’t I like it?
To begin with, BA is so much different from AC as to seem it was written by a different person. Remember all the good things I said of AC two paragraphs ago? Well, none of those qualities can be found in BA. Not. Even. One. The story in BA is so derivative sci-fi that its own lack of originality made it hard for me to stay invested in what I was being told. The plot was trite, the story something we’ve seen a thousand times already. Kovacs is now in an army of sorts, and this book is about war and an expedition to recover an ancient artifact that belonged to a different species. There is no blend of genres, just a shoot’em up story. There is no intrigue, no mystery, no exploration of a world full of possibilities.
Then we have the characters. Takeshi Kovacs is still a cool cat, a cynical know-it-all who has seen it all, done it all, but he chooses to be around what has to be the least-compelling cast of characters I have encountered in a novel in the last several years. A bunch of almost indistinguishable and definitely unremarkable special ops soldiers are introduced, and try as I might, I just couldn’t get myself to care about any of them. The best ones were probably Tanya Wardani and Matthias Hand (civilians both of them), and the best parts of the book are the conversations between Kovacs and either one of those two. Other than that, stuff went on (not really: this is such a slow-paced book) and I just didn’t care.
The sex scenes that were vibrant and wildly imaginative in AC feel dull and perfunctory in BA. They seem to be there just to be there, because the readers expected them, and they bring nothing new under the sun, unlike the drug-enhanced encounters from Morgan’s previous novel.
Everything in BA, to sum it up, felt kind of meh, and except for good dialogue and cool one liners from Kovacs, the whole book is pretty much disposable and certainly skippable. There is a third Kovacs book out there, Woken Furies, but I’m not sure I want to read it anymore, not after having suffered through BA. If you are interested, though, I would suggest skipping Broken Angels and reading WF instead, since I doubt it will be worse than this. And if it is, then, well, Mr. Morgan, it’s been nice knowing you.
4 comments:
Nada, que definitivamente paso de leerlo. Y mira que estaba dispuesto a hacer la vista gorda y pasar por alto cualquier tipo de defecto por leer de nuevo las desventuras de Kovacs. Pero el mero hecho de que la historia vaya de lo que va (expedición en busca de una reliquia alienígena) marcó la diferencia. Quiero decir, es una premisa tan típica y, no sé... tan anti-Kovacs, que asusta. No, espera, no asusta. Da asco.
Ya nos dirás si te haces con el tercer libro o qué.
Siento destruir tus expectativas, pero al menos te he ahorrado unos cuantos dólares. Y para mí, lo de la reliquia alienígena no fue lo peor, pues aunque sea una historia trilladísima, podría resultar en un relato interesante si se hace bien o se mezcla con distintos elementos, como precisamente hizo Morgan en Altered Carbon. Pero no: es aburridísima. Los personajes anti-interesantes y anti-memorables fueron los que acabaron matando la novela en mi opinión. Bueno, y la historia lamentable.
Con respecto al tercero, Woken Furies, estuve leyendo las críticas negativas en Amazon, y dicen que es mucho más similar a Broken Angels que a Altered Carbon, así que lo más probable es que no me lo lea. Una lástima.
Bueno, me has ahorrado unos euros... y principalmente unas cuantas horas de lectura, que dado que no me sobran, pues es de agradecer.
Por supuesto que lo de la expedición alienígena no tendría por qué ser un problema si está bien desarrollada. Aunque en este caso concreto para mí sí que lo es, por su anti-kovacismo. Quiero decir, si me hablas bien del libro, y aparte me dices que va de eso, me lo leo fijo. Pero si lo criticas como lo has hecho, y encima con esa sinopsis me robas mi única esperanza restante de leer algo que me recuerde a AC, pues entonces me cubro la cabeza con las manos y empiezo a llorar pidiendo que venga mi mamá.
Ladrón, que eres un ladrón.
En cuanto a la posibilidad de saltarme BA y leer directamente a WF, creo que voy a pasar. Al menos hasta que te lo leas tú y me digas: "Pab... estooo, Hal, tienes que leerte Woken Furies. ¡Es lo mejor desde Newton's Cannon!"
Hahaha. Estoy de acuerdo contigo en que lo de la reliquia alienígena no es muy kovacsiano que se diga. Y BA es la completa antítesis de AC, sad but true.
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