I Evoke Brow X: I'm running out of subtitles

Richard K. Morgan's Broken Angels. Even better than the first. I have nothing but good things to say about this book. I finished it in just a couple days, mostly because I couldn't put it down and go to sleep the past two nights. It's gripping, thrilling, intriguing, unflinching, smart, titillating, thought-provoking, hair-raising, high-tech, chuckle-inducing, and any other hyphenated adjective you'd like to throw at it. The only carryovers from the first novel are the main character, Kovacs, and the universe he resides in. Morgan surrounds him with a large cast of characters and a love interest, just like the first novel, but I wasn't as overwhelmed by the numerous personalities in Broken Angels, probably because I wasn't juggling it with a bunch of other books this time. Morgan's futurescape is brutish, violent, and pervasively corporate: this is a universe where Dick Cheney clones pull all the strings. Against this backdrop Kovacs at times stands out sharply and at other times blends in. He is ruthless and rarely remorseful, but fiercely loyal and above all, capable. It's that last attribute that Morgan creates perfectly and then uses to such effect--the reader has no choice but to believe in the almost superhuman powers granted by Envoy training, and with that belief one trusts Kovacs to always be right. Unlike many other books and movies, it doesn't seem the least bit silly when he survives a firefight against all odds or is one of the few survivors at the end. Morgan has jumped to my person "Inner Circle" of authors. I'm excited to get to the next two books in the series and a little sad already to find out that four books is all he's published so far. 10/10