Broken Angels
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Broken Angels (2003) is a military science fiction novel by Richard Morgan. It is set in the same universe and has the same protagonist as his previous novel, Altered Carbon, but it is not a traditional sequel and the story can be read on its own.
Plot
Set some 30 years after Altered Carbon, this novel expands on the "Martians" side detail briefly mentioned in the first novel. Kovacs has escaped Earth, fleeing both the consequences of the events in Altered Carbon, and the relationship he was forced to abandon at the end of that novel. He has returned to his mercenary roots, and is now serving in a dirty corporate war on a distant colony putting down a rebellion against the corporate-sponsored government. Whilst having his latest temporary body repaired after a disastrous land campaign, Kovacs is approached by pilot Jan Schneider, who is looking for protection (and gets a partner) for an expedition to exploit an alien artifact discovered just before the war broke out.
Like the first novel, Broken Angels combines a twisting, gritty, film noir plot with convincing technology, extreme ultra-violence and convincing characters and motivations. It is perhaps less focused than Altered Carbon, and so less effective, and suffers somewhat by straying from the cyberpunk private eye style of the first book into more conventional space opera territory. But it still scores highly by keeping the characters believable, with believable motivations and actions. Where a lesser novel might have the expedition setting out to change the world, aid the resistance, or bring universal peace with the alien discoveries, Kovacs and co. merely want to escape the hell of the war, and make a bit of cash on the side - far more consistent with the characters, style and setting.
The two novels' chief achievement is believably exploring the darker side of a future technology (in this case virtual reality and the ability to digitise and download a human personality) to see the hideous uses which an immoral, corporate dominated world would put them to.