The Takeshi Kovacs Series: Difference between revisions

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The series takes place some 500 years into the future, in the UN Protectorate, a totalitarian government spread over several different planets that enforces its rule with the use of 'Envoys'; mentally-conditioned [[Super Soldier|Shock Troopers]] who specialise in covert deployment and bringing down rebel governments.

The third book, ''Woken Furies'', finds Kovacs back on his homeworld of Harlan's World; a largely aquatic planet colonised by Japanese and Slavs. The book begins as a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] as Kovacs hunts down members of a Church who sentenced a friend of his to death, but he soon becomes involved in a growing revolutionary plot to overthrow the UN-backed government.

 

 

* [[Action Bomb]]: People can be fitted with internal explosives, allowing them to explode at will (Though there is a significant risk of accidental detonation). There are also examples where the explosives are [[Dead-Man Switch|set to go off upon the user's death]].

* [[Action Survivor]]: Tanya Wardani of ''Broken Angels''.

** Although it's mentioned that some are into some disturbingly illegal activities.

** The hive-mind-like artificial intelligence driving the nanomachine colony, on the other hand, gets seriously out of control.

* [[Da Chief]]: Isaac Carrera in the second book and Shigeo Kuramaya in ''Woken Furies''.

* [[Dead Person Conversation]]: when Kovacs is under severe stress, or lost deep in thought, he tends to hallucinate his long-dead friend Jimmy De Soto. Jimmy usually gives him some useful hunch, or the resolve he needs to break through the current problem.

* [[Energy Weapons]]: Several energy weapons exist, such as the 'Sunjet' rifle (which might be either plasma, or a particle beam, depending on the book).

* [[Eye Scream]]: the protagonist has memories about a soldier mate of his who ripped out his eye with his own fingers during a hallucination caused by a mind virus.

* [[The Future Is Noir]]: the first book borrows noticeably from noir investigation dramas.

* [[The Mind Is a Plaything of the Body]]: The first and third books explore how love and other forms of affection are mostly caused by (and therefore restricted to) specific sleeves, not the minds that inhabit them. Re-sleeving ruins (or, due to [[Grand Theft Me]], incites) relationships because some bodies are apparently more compatible than others on a hormonal or pheromonal level. [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] when Kovacs {{spoiler|double-sleeves himself. The Ryker Kovacs is still attracted to Ortega. The Synth Kovacs... not so much.}}

* [[Weak but Skilled]]: Kovacs' fight with Kadmin. While Kovacs' is sleeved in the body of a middle-aged chain-smoking cop, Kadmin has an enormously [[Lightning Bruiser|strong and fast]] Hand of God 'freak fighter' sleeve. Kovacs still loses but gives an excellent accounting of himself.

** Also describes Kovacs in ''Broken Angels'' as his sleeve, which wasn't in particularly good shape at the start of the book, {{spoiler|is slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Because of this, Kovacs becomes up effectively immobile if not for the [[Powered Armor|hospital mob suits]] and drugs, and yet he manages to wipe out [[Colonel Badass|Carrera]] and his army.}}

[[Category:Science Fiction Literature]]

[[Category:The Takeshi Kovacs Series]]