Latest installment of the "Takeshi Kovacs" series. Everything is very
noir, as usual. Finally, we get to know more details about Quellism
and the unsuccessful Quellist Revolution that is the major historic event
in Kovacs' homeworld.
The book is mostly a fun read, and there are a lot quote-worthy passage,
e.g. the rabid sermon against a preachers wife the protagonist encounters
during a boat passage -- which corresponds with the authors views: in an interview,
he says "I have approximately zero time for religion of any sort - it
continues to astound me that at the beginning of the twenty first century,
we can still be grubbing about on our knees like a bunch of medieval
peasants. But within the larger set of that idiocy, I'm driven to especial
fury by the misogyny inherent in the great patriarchal religions. As far as
I'm concerned, any belief system that assigns a separate and subordinate
role to women in society is, by definition, uncivilized. Anyone who
advocates it is, by definition, a barbarian.".