Altered Carbon
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4.5 • 147 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
MAJOR NEW NETFLIX SERIES FEB 2018
This must-read story is a confident, action-and-violence packed thriller, and future classic noir SF novel from a multi-award-winning author.
Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.
But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn¿t be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.
For a first-time SF writer to be so surely in command of narrative and technology, so brilliant at world-building, so able to write such readable and enjoyable SF adventure, is simply extraordinary.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This fast-paced, densely textured, impressive first novel is an intriguing hybrid of William Gibson's Neuromancer and Norman Spinrad's Deus X. In the 25th century, it's difficult to die a final death. Humans are issued a cortical stack, implanted into their bodies, into which consciousness is "digitized" and from which unless the stack is hopelessly damaged their consciousness can be downloaded ("resleeved") with its memory intact, into a new body. While the Vatican is trying to make resleeving (at least of Catholics) illegal, centuries-old aristocrat Laurens Bancroft brings Takeshi Kovacs (an Envoy, a specially trained soldier used to being resleeved and trained to soak up clues from new environments) to Earth, where Kovacs is resleeved into a cop's body to investigate Bancroft's first mysterious, stack-damaging death. To solve the case, Kovacs must destroy his former Envoy enemies; outwit Bancroft's seductive, wily wife; dabble in United Nations politics; trust an AI that projects itself in the form of Jimi Hendrix; and deal with his growing physical and emotional attachment to Kristin Ortega, the police lieutenant who used to love the body he's been given. Kovacs rockets from the seediest hellholes on Earth, through virtual reality torture, into several gory firefights, and on to some exotic sexual escapades. Morgan's 25th-century Earth is convincing, while the questions he poses about how much Self is tied to body chemistry and how the rich believe themselves above the law are especially timely.
Customer Reviews
Excellent story
Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan
A rich guy gets killed. But it’s ok, ‘cause his digital consciousness was backed up about an hour or so ago. Takeshi Kovacs is assigned to work out what’s happened in his newly acquired, genetically enhanced body.
In a world where ‘resleeving’, the insertion of a consciousness into another body happens for Rich folk (ordinary or criminal), and the occasionally exceptionally good (assassins, investigators, military), introduces a new world of variety.
If you need a strong, gene enhanced body, you can get it.
If you need to torture someone for everything they know, slot them into a spare pregnant body then burn their feet off, literally burn their feet off, then try again with another body with a different torture.
It’s a great thriller, with an interesting premise that the author has thought through thoroughly. I gave it 5/5 excellent.
Edgy, violent, great reading
One of the best. Very powerful and full on.
Altered carbon
I had watched the first episode of altered carbon on Netflix and didn’t really think much of it. Needless to say I didn’t watch any more. So was in two minds about shelling out for and reading the book. Glad I did.