Altered Carbon

Well done noir, but overly bloody and brutal to be escapist. Too much horror, too much torture. "Down those mean streets much walk a man who is not himself mean" -- I suppose that maxim holds here, but the streets are more nightmarish than mean. Not a criticism of Morgan, who is making a point about the world as it is. (and with far more moral intent than, e.g., GRR Martin who is merely slumming).

Essential cyberpunk: While the central concept of Altered Carbon is pure sf, this excellent novel succeeds primarily as a noir thriller, with an intricately woven plot that unfolds with a dazzling series of twists. Seemingly throw away lines and characters from the novels early pages assume important status in closing stages - to change media Altered Carbon could perhaps best be described as Blade Runner meets The Usual Suspects. The technology of this future society is explained only in broad enough terms to convince the reader, and despite the bulky nature of the book pace slowing hard sf info-dumps are pleasingly non-existent. Essentially a futuristic detective story, the hero is hard-boiled in the traditional noir fashion, though show more just the right side of cliché. While the level of violence has been overplayed in some quarters, this is a fairly gritty book, and the high sleaze quotient may put off the more prudish reader, (and for some fairly major plot reasons I'd suggest any Catholic readers to steer clear!), but for the rest of us this is an essential cyberpunk adventure. Practically flawless, a great debut from an author to watch. Believe the hype. show less

Morgan somehow manages to combine a noir P.I. story with cyberpunk and a fathomless well of outrage at the inequities of wealth and poverty into a compelling novel that sticks with you long after you've read it. I've read it at least four times and I find something new every time.

As I imagine is the case with many people, I began watching the show based on this book when it first came out. While impressed overall, I stopped a few episodes in once I realized it was based on a series of books. Always wanting to be exposed to the source material first, I didn't return to the show until I had read the trilogy.
This was definitely an enjoyable read. It ticked most of the boxes I'm looking for in something in the cyberpunk genre, though the remainder of the series tends to drift further and further from that. The noir, the 'hi-tech, low-life', feel is captured pretty perfectly here. The protagonist with a sometimes murky and always questionable past is a hero to no one, not even the reader, caught up in the show more mechinations of corporations, governments, and the ultra wealthy works both as a genre staple and I think is updated just enough to still feel directly relevant to the times today. What this doesn't get bogged down in is a lot of the high minded, economic, only quasi-scifi/cyberpunk (and more, near or not even future speculative fiction) that some of the genre greats like Gibson and Stephenson tend to work in these days. This is the shithole earth we get in Blade Runner as the most of the race has left us behind to spread throughout the galaxy, with a liberal dose of a neo-futuristic take on our current problems of wealth concentration by the one percent (and the social power dynamics that causes) and self-enforced cultural stagnation.
I think ultimately if you're a fan of gritty, pessimistic, neo-futurist cyberpunk ala the early days of the genre, shadowrun, old Cyperpunk 2020 ttrpgs, this is going to be a delightful read for you. Though you may or may not enjoy the remainder of the series unless you have a burning desire to have some mysteries answered as it dovetails pretty sharply after this book into much crunchier hard scifi, and by the final book almost space opera. Which, while well written and still enjoyable in there own right, were definitely not what I was expecting. I think I most definitely would have enjoyed seeing
I can also see some readers have objections to the overt sexualization of most characters in the book, and what could be interpreted as a small dose of misogyny. All I can say is, it feels a lot more like a modern take on the some of the tropes of crime-noir ported over into the cyberpunk setting. Pulp crime-noir has always had some serious objectification of women, albeit clothed in the language and mores of a different time, while juxtaposing it with dangerous, threatening, femme fatales. And cyberpunk, with its noir influence and focus on a gritty, dystopian future, has never shied away from showing us all the ways in which human life and behavior can be monetized, objectified, and exploited. I feel like this fits with that tradition, in the context of the current times and a taste for a bit more explicit raciness in what we consume as a society more broadly. The author, I think, has tried to counterbalance it by objectifying individuals of multiple genders, giving us strong, dangerous, female characters throughout, and showing us that in this world, flesh itself is a commodity to regardless of gender.
I would have liked to see the author take a deeper look at the issues surrounding gender identity (instead of just so much sexuality) after setting up a world for us in which bodies are so easily altered or swapped, as well as a where whole additional realities are built with virtually with no limits on how/as what people can live as. We get a bit more of that in the subsequent books, but still a bit under-explored. Though it would have less direct relevance for the protagonist. Also, as previously mentioned, the rest of the series shifts pretty hard towards hard scifi/space opera. Still enjoyable, though I would've liked to have spent more time in the parts of the world more directly cyberpunk in feel. show less

Biotechnology has advanced far enough that immortality is available for those who can afford it. Consciousness is digitized in "stacks" and stored until a new "sleeve"—an all encompassing term for natural, cloned, or synthetic bodies—is ready. Add to this a diverse menu of drugs that enhance or dull aspects of human physiology. A whole slew of possibilities, noble and illicit, opens up. Death, prison, identity, and sex are all re-defined. The whole system is exploitable, and therein lies the story.

Takeshi Kovacs is an ex-Envoy, a type of Special Forces, who is taken from stack prison on another planet and dumped into a sleeve on Earth. He's been recommended to a billionaire (Laurens Bancroft) to solve his murder. The police say it show more was suicide, but Bancroft believes he was murdered. If Kovacs can solve the case to Bancroft's liking, the billionaire will purchase his freedom. If not, Kovacs goes back on stack for the rest of his two-hundred-year sentence.

What difference does it make to a billionaire why one of his sleeves died? He claims not to be the suicidal type. He has daily backups, keeps new sleeves on standby, and has already lived 350 years (making him a "meth," short for Methuselah). What's the point of suicide, if he won't remember it when he's downloaded into a new body the next day? Murder makes more sense, which likely means that there's a conspiracy afoot.

As Kovacs sets out to solve the case, he shares his experiences as he gets accustomed to a body that isn't his. Some readers have found this to be oversharing as Morgan is graphic in detail. I saw Kovacs' adjustment as having to go through puberty again. The changes our bodies go through seem alien and strange, and it takes some time before our minds grow accustomed to them and reasserts control. What Kovacs (and others) goes through when entering a new sleeve is no different. It's awkward and discomfiting.

Kovacs' past, both military and criminal, bubbles up in flashbacks, offering glimpses into what shaped his psyche. Underneath the cool, indifferent, tough guy exterior lies a soul that seeks justice for the little guy. The plutocrats can buy their way past the wheels of justice; the poor are ground up like hamburger. And it's that sense of injustice that fuels Kovacs. He internalizes it, makes it personal, and sets off on rampages.

Overall, I have to say I loved it. It's a sci-fi story soaked in noir: Cigarettes and whisky, posh AI-run hotels, a femme fatale, morally corrupt billionaires, and a complicated relationship with the cops. You could also think of it as a much more violent cousin of Blade Runner. Like that film, it also asks questions about the human condition, but doesn't lead to easy answers. show less

In an earlier age, he would have been a shaman; here, the centuries of technology had made him more. An electronic demon, a malignant spirit that dwelled in altered carbon and emerged only to possess flesh and wreak havoc.
He would have made a fine Envoy.

A former soldier finds himself re-sleeved in a new body on a distant planet, summoned by a billionaire to find out who murdered him as the police have declared it a suicide.

This book is bursting to the brim with plot and ideas, with the altered carbon of the title referring to the new bodies that contain the downloaded consciousness and may have very little in common with the original body unless you are rich enough to keep a supply of cloned bodies in storage.

Pull on the new flesh like show more borrowed gloves
And burn your fingers once again.

A fantastic book? I will definitely be reading the other books in this series. show less

I just reread this after the Netflix series was announced. Death has been redefined by technology, but in many ways current issues of income inequality, religion, race and crime are amplified instead of solved. The world of Takeshi Kovacs bears more resemblance to the tropes of traditional cyberpunk than the futures we're extrapolating now. Many of the ideas wrestled with were timely in the years after the dot com bubble burst but are even more timely now. The hyper-violent, drug and sex filled narrative may be a bit over the top for some, but finding even the glimmers of good in such horrible characters is amazingly uplifting.