Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, #1) in The Alternative Worlds

Apr 25, 2008 Sandi rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, 2008

Wow. It’s no wonder Richard K. Morgan became such a phenomenon in the science fiction world so quickly. His first novel, “Altered Carbon” is so well crafted that it bears no hints of being a first novel. His imagination and story telling is absolutely amazing. Although it is absolutely full of graphic violence and has a few X-rated sex scenes, every part is so well written, it all fits. This book should have completely offended me. I can’t stand gratuitous sex and violence. But, the way Morgan w Wow. It’s no wonder Richard K. Morgan became such a phenomenon in the science fiction world so quickly. His first novel, “Altered Carbon” is so well crafted that it bears no hints of being a first novel. His imagination and story telling is absolutely amazing. Although it is absolutely full of graphic violence and has a few X-rated sex scenes, every part is so well written, it all fits. This book should have completely offended me. I can’t stand gratuitous sex and violence. But, the way Morgan writes it, the sex and violence come off as being necessary to the story and the characters. I don’t think I’ve ever run across such plausible characters and actions. The plot is a standard noir detective thriller, but it’s so well done that the mystery remains a mystery until the very end.

One thing Morgan handles very well is his technology. He really goes into the various implications of a transhuman world where people can upload their thoughts, memories and personalities to different bodies (sleeves), depending on their ability to afford the costs. The truly rich can afford to live for hundreds of years, switching to young versions of themselves when their bodies get too old for their tastes. Poor people just get the consciousnesses (known as stacks) stored until someone is will to pay the price to get them reactivated in a new sleeve. The quality of one’s sleeve is an indication of their wealth. Without ever going into lecture mode, Morgan shows us how nearly every aspect of this transhuman society works.

To keep my conscience clear, I will state very strongly that this is at least R-rated material. A few scenes are X-rated. Some readers may be very turn-off by the brutality of “Altered Carbon.” It's also quite difficult to follow, with a lot of twists and turns in the plot. More than a few times, I found myself wondering where a certain character came from or how we found ourselves in a certain scene. If you can handle the violence, sex and complicated plot, it is an excellent read and well worth the time and effort.
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Aug 05, 2009 Danielle The Book Huntress rated it it was amazing

Shelves: very-dark-read, soldier-or-military, science-fiction, not-for-the-faint-of-heart, futuristic, tough-as-nails-heroes, antihero, character-multi-ethnic-heritage, detective-private-eye-sleuth, owned-copy

With my sinus allergies kicking my butt, I don't have the energy to write a really long review, so I'll keep it simple. I thought this was an excellent book, though not really a comfortable book. I don't think this book is for everyone. The language is very coarse, to be honest. Liberal use of the worst word for women in written language is employed. It starts with a 'c' and ends with a 't', and I think you can fill in the blanks. I winced just about every time. Despite this, and the fact that t With my sinus allergies kicking my butt, I don't have the energy to write a really long review, so I'll keep it simple. I thought this was an excellent book, though not really a comfortable book. I don't think this book is for everyone. The language is very coarse, to be honest. Liberal use of the worst word for women in written language is employed. It starts with a 'c' and ends with a 't', and I think you can fill in the blanks. I winced just about every time. Despite this, and the fact that this story deals with prostitution and horrible abuse of women in a disturbingly intimate manner, I don't feel that Mr. Morgan showed misogynistic tendencies in his writing. In fact, some of the most strongest, most three-dimensional characters in this story were women, and each one was different. I particularly liked Ortega, and her relationship with Kovacs. Trepp was interesting, as well. Miriam was somewhat standard noir fair. You know, the bodacious vixen who also happens to be the wife of the victim, who seduces the PI? Yeah, that's in this book.

This book was fairly violent, although not quite what I'd call gratuitous. Not gratuitous in the sense that the whole book wasn't violent. But, yeah, there are some pretty in your face scenes. Let's just say I would be looking away on quite a few scenes if this was a movie. There's a fair amount of sex, too. I thought it was tasteful and well-written, despite all the nasty inferences to particularly 'icky' sexual practices. That was all off-scene, thankfully.

The worldbuilding was very good. The whole concept of sleeving (changing bodies), and stacking (digital storage of consciousness) was a bit disturbing for me. They have figured out the key to immortality in the 25th century, and that immortality is not a pretty one, at least to me. Bascially, if you have enough money, you can have your consciousness continually transferred to different bodies as the old ones wear out, or your present body is prematurely damaged. Let's just hope you do have the dough to spring for a new body. If not, well, I guess you get to hang out in a digital storage bank, for eternity. Yikes. I did like the tech, some aspects that made it clear this was a future setting, but not so much that I got bored. I did have some issues getting used to the vocabulary; but I soon fell into the stream of things.

This book gave me some things to think about. My feelings about what gives a person her or his identity. Is the soul what they are storing, or is it merely the consciousness? What happens to the soul? How can you be unique if you can download your consciousness into more than one body at a time? Mr. Morgan doesn't try to answer these questions, so I'm still pondering it, left to draw my own conclusions. In this future world of Earth, the Catholics definitely don't agree with digital storage of consciousness, and they fight it. Unfortunately, that makes Catholics a particular target for people who don't have respect for human life.

That was another theme this book touched on. There are some people (powerful ones) who don't seem to value human life; since, well, you can just buy a new body when the old one is not working anymore. And people who are not worth anything in society, they are simply disposable. One of the major bad guys comes right out and says this. It made me think that even today, when we don't get replacement bodies, people have the same attitude. Life isn't sacred, if the person isn't worth anything in the material sense. Kind of sad to see that things haven't changed.

Kovacs was a protagonist that had layers. He was a ruthless killer. But, he was also a principled man, who had limits to what he would and wouldn't do. A man who cared about people, capable of loving and being loved. But, also a man who could kill remorselessly and does. He doesn't seem to have an issue with sleeping with another man's wife, but he doesn't like prostitution. Using drugs is not something he's against, either (I hate drugs, so I didn't really care for that). He's in over his head, several times. He gets hurt, badly. So, even though he's clearly a very dangerous man, he's not invulnerable. You really don't know if he'll make it through some of the sticky situations he ends up in. You see this crazy world through his eyes, and it's not pretty.

One thing that surprised me, was that the environment wasn't screwed up. I had expected that this would be an issue in the far future. But, not so much. I guess, with all the bad stuff that was going on, why throw in environmental catastrophes?

To sum up things: This was a very good read. I'd like to read more stories with Takeshi Kovacs, and more of Mr. Morgan's writing. ...more

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Apr 18, 2009 Brad rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013, exceeded-my-expectations, sci-fi, detective, you-are-a-true-vulgarian-aren-t-you

Well, well, well, this took me by surprise. I had fairly high expectations for Richard K. Morgan's first Takeshi Kovacs novel for a number of reasons: 1. many of y'all love these books, and plenty of you have told me to read them; 2. I have read and loved the first two parts of his A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy; 3. this book had seriously fast Hollywood attention; 4. I dig Sci-Fi.

So I tried to read it and reached page 10, then I quit. Then I tried to read it again and reached page 12, then I qu Well, well, well, this took me by surprise. I had fairly high expectations for Richard K. Morgan's first Takeshi Kovacs novel for a number of reasons: 1. many of y'all love these books, and plenty of you have told me to read them; 2. I have read and loved the first two parts of his A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy; 3. this book had seriously fast Hollywood attention; 4. I dig Sci-Fi.

So I tried to read it and reached page 10, then I quit. Then I tried to read it again and reached page 12, then I quit. But this last time I reached page 13, then kept going and going and going. It was even better than I expected.

Morgan smashes together Gibson's Sprawl with Banks' Culture with his own brand of sensual violence and comes up with a society advanced to near immortality without ever unshackling itself from market forces and the power elite, maintaining, further entrenching and magnifying our current inequities and iniquities. It is all done in the voice of Kovacs himself -- Envoy, mercenary with a salient conscience, sleeving master, and all around bad ass -- who turns out to be one of the finest first person narrators I've read. Whether he was in a fevered drug state, double sleeved, doing battle, or busy between a pair of muscled, toned legs, I believed in his existence.

Hell, Kovacs is so genuine I wouldn't be surprised if Morgan somehow tapped into Kovacs stack and ripped off his tale wholesale. He is just that real to me.

When I finished the book today, I drove into town and went straight to the bookstore, not imagining for a second that Broken Angels wouldn't be on the shelf. I didn't want to end my conversation with Kovacs, but it wasn't there. None of the Kovacs books were. If I'd had a splinter gun I might have taken off a head on my way out the door, but I had to settle for a head shake and a sneer. I guess I am going to have to wait a day or two longer (more like a week or two) to hear Kovacs whisper in my brain once again. I wonder if I could wangle a medically induced coma until my book arrives in the mail. Would that make the books arrival feel faster or slower? Hmmm. ...more

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Aug 20, 2010 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: pocmaincharacters, cyberpunk, sci-fi

Takeshi Kovacs, formerly an Envoy and currently a convicted criminal, is transported to Earth to solve a mystery for the unbelievably rich and powerful Bancroft. All the physical evidence shows that Bancroft committed suicide, but Bancroft is sure he'd never kill himself. The police refuse to investigate further, so Kovacs is hired onto the case.

Morgan takes the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction and cyberpunk and mixes them together into something exhilarating and novel. The twists and tur Takeshi Kovacs, formerly an Envoy and currently a convicted criminal, is transported to Earth to solve a mystery for the unbelievably rich and powerful Bancroft. All the physical evidence shows that Bancroft committed suicide, but Bancroft is sure he'd never kill himself. The police refuse to investigate further, so Kovacs is hired onto the case.

Morgan takes the tropes of hard-boiled detective fiction and cyberpunk and mixes them together into something exhilarating and novel. The twists and turns of the plots are great, but what really makes me crow about this book is the universe-building. AIs have rights; the hotel AI that Kovacs stays in is People's consciousnesses can be stored and even transferred into new bodies. A great idea, but Morgan is wise enough to see how this kind of technology could easily widen existing disparities. The rich and powerful are well-nigh immortal and can travel between planets practically instantaneously (by sleeving themselves in a body already in whatever place they want to travel to) while the poor are often just one accident or criminal charge away from having their body taken and used. On Kovacs's world, one reaction to these kinds of huge, insurmountable inequalities is a terrorist movement/philosophy based around the words and deeds of a woman named Quell. A few samples: "The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice."--Poems and Other Prevarications. Or "Her name was Iphigenia Deme, Iffy to those of her friends who had not yet been slaughtered by Protectorate Forces. Her last words, strapped to the interrogation table downstairs at Number Eighteen, Shimatsu Boulevard, are reputed to have been: 'That's fucking enough!' The explosion brought the entire building down." Or my personal favorite, spoken by Quell herself: "When they ask how I died, tell them: Still Angry."

The book is often brutal--Kovacs endures and delivers horrifying violence and mayhem. But there's a commitment to the idea of individual autonomy and dignity behind it, and an understanding of the ways class/race/religion etc are used as tools to maintain existing power structures, that I really respect. When Kovacs finally uncovers the mystery behind Bancroft's death, he explains it all a little too info-dumpy, but it's an easy mistake to make. I love the thoughtful way Morgan has created the universe, the odd little details (like Kovacs's sentient hotel, desperate for guests) and overarcing themes of it. I really like Kovacs himself, and I look forward to reading more stories about him. ...more

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Feb 18, 2009 Kara Babcock rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, from-library, 2009-read, science-fiction

This is exactly what I needed: a fast-paced mystery novel wrapped in the goodness of cyberpunk science fiction. Altered Carbon is an enthralling read.

The main character, Takeshi Kovacs, is an ex-United Nations Envoy, a sort of borderline psychopathic personality who went into messy situations and cleaned them up using any means necessary. As an ex-Envoy, Kovacs has had a hard time adjusting to civilian life, so the book starts with him as a fugitive. Then he dies. Immediately, Richard Morgan dem This is exactly what I needed: a fast-paced mystery novel wrapped in the goodness of cyberpunk science fiction. Altered Carbon is an enthralling read.

The main character, Takeshi Kovacs, is an ex-United Nations Envoy, a sort of borderline psychopathic personality who went into messy situations and cleaned them up using any means necessary. As an ex-Envoy, Kovacs has had a hard time adjusting to civilian life, so the book starts with him as a fugitive. Then he dies. Immediately, Richard Morgan demonstrated he's playing a high stakes game.

In Altered Carbon, digitising the human mind has become commonplace to the point that the body is just a "sleeve" and everyone gets fitted with a cortical "stack." So as long as the stack is intact, physical death isn't much of a barrier, assuming you've got money. Kovacs' mind gets broadcast from his home planet to Earth, where he's forced by a powerful businessman to solve the businessman's murder. On the risk of relying on generalities--because I don't want to get too bogged down in the plot specifics--I'll say that Morgan skilfully balances his setting and his plot, playing the latter off the former. Every new twist in the plot happens to reveal more about this realistic dystopia. As a result, the world of Altered Carbon feels rich without trying to force itself down my throat through unnecessary detail. Although the concept of mind uploading is far from new, Morgan is never heavy-handed with it. He has fun with "double sleeving" Kovacs and introduces a spunky hotel AI. But the body-hopping in Altered Carbon is less about identity and more about the prolonged psychological effects of separating consciousness from attachment to a physical form.

Kovacs is far from a sympathetic character. Morgan constantly portrays Kovacs as a product of his environment--that is, Kovacs is fucked up because he grew that way. This becomes a running theme, particularly for the novel's antagonists, and fits with the nihilistic dangers inherent in the novel's principal technology. As an antagonist cynically puts it, human life is cheap compared to machines. Why care about a protagonist who seems to place little value on human life and isn't a nice guy in general? Well, the fact that he's a totally fun badass aside, he at least tries to be a good guy. He demonstrates this in his attempts to help the unfortunate Elliott family, as well as the level of concern he shows for the cop who reluctantly helps him out because he's sleeved in her boyfriend's body.

The mystery aspect of the novel is fully satisfactory. If someone claims to have worked out the entire plot before the climax, he or she is lying. Yes, I did figure out most of it by the end of the first hundred pages. The specifics are too vague to discern until much later though. And that's partly Morgan's fault, since the novel does err on the side of too much complexity. There were aspects of the plot that seemed superfluous, characters who served little purpose except as shock or entertainment value. The plot could have stood some simplification without losing any punch or thematic significance, in my opinion, which would have made for a tighter story.

Still, I thoroughly enjoyed Altered Carbon and will be going on to read more of Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series. It's an ideal blend of science fiction and mystery.

This edition of Altered Carbon seemed to have an above average number of typos. I don't count that against Morgan (it's not his fault), but just thought I'd note that. It wasn't enough to distract me, but prospective readers may want to acquire another edition if they can. ...more

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Oct 10, 2011 Terence rated it it was ok

Shelves: speculative-fiction, mysteries-noir

Despite the rather glowing reviews from Wealhtheow and Ben, I can't quite "like" Altered Carbon. And that's not because it's not well written, or that the characters and the setting aren't interesting. It may be a matter of technological-dystopia fatigue. For all the bright-eyed, bushy-tailed nonfiction works about how bright the future is (cf. The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology) why can't I seem to find a fiction one where things don't seem pretty crappy for the majority of ...more

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Oct 26, 2009 Simon rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf, crime

I must admit that I was really looking forward to this. From what I've read of SF/Crime hybrids in the past I've always thought it worked very well and I've enjoyed them. To a large extent this was no exception.

This story is set on Earth in the future some couple of hundred years. Other star systems have been coloinsed and society has broadly moved on along the same lines it appears to be going in now, i.e. a capitalist society with your exceedingly wealthy and your exessively poor. One of the k I must admit that I was really looking forward to this. From what I've read of SF/Crime hybrids in the past I've always thought it worked very well and I've enjoyed them. To a large extent this was no exception.

This story is set on Earth in the future some couple of hundred years. Other star systems have been coloinsed and society has broadly moved on along the same lines it appears to be going in now, i.e. a capitalist society with your exceedingly wealthy and your exessively poor. One of the key developments of technology though that has changed society, and on which this book places particular emphasis, is the ability to digitise the mind. Consequently, your mind can be downloaded into a virtual environment, stored indefinitely and uploaded into another body with relative ease. Everyone gets implanted with a cortical stack at birth that continually copies and stores your mind. If your body dies, as long as this implant is not destroyed along with it, you can live on in one form or another.

Takeshi Kovacs is the protagonist of this novel and is brought out of storage by a wealthy tycoon to investigate why he was killed (the tycoon naturally had a backup of himself and was "re-sleeved" shortly afterwards but with no memory of what happened when he died). The plot quickly thickens and the mystery deepens as Kovacs gets drawn into an dense web of deceit, intrigue and danger.

At the end of the book I was left quite satisfied with the story and the way it was all wrapped up but I found quite a fair bit of the book hard going. It seemed to plod on in places and I felt it was too long. But I find my self often saying that about modern books so I guess it's probably just me really.

What I did like about this book is the way the concept of identity and the essense of self was explored. How much are you still you if you've been re-sleeved into a new body? At one point, Kovacs is even duplicated and sleeved into two different bodies. I really liked the scene in which he was having a conversation with himself in which they wondered at how long would it take so that their divergent experiences made them different people? The arrangement was only temporary however and they had to consider how they would decide which copy would be terminated afterward.

In some ways this seemed more in the Crime genre than SF. Some quite explicit sex scenes for instance that one does not usually expect in SF. But Crime is not a genre I have a particular affection for. If you do, go right ahead and add another star. And if you also don't mind the long plodding nature that most modern writers seem to generate these days, add yet another star.

I'll probably re-visit Takeshi Kovacs at some point but it won't be in the immediate future. ...more

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Jun 04, 2008 Nicky rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, speculative-fiction, cyberpunk

Interesting concepts. All the sex kind of bothered me: it wasn't really necessary. ...more

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May 03, 2011 Daniel Roy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sf, cyberpunk

What a wonderful little book this turned out to be! Morgan starts off with the 'mind as information' idea that is so liked by modern SF authors, and spins it into a clever and surprising detective novel that hits all the right buttons.

Yeah, the SF concepts are cool, but what's really nice about this novel is the pulp detective novel it contains. In that regard, SF and Noir perfectly complement each other and prevent the novel from ever devolving into something derivative. The SF concepts are goo ...more

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May 16, 2012 John Montagne rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Awesome. Two genres collide, cyberpunk meets old gumshoe. The result is a novel filled with technical wonders that are somehow easily explained/understood, with action that is fast-paced and with just enough grit to make you think you've got a front row seat. There is also an explicit part that can only be described as 'science fiction sex', yeah, it's that awesome. eh eh eh... ...more

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May 28, 2010 Michelle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book_club, sci-fi, mystery, war_is_hell

Morgan's first novel starts of with a (literal) bang, riddling our protagonists with bullets. thus starts a tale of a future world not far off at all from one that Phillip Dick would have imagined, where the personality and memory are stored in an electronic cortical stack implanted into everyone's brain stem. if you can afford a "re-sleeving" into a new (real or synthetic) body, death has no meaning. in such a world, why would a rich man, sure to download into a waiting computer backup, commit ...more

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May 30, 2009 This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, cyberpunk, mystery, science-fiction

A future in which the mind can be stored and transferred into alternate bodies, it completely changes society's concept of things such as murder and death and morality. Morgan paints a fascinating world with a main character who retains his own personal sense of morality, despite having been mentally trained as an Envoy (Soldier/Killer/Troubleshooter)

While very interesting and well written, probably not a book for everyone, given it can be a bit heavy on sex and violence. ...more

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