Rating: 
Summary: A great crossover novel
Review: I was the long Labor Day weekend and I was looking for something fun, escapist, and relaxing to read. Richard K. Morgan's "Altered Carbon" was all that plus intellectually interesting and, at moments, philosophically intriguing - questioning the limits and prerogatives of what it is that makes anyone human, one human a human, and one human that particular human. If that all sounds jolting, well then, read on a bit.It is the 25th century, and our protagonist Takeshi Kovacs is quite a specimen of a Special Ops guy. Having been born 186 light years away on Harlan's World (which was populated by Japanese keiretsu with Eastern European labor in the distant 23rd century) and graduated from street gangs to the armed forces, Takeshi eventually finds his way into the UN Envoys and is now brought to Earth for the first time to solve a very unique murder mystery. There he is trained for the life in which he exists, essentially, as a consciousness (all people have a cortical stack that records their memories up to the moment of death; this is convenient since the stack can then be re-inserted into a body, thus bringing the unfortunate deceased back to life) and can be zipped across the galaxy to do the Protectorate's bidding as need be. Morgan takes this clever bit of futurist postulating and generates a fully formed world that comes complete with its over-exposed celebrities, clichéd ancient philosophers, world-weary stellar travelers, distant frontiers, great adventures, mind-blowing sex and illicit substances, and, above all, human foibles, follies, and fears. I can't get specific without ruining plot details, so let me say that injecting one's consciousness into another, inert, human body ("sleeving"_ creates all sorts of self-identity and other-identity issues. Peculiar circumstances abound between lovers, friends, enemies, and spouses, and Morgan deals with his characters sensitively - they evince fear, optimism, and a certain willful know-nothingness about the prospects of coming and going so readily from Death's grasp. In the first half of the novel, the author is so strong that the work, perhaps unintentionally, levitated above the plain of mere sci-fi or detective novels, and achieves a profound, poignant, sublime exegesis on being human. Towards the second half, he begins to pick up the pace and he slips into a more pedestrian tone and style that is more distinctly of the genres. So while this book is excellent and absolutely recommended, it does not take its place with the eternal classics. Word-choice and the surprising thought and actions of these characters reveal Morgan as a particularly adept author and story-teller: The composed woman is not seething with rage inside, rather: "The strain on her face was still there, like weathered rocks under a thin mantle of snow." The hotel lobby at the Hendrix is not dark and dismal, rather: "The walls and ceiling bore an irregular spacing of illuminum tiles whose half-life was clearly almost up, and their feeble radiance had the sole effect of shoveling the gloom into the center of the room... [populated by] shin-hungry metal-edged tables." This is enjoyable, thoughtful writing in which the technology, the future, and the plot serve to reveal the human condition, and are not made, awkwardly, to bear the brunt of the story and the entertainment. As when the protagonist Takeshi is told: "I'm not sure. He went to Osaka that day, for a meeting.." "Osaka is where?"
She looked at me in surprise. This is just delicious, brilliant writing: that the author would remember that our Japanese-Czech protagonist wouldn't know where Osaka is, and that an Earthling would of course assume he would. The plot moves along quite strongly throughout the book, and there are no exceptionally weak parts. Ultimately, the story is settled, and then unsettled, by a series of unnecessary deus ex machinas, that do distract a bit from the story and remind the reader that this is, after all, a first-time author. Nonetheless, the detective story line is great, intriguing, gripping, and fits hand-in-glove with the technological inventions of the author's mind. The philosophical touches of the book are what I loved most. Morgan details the implications of a world in which the rich can afford disposable cloned bodies and live for centuries, crime syndicates can produce multiple copies of talented assassins, the working class stiffs are resentful of the immortality beyond the reach of their wallets, death is not permanence but a phase, and one's consciousness is transportable instantaneously across the galaxy. Each of these is deftly, masterfully handled and leaves the reader pondering accidentally deep quandaries. In sum, I liked this book an awful lot, despite not being a scifi reader for over a decade now. Not only will it be loved by the detective and science fiction crowds, but by a crossover audience that likes to sample the best that other genres have to other. For 2003, Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon is that book.
Rating: 
Summary: Altered Carbon (4 1/2 stars)
Review: This is such a cool book! In a futuristic world where life is cheap and bodies interchangeable, ex-soldier Takeshi Kovacs must try to solve a crime while evading the physical and psychological demons of his past. This is neo-cyberpunk or "Information Technology SF" in subgenre, but unlike much of the fiction I've read dealing with downloadable personalities and similar themes, it emphasizes the human cost of advanced technology. The worldview is dark, but not ridiculously so, and the characterization is skillful. The characters have interesting backstories and subtle behaviors. My only quibble regarding the worldbuilding is that this doesn't seem like 25th century; the cultural continuity makes it read more like 100-150 years down the road. Which is not a big fault. The plot is complex and full of action. I thought Kovacs was a bit slow to realize the obvious memory-wiping function of the putative murder, but mostly the plot works well. Fast-moving and unflinching in its portrayal of brutality, this is not a book for readers who dislike violence. Another thing that Morgan does well: describing weapons, computer systems, and techno-gear in general and making them interesting, not just a list of macho stats. This has all the techno-goodies anyone could want, yet it's character-driven and powerful on an emotional level. I look forward to the sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Carbon Noir
Review: Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon is a book about self and identity. Furthermore, the book is an exciting hybrid of cyberpunk and detective noir genres. The plot and themes basically revolve around the idea that in the 25th century humans are issued a cortical stack, implanted into their spines, into which consciousness is digitized and can be downloaded with its memory intact, into a new body or "sleeve". Here I was thinking we'd heard the death rattle of cyberpunk. Even William Gibson, the godfather of the sub-genre, abandoned his sci-fi stomping grounds for the present day in his Zeitgeist-capturing Pattern Recognition of last year. But Morgan has not only proved that there's some mileage yet in the flailing sub-genre, but has also gone a long way to revitalising it. Morgan's writing is also informed by a Socialist concern for the de-humanising effect of technology and the domination of technology by the capitalist class. One nice idea is that of the Methuselahs, or "Meths", who are wealthy enough to back up their minds on a regular basis and have multiple cloned sleeves of themselves, providing a type of immortality, and who rule Earth as puppet-masters behind UN governmental organs. Morgan writes about the underclass that is chewed-up and spat out by society. It's easy to see why this book was optioned by a film studio for a squillion dollars, because Morgan's writing is very cinematic, though I'm sure that if Altered Carbon makes it on to celluloid, some of the violence and sex from the book will be toned down. But what impressed me most was the detail Morgan injects into his writing. He does more than paint on a thin veneer of been-there-done-that generic cyberpunk, but instead evokes a grim and gritty milieu, obviously more inspired by Ridley Scott's Blade Runner than Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, in which the reader can totally immerse themselves. But Morgan never overwrites, and his prose always remains hard and lean.
Rating:
Summary: Dense and Cinematic
Review: I really enjoyed this book, with its convoluted plot and gritty, involving hard SF ideas. Sure, there are failings, logical and technical, but the sheer power of the the style over the substance in this tale glossed them over. Although it is cobbled together from all kinds of other sources, movies (Blade Runner,Bond, John Woo, Takeshi Kitano) & books (well noted in the other reviews), the synergistic mix certainly had a life of its own, and there was no shortage of clear visuals and a sense of place in most scenes. The setting 400 years in the future seemed a little too far away for the level of technology and culture, maybe it should have been 200 to 250 years. Although I understand this novel has been optioned for film, I am wondering how you make a movie about a hero whose real face is hardly seen and who occupies 4 bodies in the course of the story, two of which head off to simultaneous but separate adventures... (Face-Off?) Maybe the next installment will fill in some of the missing info other reviewers have remarked on.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Edgy Sci-Fi
Review: This was a great story, no doubt about it. It's the 25th Century, and amongst all the technology that now exists, the most radical is that which allows people to store their personas digitally on surgically implanted cortical stacks, and move to another body should death occur. Thus, it's very difficult to die a final death, and the ability to transmit one's persona between solar systems at the speed of light and arrive to be loaded ("resleeved") into a cloned body has revolutionized interstellar travel. The backdrop is astonishing, and amidst the adventures of mercenary Takeshi Kovacs, we explore every implication of the new technology: Do people ever die? Can a human persona inhabit a computer? Can you make copies of yourself? Can computer viruses infect your cortical stack? What implications does near-immortality have on religion? Very good book. I'll recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: The best Sci-Fi I've seen in years
Review: Get this book! I don't review well. I never know how much of the story to give away to make my point, but I'll try. In the future, people have the ability to download their consciousness into other bodies. Our hero, Kovacs, is downloaded into a body on Earth to solve a murder. What makes this novel so great is the way Kovacs moves through a world that is completely recognisable, though it takes place in the future. Richard Morgan gives us a future that isn't all bright lights and polished chrome; but rather a future where the dark and seamier sides of life have advanced technologically along with everything else. This is an incredible read, whether you're into sci-fi or detective novels, and you will not be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: This is going to make a great movie
Review: First, the storytelling is extraordinary. Read the other reviewers for spoilers, descriptions and the assorted lit-crit commentary. In short -- this is phenomenal, and the fact that this is Morgan's first is just shy of unbelievable. I loved it. I bought three copies and gave them to friends and family. This is probably my favorite novel. I can't wait to see it on the big screen. Second, body swapping via a recording device implanted in the brainstem is just bunk. Not just technologically impossible, but widely and routinely dismissed as not even biologically or physically plausible. Personality, memory, perception, thought, analysis, intuition, emotion -- all are functions embedded in structure. That is, physical structure, not transient electrical activity. "Swapping" one "person" for another would require a complete rewiring of the brain of the host, based on a schematic temporal snapshot of the brain of the downloadee. Snapshots (digital encoding) are static -- the human brain is continually evolving and changing, something universally lost in translation. Assuming that its possible to capture the precise physical structure of a system comprised of billions of elements in a continual state of flux, in recreating that system it now becomes subject to initial conditions fully susceptible to the inherent chaotic behavior of molecular biochemistry. Tiny global errors on the quantum level during rearrangement, and bam, you have a whole different person. Worse, with even smaller local errors, and you end up with "transcription errors" that would randomly produce aphasia, impairment, disease, dysfunction, or complete non-function. Complicating this is the fact that the new host body is fundamentally different from the body that gave rise to the mind now inhabiting a foreign vessel. All the sensory data is different -- no two noses, eyes, skins, ears, tongues, &c are the same from one person to the next -- or even between twins or clones. Chaos theory holds that complex systems change, sometime radically, as conditions change. A new mind in an alien body must alter to become something different than what it was, with no clear indication if these changes are benign or catastrophic, and completely begs the question that the brain structures of the traveller are capable of adapting to the new inputs at all. In short, this is ... expensive. Computationally, it looks intractable. As a design, the flaws are probably insoluable. As a business venture, backed by a governmental program and/or funding -- utterly beyond the realm of potential possibility. Okay, with all that said, this is still a fantastic book. Buy it. Buy it now. The story and storytelling alone is more than worth the price (a bit of impossible science) of admission. But isn't that why it's science fiction, after all?
Rating:
Summary: A great science fiction book!
Review: In the 25th Century, life and death have become controlled and a person can be "resleeved" into a new body. This and much more in this combination high-tech/cyberpunk with far-reaching galactic sci-fi make this as intriguing and entertaining a work as "Foundation", "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Neuromancer", "Snow Crash", "Cryptonomicon", and "Darkeye: Cyber Hunter". A definite must-read.
Rating:
Summary: Good but not perfect
Review: Morgan gets off to an auspicious start with "Altered Carbon." This novel was entertaining enough that I finished it in one cross-country airplane trip. That's no small feat; I'd rather stare at the back of the seat in front of me than finish some of the books I've brough on airplane trips. If you like cyberpunk, you will probably like this. To the extent that it has problems, it perhaps follows the conventions of the genre a bit too closely. Further, there are one or two too many characters, and the crime investigated by the main character is a bit too convoluted. In fairness, I don't care for mysteries, which typically involve the same kind of over-thought and complicated crimes and investigations; if you like mystery novels and SF, you would likely give this five stars and enjoy it quite a bit.
Rating:
Summary: Kinda like Philip Marlowe in the 25th century
Review: I'm not in the habit of reading murder mysteries. Not that there's anything wrong with them, but mystery novels aren't my cup of tea. As someone always on the lookout for a good science fiction novel, however, I found myself suckered into "Altered Carbon," so now I can say that I've read my first high-tech, futuristic detective story. "Altered Carbon" is set mostly in Bay City (formerly San Francisco) four centuries into the future. People familiar with San Francisco will probably have a little fun with some of the locations (the upscale Potrero neighborhood is now a seedy, crime-ridden dump called Licktown), and all readers will find themselves immersed in a world in the ability to "digitize" human memories and consciousness is both a blessing and a curse. The protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, finds himself sprung from digital storage and put to work solving an increasingly labyrinthine case involving murder, suicide, and some very depraved recreational pursuits. Along the way he gets involved in a couple of VERY [erotic] situations and multiple episodes of graphic violence and torture. Fair warning to any reader who doesn't handle such things well. What I found most provocative about this tale is the aforementioned ability to digitally record and store human consciousness and memories. Most people are implanted with "cortical stacks" at the base of the skull after birth, and if one is killed or grievously injured, one's very conscious being can be "re-sleeved" in a new body (natural, enhanced, or completely synthetic), provided one has the money. This raises all kinds of interesting questions about the nature of human consciousness, self-awareness, and what is often called the Soul. In this future world, self-proclaimed Catholics can forego such "re-sleeving," since they believe that God takes possession of the Soul once the body has given it up. But this begs the question: If the cortical stack and stored memories of a Catholic are crucial in a murder investigation, whose rights take precedence? The plot of "Altered Carbon" is pretty (...) complicated, and no matter how close attention readers pay to the clues, the puzzle doesn't quite come together until near the very end, and then one is sorely tempted to read the whole book over again. I found myself leafing back and forth through the book after I was finished, every so often saying to myself, "Oh, so THAT'S what they were talking about!" Still Takeshi Kovacs is a pretty intriguing character, some of the dialogue and narrative is really witty, and overall this is a pretty stunning debut novel for Richard Morgan. I've already snagged a copy of his follow-up, "Broken Angels," again featuring Takeshi Kovacs. I can't wait to start reading it this evening.
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