Rating: 
Summary: Good mix of mystery and cyberpunk
Review: I'm not a hardcore fan of cyberpunk. In fact, I probably don't like most. But this book was a successful blend of cyberpunk and a good old fashioned hardboiled detective story, with a little bit of love and sex thrown in for good measure.
Rating:
Summary: This Is A Very, Very Good Novel
Review: This is Morgan's first novel, as far as I am concerned this could have been his one hundreth novel, it is that well done, professional in every detail, from plot and character development to scenery and background discriptions, and banter between characters, all superb. There are lots of plausible hard science fiction ideas portrayed here, including the storing of people on data disks, cloning, also it is a time for immortality for those who can afford it, with death just an inconvenience as the deceased are simply 're-sleeved' into a new body, natural or artificial. Morgan treats all of these ideas with an original twist, none in and of itself is particularly original (is there anything today truly original?). A person's consciousness is located as a back-up in a cortical stack at the base of the brain. Takeshi Kovaks, the primary character, finds himself re-awakened many light-years and time from the planet he was living on prior, where he was violently killed, and Kovaks very quickly becomes immersed in a mystery to be solved. To me good science fiction presents to the reader a future that is not only possible, but likely. A good writer can write about a future that has undergone a paradigm shift, and values the majority today consider important are no longer valid, and Richard Morgan does just that here in this novel in fine fashion. At 375 pages it appears to be of moderate length, but this is a 'trade' paperback, lots of words on each page, it takes a bit of time to read. The mystery Morgan spins here will keep you guessing, and includes very realistic settings. A word of caution for those who don't like novels with rough edges, there is plenty of violence and sex here, very earthy.
Rating: 
Summary: Original prose
Review: Noir sf. Lovely, lovely prose. Dark and moody. And original. Mist falls on the city "like sheets of muslin." Clone pods are "lozenges." "The young men in silk watched us go with the dead-eyed concentration of snakes." "...a soft silk bouse settling over her torso like dark water." Beautiful. Plus violence and sex retold so graphically as to elicit sharp intakes of breath. Cool concepts, too. It's a very coherent, fully fleshed future world, with histories, technologies, mythologies, revolutions, countercultures hinted at. Much fodder for more books from Morgan, I hope.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read
Review: I can't go on enough about how much I enjoyed this novel. My definition of a good book is one that is well written, entertains/enlightens, and is thought provoking...Morgan's latest meets all these criteria. I won't go into about the plot--that's already been done here. Just let me say as someone who has read science fiction for at least 30 years it's rare that I run across a novel this good.
Rating:
Summary: Truly belongs with the greats
Review: Alright, so I'm in the bookstore hoping to find something along the lines of a Stephenson or a Gibson, something that's in too short supply lately. I noticed Altered Carbon, which unfortunately sat in a none-too-noteworthy section, which is a shame. This book belongs front and center; it's a display of one of the most promising writers to come along in this genre for a long time. I truly loved the story, and hope to not have to wait too long for the sequel (apparently available in the UK right now!) You WILL NOT be disappointed in this book if you hunger for something in the genre. All that said, here is my only complaint, and it's really pedantic. I like to really get inside the head of one character and stay there, and have other characters slowly introduced one by one. In Altered Carbon, while the author is a master at slipping in the artifacts of the universe in a deft manner, ala Dan Simmons, he unfortunately splashes a deluge of characters on you. I found myself more than once paging backward to get a refresher on who someone was. But really, this is a small gripe. Richard Morgan has created a universe in which he will be able to grab tales out of for what I hope is a very long time to come.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive yet derivative
Review: OK, this review is a bit of revisionist history. Had I reviewed this book immediately after reading it, I probably would have emphasized it's strengths: the fine writing, the able characterisation, the superb visionary descriptions of his future Earth, and his fun assimilation of film noir into hard SF. I also would have tossed in quite a few complaints about the derivative nature of some of his key plot points. Without going into it with too much detail (and therefor saving the reader from spoilers) Morgan treads ground already covered (and covered better) by fellow UK writers Ken Macleod and Alastair Reynolds. There's also a bit too much Blade Runner and Neuromancer here -- don't get me wrong, I love those seminal works. Nevertheless, we've seen it all done before, and (to be repetitive) done better. So... fast forward to today, and I firmly believe that this book is a must-read. Why? Because it sets up what is evidently going to become one of the most read and beloved future-universe space opera sagas of the decade. I finished Morgan's sequel, Broken Angels, and let me tell you: it is fantastic. It is as original as Altered Carbon is derivative. The seemingly-throwaway lines in this book that so intrigued me come to glorious fruition in the sequel. And as I know that this is supposed to be a review of Altered Carbon and not its unpublished (in the US) sequel, I'll just add that the new one is firmly well-written military SF, giving rise to the speculation that Morgan intends to mine the various sub-genres of SF, utilizing thier various strengths to advance what is obviously becoming an intensely spiritual story. If you want to appreciate the masterpiece that is Morgan's new book, Altered Carbon is essential. The author gives no quarter to the new reader unaquainted with the conceipts of his continuing universe, and you will be lost without it. Plus, this is indeed one fine and entertaining read. Check out Altered Carbon, and watch Richard K. Morgan become one of the bright shining stars in the already luminous UK SF scene.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliantly realized
Review: This is one of the best new SF novels I've read in the last ten years. It's enough of a treat that Richard Morgan can _write_. The author bio indicates that he taught English as a second language for some fourteen years; he can teach a thing or two to us native speakers as well. His narrative and his dialogue are clean, crisp, and focused, with that sense of heightened reality you get from really good fiction; there's not a word out of place, and there's none of the mannered artificiality of e.g. Frank Herbert's _Dune_. But it's even better than good writing. Morgan has applied his craft to a brand of fiction that one of the cover blurbs describes as a cross between hard-core cyberpunk and hard-boiled detective fiction. That's an odd description of the genre and makes it sound newer than it is, but it's true that there hasn't been a lot of SF detective fiction. And Morgan's contribution advances the ball considerably. If you're at all familiar with the genre, you're already thinking of Larry Niven's ARM stories (and maybe, though less aptly, of Asimov's _The Caves of Steel_ and _The Naked Sun_). Well, Morgan's world does owe something to Niven's, but he's got very much his own spin. His main character (Takeshi Kovacs), though arguably more Mike Hammer than Hiro Protagonist despite the snowcrashy backdrop, will remind longtime fen of the wisecracking tough-guy heroes that have populated SF since at least the days of Keith Laumer (not to mention Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat). But he's not just a carbon copy (even an altered one). And Morgan has found a very interesting way around a problem that has plagued detective fiction since its inception: when your narrative is written in the first person, how do you keep the reader from figuring out that the narrator doesn't get killed? Oh, you can do a Jim Thompson and have the character narrate his own death, but otherwise there aren't too many possibilities. Morgan has discovered one. As you'll learn within the first few pages, Kovacs has _already_ died at least once, and there's nothing to keep him from dying again, perhaps repeatedly; for reasons that will be clear early on, his death wouldn't keep him from narrating the novel. The plot is ingenious: it seems that one Laurens Bancroft has committed suicide, but Bancroft himself believes he was murdered and hires Our Hero to investigate. (Yes, you read that correctly; the alleged murder victim wants to know how he was killed.) Beyond that, I'm not going to tell you anything that might spoil your fun. I _will_ tell you to keep your eyes peeled for a huge number of incredibly cool background details. Like Heinlein, Morgan drops you into the middle of the tale and introduces you to its world in the natural course of the narrative, rather than calling attention to it tourist-fashion. In the process he mentions lots of nifty things that could have been entire novels in their own right (and John W. Campbell would have loved every one of them) -- e.g. computer-automated hotels that upgraded to sentience and bought themselves out from under corporate ownership. Morgan's throwaway ideas are better than most SF writers' main plot points. I'll also tell you that, as one or two other reviewers have pointed out, there's some fairly graphic sex in this novel -- not to mention some vivid and disturbing violence. It's extraordinarily well-written and I thought it was all quite tastefully handled. But if you haven't got the stomach for such stuff, be warned. _Very_ highly recommended. If you've spent the last decade or two wondering where all the really good SF has gone, check this one out. It's already on my best-of-recent-SF shortlist, alongside some Alistair Reynolds, Robert Sawyer, China Mieville, Neal Stephenson, and a very small handful of others.
Rating:
Summary: THOUGHT PROVOKING & ENTERTAINING
Review: One of the most interesing and exciting books I've ever read!
Combines realistic, but unique ideas of preserving & extending life with a great futuristic adventure mystery. It is rare that I have found such a combination of good writing, characters and plot development, along with thought provoking subjects, that will have you thinking long after you stop reading.
Rating:
Summary: A fabulous first outing.
Review: As a ravenous scifi reader, I love finding new authors to explore. This is especially true of authors like Richard K. Morgan, who bring a lot of new ideas out in their work. The tech in this book is great and points to some interesting possibilities for future books based on the same world view. State of the art gene tailored tech ninjas, back alley body mods, AI controlled hotels with overactive self defense systems, telepathic advertising, virtual snuff. This was a fun read. The fact that Mr. Morgan only has one release is going to give me a nervous breakdown.
Rating:
Summary: Technocrime
Review: Morgan writes one of the most stunning new SF books in some time, bringing us a mystery thriller in an exotic yet frighteningly familiar future. The tone is firmly set not in the halls of Science Fiction past, but in the legacy of 1930's hard-boiled crime fiction, full of plots, counterplots, seamy locales, seamier people, and above all, sex, violence, and death. This is a world where no one dies for good, where bodies are cloned and personalities held in cortical "stacks" sleeved into them. A rich man "died" by apparent suicide, and when revived calls in a renowned offworld criminal to investigate. What Takeshi Kovachs finds are unhelpful cops, people and gangs out to hurt or kill him, bewildering events, lies everywhere, and dead bodies showing up around every corner. Every ally is a potential enemy, with the exception of the hotel he stays in. After being chased, shot at, beaten, burned, tortured, and nearly killed many times, he slowly realizes that behind it all is another of the ancient power players of the world, one with whom he has an old history. From then Kovacs finally has the upper hand, methodically manipulating events to a final close. The perspective is gritty, hardened, and not a little bitter. Kovacs is more than willing to take whatever measures he feels are necessary, including killing - permanently. He is a seasoned Envoy, a long-time criminal (though just how is hazy), and has been through many bodies and many worlds. No one is particularly likable, but many are somehow sympathetic. The combination of hard crime thriller with many unique SF elements - Science Fiction, and San Fransisco - works well. The author has done a great job here. There are deeper ideas floating around. What is death? What would revival mean for religion, for law enforcement, and for life in general? How would the elite change? Every member of the upper-class is distasteful or downright evil, seeing people as pawns and playtoys; to the author they have no redeeming social value. The epilogue is a little trite, but that's made up for by all the psychadelic dream sequences, Kovacs' dead buddy Jimmy De Soto giving him advice from time to time. An engrossing book, with a very satisfying ending leaving more than enough room for sequels. If you don't mind seeing the very worst of humanity, and rather gratuitous sex at times, I highly recommend.
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