Rating: 
Summary: Happy, happy, joy, joy. Body snatchers rule! Yay team! ...
Review: Dark and dark - however without anything redeeming I could find. Dick's dark novels had a point. They had something to say. What does this book have to say? It's just dark for the sake of darkness and action. A big "So what?" by the time the end came. Yeah, yeah, enhanced bodies, ridiculous fight scenes, cliff hangers, blah, blah. But lordy, the darkest thing in the book is the technology at the center that creates "immortality"! It's utterly dark, and it's a throwaway gee-whiz thing in this book. Excuse me? A magic supercomputer recording device that takes over one's body and brain is like, totally wow, dude? A living death at the command of some artifact computer thingy in your head is just cool/hip/wowza story foundation, and let's ignore it as a given? The deepest this book gets is to envision scenarios for people splitting into more than one. That's original, but without getting into whether the "person" is a person at all? Hewwo? Earth to author. You have something BIG there. Hewwo? Maybe you could, like, explore the BIG thing? So why give the book 3 stars? Because it's very well written and his first book. The technology, aside from the magic that makes this miniature thingamajig possible hangs together. If the author can develop some depth as well as humanity in his soul he could be great. As it stands, the book has all the depth and thoughtfulness of a TV action drama.
Rating:
Summary: Would have been a great book, except...
Review: WORDS OF WARNING - This book has extreme violence, profanity and especially x-rated (triple x is more accurate) sex scenes. Beware if you are a reader who is opposed to such material. STORY: As Publisher's Weekly states - "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." MY FEEDBACK:
1) SETTING - Morgan creates a gritty, dark future Earth that is easily imagined and believed through his descriptions. The expected melding of technology into everyday life which reaps rewards and consequences on society is expected of a cyberpunk story and is well delivered here. 2) CHARACTERS
a) The Protagonist - Takeshi Kovacs is just the kind of hard nosed, don't give a care, use force whenever possible type of detective. You can't but like this character for his brashness and his intelligence.
b) The other characters were ok. Very few pages were spent on the cast but focused more on Kovacs and the mystery he was trying to resolve. I almost didn't feel a threat from the antagonists because Takeshi at times didn't care either. He was just going to ride out the torture or find himself Real Death and so his attitude didn't make me fear his enemies too much. Some charactes like Ortega were left with a single four-letter word vocabulary which didn't add to the characterization but detracted from it. 3) PLOT - As mentioned above the content is extreme even though "some" of the content "seems" appropriate within such a setting. I stopped reading Stephen King at one point because his stories seemed to focus more on shock value instead of a good story. For example, the level of detail in which this author takes the two or so love scenes I felt were totally unecessary and if I wanted to read xxx-rated erotica then I would do so instead of finding it by accident in a cyberpunk novel.
With any mystery novel all the clues should be available to the reader. As with any mystery the detective explains how he discovers this or that. In this novel when Kovacs reveals how he pieces things together he even tells one of the characters, "Intuition, mostly..." Yes, this is one of the character's strengths and it is established that this is one of his strengths early on...but...the LEAPS of intuition on a few of the clues are just that, Leaps that the reader just has to take in faith because the reader would never have figured some of them out for him/herself. OVERALL: I was gripped by the mystery and the setting. I would have given the book a higher rating if the secondary characters were fleshed out more and not made so one-dimensional. Also, if the author had been more skilled at letting a person's imagination deal with some of the content vs. giving us every, visual and tactile detail. It makes you wonder why books don't have a rating system to warn readers like movies have in warning viewers. I really want to ready more of Takeshi Kovacs as a character. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to pass and pickup more of the classic pieces of cyberpunk, sci-fi, and fantasy that deal with a solid story, characters, and maybe social commentary instead of shock value.
Rating: 
Summary: Great
Review: This is a really cool cyberpunk, detective novel. Much better than William Gibson's Neuromancer which many feel is the definitive cyberpunk. I like it because it does not try to be some great philosophical work as neuromancer was and does not stray from the action so much. It has really great language and as all great sci-fi leads you into questions of philosophy rather than shoving them down your throat.
The core idea is so fundamentally new and amazing that it will really provoke your imagination and entrhall you.
It is raunchy, quick, stylish and slick. The reader will really identify with the protagonist, who is as badass a character as has been written in modern detective stories. Watch for this to become a series with tons of sequels, and I believe the movie rights have already been optioned (sucks because they could never do justice..)
Rating: 
Summary: seriously unrealized potential
Review: Detective fiction is based upon the accumulation of clues that contribute to a satisfying conclusion--and it works largely because it's set in a world full of conventions, motivations, and details we are all familiar with. The problem with SF detective fiction is that those conventions and topoi do not pre-exist. They have to be established over the course of the story WHILE the author is simultaneously dropping clues pointing toward the final reveal of the story. This is a complex affair, and unfortunately, Morgan spends so much time setting the stage he forgets to hone the script. The world he's fashioned is marvelous, but the little details he provides throughout the story are so insignificant I found myself having to flip back through the book and refresh my memory as to what drug does what and who so-and-so was about every page or so just to make sense of the conclusion. Despite an intriguing protagonist and premise Altered Carbon was ultimately dissatisfying. Most of the supporting cast was one-dimensional with actions that were totally incomprehensible or unqualified, and Morgan also fell into the gland-fulfillment amateur erotica trap that taints so much of science fiction. I'd wait for Morgan's next offering to see if he can tighten things up.
Rating:
Summary: Solid action detective story with a Sci-Fi overlay
Review: This novel is in the classic genre of the private eye story -- a tough guy who's operated inside the law, outside the law and at the edges, and he seems most comfortable at the edges. He's quick with his fists or his weapons and he has a sixth sense of danger. But of course despite the hard core he has a soft spot or two. Even though it fits the hard-boiled detective mold so well, this is a solid, engaging action story, helped by the more-or-less believable setting five hundred or so years from now. The future setting in a latter-day San Francisco doesn't require us to throw away our sense of the credible --we just have to give the author a limited license to invent. And our hero Kovacs exhibits a great sense of ironic humor, all the while letting us in on his thoughts as he puzzles his way through the twisted plot. There are no last-minute revelations, nothing we couldn't have known. We're there with him on a rollercoaster, rooting for the protagonists, mistrustful of the villains and certain only that it's a great trip.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down...
Review: This is one of those rare books I just couldn't put down. I started reading it on a Saturday night, and I hated to stop to sleep... then spent all day Sunday reading until the end. I loved this book. With all the focus on the "Blade Runner" or "Matrix" parts of the story, I think more emphasis should be placed on the "noir" aspects of this novel. It's a great detective story, and the technology aspects simply add to the atmosphere, but they also add some compelling questions and ruminations on the nature of self. I can't wait for the next novel from this author. He's got talent.
Rating:
Summary: I thought to myself, hey pretty colors.
Review: Not only will you get seizures from looking at the cover you will get them from waiting diligently for this story to pick up. I am not going to explain the book because chances are you have already read a summary. If you want to read the book where it should have started (And I don't recommend it) open to page 250. You won't have missed a thing. The only reason I gave it a 2 was because I enjoyed the run of the mill sarcasm. So if you like a strung out story and mediocre sarcasm read on.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding debut...
Review: Carries off a compelling detective story based in a fascinating and vividly imagined future dystopia. Reminiscent of George Alec Effinger's "When Gravity Fails" series which pulled off the same trick, but with a subtly distinct central high concept. Well-drawn characters, snappy dialogue and thrilling action sequences. Waiting for the next book with unhealthy anticipation.
Rating:
Summary: Tough Detective and Virtual Torture
Review: Altered Carbon is a SF novel in the American detective story style. It takes places at a time when humanity has spread to a few planets in other solar systems via slowboats. However, humankind also has FTL communications, the ability to store and transfer digitized human personas, and the means to download such personas into sleeves: human, clone, or synthetic bodies. In this novel, Takeshi Kovacs is a retired Envoy, a super expediter who resolves offworld threats to human polities, often by violence. As an Envoy, Kovacs had extensive experience in downloading into various sleeves. Now he has the experience of resleeving on Earth, where few, if any, Envoys have been. He has been contracted out to Laurens Bancroft, who was found dead in his own office and declared a suicide, but who insists that he would not have done such an act, particularly since he only lost 48 hours of experience. Kovacs is to find the real cause of his death, whereupon he will be paid 100,000 UN dollars and his persona will be transmitted back to his home planet. Leaving the download facility, Kovacs is intercepted by Lieutenant Ortega of the Bay City police. He learns something about the case, but also discovers that the younger generations do not like the centuries old Meths -- Methuselahs -- such as Bancroft. They have too much power and too much experience; their lives are regulated by different rules than other people. After meeting Bancroft, and his wife and friends, Kovacs tends to agree with Ortega. However, even Meths have problems, such as Proposition 653, which requires any dead person, even Catholics, to be resleeved as needed, and if possible, to testify in court. Then Kovacs meets Dimi the Twin in his hotel lobby. He is introduced by the muzzle of Dimi's pistol on his neck and ordered to come along, but Kovacs pulls a fast trick that causes the hotel AI to cut loose at the kidnappers with a twin 20 mm cannon. Although a bit of overkill, it does the job and Kovacs gets to meet Ortega again for another talk. This novel builds upon several old themes in SF: androids and clones, persona uploads, brain implants, etc., but the details are used in a very contemporary manner to drive a tale of immortality, free will, poverty, power, social degeneration, and corruption. It may well breed sequels, but prior efforts to launch series about such tough detectives in SF settings have not been very successful. The initial story oftens attracts readers with its rich futuristic background, but maybe the subsequent releases begin to feel stale? This title has generated a fair amount of curiosity. Somebody dining next to me in a restaurant actually interrupted my reading to ask what it meant. Insofar as I can determine, altered carbon is a futuristic substance that provides enormous storage capabilities for digitized data. Otherwise, it has no central importance to the novel. Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys American style detective tales in a SF setting.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding Neo-Sci-Fi Noir
Review: Altered Carbon was an amazing first novel for Richard Morgan. This guy has a future! The book is dark and slick. It defintely has a Blade Runner feel to it along with some Matrix and Maltese Falcon (or even China Town)like mystery thrown in for good measure. The hero (Kovaks)can handle himself in a fight (he is enhanced) but is quite witty at the same time. His one liners cracked me up. The technology of sleeving (down loading one's mind through science into another body) is also fascinating and scary. Overall this is a great summer beach book. If you are looking for a good detective novel set in a futuristic Gibson/Blade Runner like society with lots of action and phylosophy concerning the nature of the human soul get Altered Carbon!
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