Altered Carbon: Netflix Altered Carbon book 1 (Gollancz S.F.) [Jan 30, 2018] Morgan, Richard Paperback – January 1, 2018

Altered Carbon (AC) is a science fiction presented by author Richard Morgan in the hardboiled genre. With the protagonist narrating the story in the first voice, it was like reading a Raymond Chandler detective fiction with a science fiction spin to it.It has familiar elements we would expect from hardboiled fictions, like gangsters, violence, torture, cops, whorehouses, low life, heroes, victims and selfless gallantry etc. Nevertheless, Morgan’s dystopian world has ageless core elements of humanity and virtues we are familiar with. Earth in the futuristic world of AC has also, the UN council and the rule of law governing it. People fear death and craved longevity beyond the normal lifespan and eternal youth. AC's humans, male and female, have insatiable lust for sex. A Christian religion forbidding the extension of life after the subject suffers permanent organic damage (death). A corrupted and class-divided society where the rich and powerful elites have more options at their disposals than the non-rich. In addition and not in the least is the basic human need to love and or loved by someone was played out by the major characters. Such familiarities helped me, a reader in the 21st century, connect with AC. Author Richard Morgan used uncanny intelligence, wittiness, humorous stereotypes, one-liner quips and sharp retorts in dialogues or narration by Takeshi, our hero, to convey AC's rich and the fascinating core theme of our intrepid hero would solve the whodunit mystery and unveiling the motives behind it. Exhibits of human vanity and the sad lives of the elites who have lived 300 centuries and beyond further enriched AC make the reader ponder about prospect of living forever may bring more pain than joy. Ultimately, the audience was not short-changed of a triumphant climax of the small people outsmarting and violently turning the tables on the rich and powerful immortal elites.Language wise, there were neither long convoluted sentences nor heavy chapters with too many pages and certainly no redundancy. With the brevity of words and compactness of plot, the author conveyed his tale powerfully with colourful descriptions of the myriad of characters, which irresistibly tickled and amused me all the way.Like most novels, especially sci-fi genre, the reader must learn new jargon for technology and acronyms. Thankfully, Kindle has the x-ray function, which is very useful for cross-checking unfamiliar terms, names and locations. The landscape of San Francisco Bay have evolved into a dystopian world of flying vehicles and blinding neon lights, holographic virtual reality of oversized humans, not unlike the world of Rick Deckard in Blade Runner. However, SF Bridge in red have survived and the frequent rain were helpful in linking readers to the beautiful wet and windy SF we know today.Interestingly in AC, humans have already colonized many habitable planets light years away from mother earth. Interstellar travel light years apart was unimaginably easy and quick since it was possible to digitize the entire human psychic and soul for rapid transmission through space electronically. Very Star Trek like indeed. Back to reality, colonizing other habitable planets (if there are indeed others besides earth) cannot be more pressing today with the alarming deterioration of mother earth by the day. Even in the unlikely chance that we discover another habitable planet sometime in the future, and we have the technology to build a mother ship to take us there, the privileged rich and powerful, like in AC, will always be in front of the queue for a place in the mother ship.

If you are a long time reader of my reviews, you will note I like to explain how I came to acquire and read the book. This review of Altered Carbon is no different.I read many books, mostly fiction. Of the fiction 99% science fiction. A friend told me he was taking a break from non-fiction and reading Altered Carbon. Based on his interests I immediately assumed the book was about guns, spies, hunting, fishing or some other topic men more manly than I read. He said no this is a science fiction book transforming into a TV show by Netflix. After my initial shock of him knowing something Sci-Fi related I didn’t, I decided to order the book for my Kindle.Altered Carbon is in the future. It is unclear when exactly, my best guess is 23 something. There are references in the book about dates and ages of people. However, I could not find any reference to the exact date. It bothers me a bit to be honest. When you read chapter one “Arrival” if I were Kovacs I would ask where am I and what is the date?Who is Kovacs? Takeshi Kovacs is the protagonist of the story if such a thing exists in this book. He is a human born and raised in a colony world. Very simple character backstory of being poor having bad parents and joining a military-like organization to get his life together. The organization that he joins is interesting and adds to the story throughout the whole book.Most good science fiction books have some future technology which is fun to read about and enhances the story (think light-saber or transporter). Altered Carbons “killer tech” is a device called the sleeve. The sleeve stores a person’s consciousness in a digital format. With the right equipment, consciousness can move from one sleeve to another. The sleeve offers everything from immortality to easy transportation in a digital format to other worlds. The only requirement is there is storage or another sleeve to be downloaded into on the other side.This concept of a digital consciousness is not new. There are many books and movies which tackle the topic. I don’t recall any other book that used the concept of a sleeve. At least for me, the concept was unique and very cool.Altered Carbon is probably best described as a futurist detective novel. Kovacs is brought to earth to solve a crime the police do not think happened. Without giving any spoilers pay close attention to the details. Almost every scene in the book is related to another scene, and the details are important. The book is not Hobbit or Game of Thrones complex however it does wear on you after awhile.My one criticism is the book was a little complex and slow at times. I would bet Netflix will rewrite and reimage a few spots to avoid filler episodes. To underscore my point when I finished the book and reached back out to my friend he was about 50% complete and struggling to continue. My advice to him and you is to power through it. It will get better and worse and then finish strong.Since Altered Carbon is becoming a show, I decided to look up the actors. What I found was a little shocking. There are a few characters not in the book mainly Poe, Captain Tanaka, and Okulov. These unknown characters seem to have starring roles with 6 or 7 episodes equal or exceeding Takeshi Kovacs. Very strange. Kristin Ortega is only granted four episodes. In my opinion, Ortega is the balance which makes the book good. I’ll reserve judgment on the actors chosen most of whom I have never heard of. I always struggle with books made into movies or shows because the actors never fit my visualization of the characters.Do I recommend reading the book? Yes.Altered carbon is not the best book I’ve read but it is very good. Plus, it will be fun when Netflix changes it all and we can all complain about it.Oh, and according to the Netflix trailer, the year is 2384...Greg @ Kafflab

This is the first time I've read a book using these themes, although I've heard that this book relies heavily on its influences to tell such a good story. I see originality here, having only read William Gibson and Philip K. Dick and I don't see them majorly copied in anyway. To me, this is a highly conceptualized, wonderfully written masterpiece!Altered Carbon takes place far in the future, a time when people rely on a "Cortical Stack" to live forever. That's right, your essence can be re-sleeved in a new body, essentially keeping you alive forever - if you can afford it. Otherwise, your stack goes on ice until your family can afford to get you in virtual or a new sleeve - sleeve being a recently acquired dead body that has been altered for extended life.The main character of this novel is Takeshi Kovacs. He's an envoy, newly sleeved on Earth. He's been hired to solve a mystery, that unravels before the reader in a very engaging way. There is a lot of heat here. This isn't a tame novel. There is futuristic sex and drugs. It's graphic and well-written. The setting is perfectly described. Be prepared for a long novel and a journey that's difficult to put down. I fell asleep on my Kindle four times while reading this novel! It's that difficult to put away. When I did finally finish reading it, it was 1:30 in the morning!Overall, I really love this book. It ends neatly, with all questions answered and some real surprises. It's well-written and engaging. If you're a sci-fi fan, you can't go wrong with this surprisingly accurate look into the future. If we were going to live forever, it makes sense.