Altered Carbon: 1 (Takeshi Kovacs) - Softcover

Morgan, Richard K. K.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345457684 ISBN 13: 9780345457684

Publisher: Random House Worlds, 2003

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - NOW AN EXCITING NEW SERIES FROM NETFLIX - The shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning in this "tour de force of genre-bending, a brilliantly realized exercise in science fiction."--The New York Times Book Review

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person's consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or "sleeve") making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats "existence" as something that can be bought and sold.

Praise for Altered Carbon

"Compelling . . . immensely entertaining . . . [Richard] Morgan's writing is vivid and his plotting inventive."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"A fascinating trip . . . Pure high-octane science fiction mixes with the classic noir private-eye tale."--Orlando Sentinel

"Gritty and vivid . . . looks as if we have another interstellar hero on our hands."--USA Today

About this title

Review:

Richard Morgan's debut SF thriller Altered Carbon isn't for the faint-hearted. Its noir private-eye investigation races through extreme violence, hideously imaginative torture and many high-tech firefights.

In 2411, death is not forever. Afterward, they can read your personality from an implanted "cortical stack" and upload you into a new body--at a price. Hero Kovacs has worn many bodies on different worlds as a former member of the UN Envoy Corps, programmed killers to a man. Now the incredibly rich Bancroft brings him to Earth to investigate a killing... of Bancroft himself, restored from his digital backup and rejecting the police theory of suicide.

Half the vice-lords of 25th-century San Francisco are soon chasing Kovacs with futuristic surveillance, drugs and weaponry. Virtual-reality interrogation means they can torture you to death, and then start again. There's a bleak slave trade in rented or confiscated bodies--and Kovacs finds his current borrowed face is all too well known to both police and underworld.

Ultraviolent set-pieces follow, sprinkled with philosophical asides such as this reflection on a stungun: "It was the single forgiving phrase in the syntax of weaponry I had strapped around me. The rest were unequivocal sentences of death."

There are some James-Bondian implausibilities, such as Kovacs's final confrontation with the villain he's sworn to kill: rather than shooting and leaving fast, he discusses the plot for 10 pages until... but that would be telling. This is high-tension SF action, hard to put down--though squeamish readers may shut their eyes rather frequently. --David Langford

Review:

"Compelling . . . immensely entertaining . . . [Richard] Morgan's writing is vivid and his plotting inventive."--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Ferociously readable."--The New York Times Book Review

"A fascinating trip . . . Pure high-octane science fiction mixes with the classic noir private-eye tale."--Orlando Sentinel

"Gritty and vivid . . . looks as if we have another interstellar hero on our hands."--USA Today

"This seamless marriage of hardcore cyberpunk and hard-boiled detective tale is an astonishing first novel."--London Times

"An astonishing piece of work . . . A wonderful SF idea . . . Altered Carbon hits the floor running and then starts to accelerate. Intriguing and inventive in equal proportions and refuses to let go until the last page."--Peter Hamilton

"An exciting sf/crime hybrid, with an intricate (but always plausible) plot, a powerful noir atmosphere, and enough explosive action to satisfy the most die-hard thriller fan."--SF Site

"An exhilarating and glossy adventure . . . What makes Altered Carbon a winner is the quality of Morgan's prose. For every piece of John Woo action there is a stunning piece of reflective description, a compelling sense of place, and abundant 24-karat witticisms."--SFX Magazine

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Worlds
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0345457684
• ISBN 13: 9780345457684
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400