Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

GWC Community GWC Book Club
#1

I would like to see Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan as a book read by the book club. As well as being a technology rich roller-coaster ride it also gets you thinking about what it means to be human and the separation between mind and body. Its the first in a series of books featuring the main character Takeshi Kovacs and readers can go onto read the future books if this one is enjoyed.

From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon

[i]"Altered Carbon (2002) is a hardboiled science fiction novel by Richard K. Morgan. Set some five hundred years in the future in a universe in which the United Nations Protectorate oversees a number of extrasolar planets settled by human beings, it features protagonist Takeshi Kovacs. Kovacs is a former United Nations Envoy and a native of Harlan’s World, a planet settled by a Japanese keiretsu with Eastern European labour.

In the novel’s quasi-cyberpunk and somewhat dystopian world, human personalities can be stored digitally and downloaded into new bodies, called sleeves. Most people have cortical stacks in their spinal columns that store their memories. If their body dies, their stack can be stored indefinitely…"
[/i]

#2

“The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here — it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference — the only difference in their eyes — between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people, they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life, and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal. ”

– Quellcrist Falconer, in “Things I Should Have Learned By Now, Volume II”

[spoiler]On my way out along the screaming corridors of the clinic, I killed every person I met, and melted their stacks to slag.

Personal.[/spoiler]

I just read this recently for the second time and I love this book. I’d heartily recommend it.

I just finished Broken Angels, which was pretty good, and will be picking up Woken Furies soon. I love Morgan’s writing style. I’ve also read Thirteen and Market Forces. I’d recommend any of them, but AC is a great place to start.

#3

I doubt Woken Furies will disappoint you :slight_smile: I don’t have Thirteen but I do have Blackman which I haven’t read yet its in darn paperback and I’m having trouble putting down the Kindle

Sometime later: DOH Blackman is Thirteen

#4

AC has definitely achieved classic status. I remember not liking the early chapters, like The Big Sleep meets Blade Runner or something, but Kovacs won me over. Nowadays I wish Morgan would hurry up with his fantasy trilogy and get back to SF. He is the face of the hardboiled science fiction genre now.

“(insert new SF author)(insert new SF author’s first novel) is the best freshman effort since Altered Carbon.”

You see that almost every other year. This year the comparison was often used for Hannu Rajaniemi’s Quantum Thief.

#5

I’ll throw my support behind the Takeshi Kovacs books, and I’m a big Morgan fan. I’ve lent my copies of the Takeshi Kovacs books out a ton, and everyone who’s read them has enjoyed them.

+1 :slight_smile: