Lyn's Reviews > Altered Carbon

Gritty neo-noir, post-modern cyberpunk, sexual, violent and more fun than a barrel of monkeys.

Richard K. Morgan’s 2002 introduction to BADASS Takeshi Kovacs was to literature as a triple bacon cheeseburger is to fine cuisine – a guilty but fun throat punch and kick to the groin.

First of all Morgan’s world building is TASTY. Check this out: to get around faster than light travel or generational ship logistics consciousness can be downloaded to a chip and then uploaded to a waiting human shell, called a “sleeve”. And that’s just where the fun starts, a sleeve isn’t necessarily some grown for that purpose clone, this can be a criminal or victim whose consciousness has been stored and then the body is available for purchase. So you can hang out with your neighbor, friend or lover – except it’s not them, just the body walking around with someone else looking out through the old eyes. Morgan doesn’t let this scenario go unplumbed either.

Built around a weird murder mystery – except the “victim” is trying to solve his own death – and you know what, I’m not even going to try and explain that, you just gotta read it – BUT I will say that the victim is a tool called a Meth, short for Methusaleh, meaning rich folks who can afford to live forever. Morgan doesn’t let this scenario go unplumbed either.

Anyway, fun, fun, fun. Speculative fiction fans will want to don some latex gloves, grab a tetanus shot and curl up with this NASTY bit of make believe.