Altered Carbon

I was originally dismissing this because I thought it was a film - I find films can never do books justice due to the run time. But having realized this is a tv show, I look forward to seeing it
 
x-st said:
I take it that the book, and the trilogy itself, is worth a read then?
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Very much so. The first book is a sort of sci-fi detective thriller, the second is a sci-fi action thriller with alien archeology, space ships and corporate wars, the third is an alien mystery thriller, resurrected souls, rich planet ruling families against the return of a notorious revolutionary.

The backdrop is of human space expansion via sleeves, needlecasts and colony ships, and the envoys who are mental, rather than physical supermen. Alongside it all is the ghost of the dead alien civilization that humanity piggy-backed off. It's really all based around this idea of being able to copy, store, and transfer human conciousness to both human and artificially grown bodies.

The quality of Morgan's writing is really top notch, and he knows how to make exciting characters and stories. He's one of my favourite authors of all time, and I always look forwards to any of his books.
 
Steampunk said:
The quality of Morgan's writing is really top notch, and he knows how to make exciting characters and stories. He's one of my favourite authors of all time, and I always look forwards to any of his books.
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Awesome, thank you. How does his other work stand up? Looks like he's written fantasy as well.
 
x-st said:
Awesome, thank you. How does his other work stand up? Looks like he's written fantasy as well.
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He's a very skilled writer. His fantasy stuff "Steel Remains" is something he said he had to get out of his system, but I didn't connect with it like his other books. Well written and clever, but it's one of those stories that seems to go around in a circle without a good ending (for me). I felt there was lot more that could have gone on with the world building. There's three main characters and their stories, and one is gay and one is lesbian, and that felt a little forced to me when their sexuality is always being pushed to the forefront.

Black Man (Thirteen in the US) was very good. He wrote that as a kind of anti-thesis to Takeshi Kovacs. Where Kovacs is a soldier of the mind and can simply jump bodies to get away from consequences, Black Man leaves you stuck in the one body, and all that comes with being different from those around you. I believe Morgan's next book is a followup to this.

Market Forces was his first book that was originally a failed movie script (published after the success of Altered Carbon), but I love the whole way it plays out, especially if you know the London roads. You know we are two steps away from that world where money and the City are investing in war and death, carried right into the office. It reminds me of Rollerball, but with more sex, violence and cars.
 
Steampunk said:
Very much so. The first book is a sort of sci-fi detective thriller, the second is a sci-fi action thriller with alien archeology, space ships and corporate wars, the third is an alien mystery thriller, resurrected souls, rich planet ruling families against the return of a notorious revolutionary.

The backdrop is of human space expansion via sleeves, needlecasts and colony ships, and the envoys who are mental, rather than physical supermen. Alongside it all is the ghost of the dead alien civilization that humanity piggy-backed off. It's really all based around this idea of being able to copy, store, and transfer human conciousness to both human and artificially grown bodies.

The quality of Morgan's writing is really top notch, and he knows how to make exciting characters and stories. He's one of my favourite authors of all time, and I always look forwards to any of his books.
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I loved the first but struggled with the second and never ended up bothering with the third as I struggled with the second so much. First one was truly brilliant though.
 
No1newts said:
I loved the first but struggled with the second and never ended up bothering with the third as I struggled with the second so much. First one was truly brilliant though.
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Shame that, because I think the second is actually as strong as the first, but is a different style, being more of a thriller/adventure than the detective story of the first. It has a long setup, and then goes a bit mad when
they activate the portal to the alien space ship, and the Wedge comes after them. Sutil's execution was terrifying, and Kovacs revenge for it.

For a long time I thought the third book was a little weaker, but it's grown on me with subsequent readings. All his books have such a rich background.
 
No1newts said:
I loved the first but struggled with the second and never ended up bothering with the third as I struggled with the second so much. First one was truly brilliant though.
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The second is definitely the weakest. The third is much better. It's also completely separate (like one and two) so you can read it without finishing the second.


As for the Steel Remains series, they are (of course) technically SF, not fantasy, although they inhabit that hinterland of far-future SF which is indistinguishable from fantasy. Hands up those who spotted that Joe Abercrombie's "Half" series is also SF (although only a couple of hundred years in the future).
 
Meridian said:
The second is definitely the weakest. The third is much better. It's also completely separate (like one and two) so you can read it without finishing the second.


As for the Steel Remains series, they are (of course) technically SF, not fantasy, although they inhabit that hinterland of far-future SF which is indistinguishable from fantasy. Hands up those who spotted that Joe Abercrombie's "Half" series is also SF (although only a couple of hundred years in the future).
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Yeah, "technically", but
without a few lines to tell you it's the far future, you'd not know the difference.
. It's like the Iain Banks Culture books where it's all fantasy, with a bit of lip service to it taking place in the Culture universe, but no actual science in the sci-fi. I don't know why Morgan did that, given he made it clear he was writing a fantasy trilogy.
 
Re-read this before Friday. I wonder if they’ll keep the sex, drugs and drug references and ultraviolence?

I don’t think the re-sleeving will be a problem for people to understand. Kovacs only re-sleeves once in the first book anyway.
 
Yeah it's not stuck with cable rules, I can't find the quote now but they've supposedly filmed a fight scene with everything on show similar to Eastern Promise.
 
Steampunk said:
Very much so. The first book is a sort of sci-fi detective thriller, the second is a sci-fi action thriller with alien archeology, space ships and corporate wars, the third is an alien mystery thriller, resurrected souls, rich planet ruling families against the return of a notorious revolutionary.
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It's a long time since I read this book but know I enjoyed it at the time and it's only now that I realise Altered Carbon is part of a trilogy! Bonus as I've been wanting to find some decent sci-fi to read for a while.

Certainly looking forward to the Netflix series as some of those those set pieces look amazing!
 
Meh they said the same about BR 2049 and I loved that. Can't wait but I'm going to have to slightly to binge it on the OLED TV to get Dolby Vision instead of normal 4k.
 
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