"I've heard this book described in a lot of ways (hard sci fi, thriller, cyberpunk), but I think the most accurate one was coined by the author himself, who calls it "future noir." And that's exactly what it is, complete with a wonderfully knotty whodunnit, a classic gumshoe antihero, and a city whose seedy underbelly has pretty much consumed it. All that, and a world where consciousness is digitized and stored at the base of your skull. Imagine the possibilities.
A word of warning: Altered Carbon makes no compromises. Richard Morgan doesn't write tactful fadeouts. It's all there: the blood, the sex, every harsh reality of the world he's created. His writing is gritty, evocative, tactile, and as a result, Altered Carbon is not simply a book you read; it's a book you experience. And once you've experienced it, you'll be glad it's his first of seven...and counting!"
Publisher Del Rey
Publication Date 2003-03-04
Section Science Fiction / All Staff Suggestions / Serena L.
Format Paperback
ISBN 9780345457684
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
