Reviews & Overviews by Rod Cameron

Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan

Publisher:	Gollancz
Date:	2002
Size:	404 Pages
Format:	Trade Paperback
Price:	£10.99
ISBN:	0-575-07322-5
Reviewed by:	Rod Cameron
Review Date:	March 2007

For reasons that I am not too clear about, I never reviewed Altered Carbon when it first came out. Having re-read it recently and thoroughly enjoyed it a second time, I felt that it merits a few words from me.

Altered Carbon is Richard Morgan’s first book. It is a dark detective story set in a world where death is not permanent – most people have their memories and personality backed up in an implanted “cortical stack” set in the spine below the skull. The hero Takeshi Kovacs has a history as an ex-UN envoy and soldier, having lived and died many times. As a result, he has an attitude which makes him perfect for the role of a detective. He has been re-sleeved on Old Earth to investigate the death of one of the super-rich. The police believe it to be suicide, but the resurrected man believes that he was murdered.

Soon Kovacs is being chased by half the criminals in a very depraved and violent San Francisco. This is a world where you can be tortured and killed in virtual reality and then tortured again. If you are imprisoned, then your body can be used by someone else. In fact Kovacs is re-sleeved in the body of a convicted policeman.

Altered Carbon is an excellent example of the genre of a “fast violent and callous future”. It is well written, humorous if you can stomach the blackness! If you enjoy the likes of Alastair Reynolds and Peter Hamilton, then you will enjoy this. Following on from Altered Carbon, Richard Morgan went on from strength to strength. He has written two Takeshi Kovacs sequels, Broken Angels and Woken Furies. He has also written Market Forces which concerns corporate violence in the 21^st century. A fifth novel Black Man is due in hardback on 17^th May 2007. If you can stomach the extreme violence, then this and his other books are highly recommended.