Altered Carbon

Always interesting!

What made the experience of listening to Altered Carbon the most enjoyable?

Constantly introduced ideas about the future that are both believable and possible, I loved it!

What other book might you compare Altered Carbon to, and why?

Almost a steampunk version of l Ron Hubbard, with a touch of Brandon Sanderson!

What does Todd McLaren bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

An almost laconic laid back narration, that fits the almost reminiscence style of writing

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Death is no longer final

8 of 8 people found this review helpful

Fantastically imagined future world

This is a great SF book. The premise of digitally preserved human consciousness is brilliantly imagined. The author creates a vivid future world full of detail, and the plot is excellent; it will leave you guessing until the last chapter. Anyone who likes hard Sci-Fi will love this. Initially I found the slow drawl of the narrator a little annoying but after a while I really liked it as his tone and delivery suited the story very well.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Altered Carbon

If you could sum up Altered Carbon in three words, what would they be?

Action packed throughout

What did you like best about this story?

The overall concept is a fascinating one, - I won't offer any spoilers here, but has an interrsting take on inter-stellar travel and how to get around issues of time dilation

I bought the book when it first came out, following a good recommendation in SFX magazine, and its one heck of a read - on audio, its equally as entertaining

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Very difficult to focus in on one scene when the entire book is so packed full or action and activity. One scene which I found unpleasant featured torture (if you're squeamish about eyes, watch out in the final two chapters , but it fit very well into the storyline

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Well worth reading or listening to

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

As cyberpunk thrillers go, it ain't bad...

"If they ask how I died tell them: Still angry."

As the above quote may suggest Altered Carbon is an angry book. A very angry book. We follow Takeshi Kovacs (pronounced Kovach - he's very particular about that) as he attempts to solve the mystery of who killed Laurens Bancroft. The case is further complicated by the fact that Laurens is the prime suspect. And also that Laurens hired him.

At this point a little explaining is probably required. Altered Carbon is a novel with heavy 'cyberpunk' themes - it is set on Earth a few hundred years into the future. In this time technology has advanced greatly; humans can now be 'digitised', a process which allows the sum total of their personal experiences to be stored on a brain chip ('cortical stack'), which can be downloaded into new bodies (or 'sleeves') as and when this is required. Sadly, in spite of these great technological advances society itself has degraded to a mildly dystopic anarcho-capitalist state. Put simply, Richard Morgan's future Earth provides wondrous new opportunities, so long as you are capable of paying.

One of the issues I had with Altered Carbon was that the world building seemed a little inconsistent. Although great bounds had been made in some areas, this sense of progress couldn't be seen across the board. This is perhaps a little unfair, as the book was written in 2002, but reading it now (in 2015) some of the technology in it actually feels a little dated. It seemed at times that the author had put so much effort into focusing on one particular set of technologies, that he had failed to fully consider what general advances would also have been.

This applied not only to the technology on show, but also to certain aspects of human life. One notable example is that a great deal was made in the book about Takeshi's smoking habit! Whilst this in itself is not a make or break feature of the book, it does represent a (very minor) example of the imbalance of the vision presented in the story. When compared with the obvious effort that went into considering impact that digitisation could have on human life, it was disappointing that other areas were neglected. At times it felt like the story was guilty of not dreaming bigger in terms of the World it was trying to paint for you.

As for the story itself, it is a solid whodunit that rattles along at a consistently brisk pace. It is at its best during its more base moments. Sex and violence are abundant, and are described in all their visceral glory. To the authors credit this is generally portrayed honestly, and does not always shine a flattering light upon our hero. Kovacs is intent on doing his job and makes it clear that he doesn't care about anyone who gets in his way.

...Except sometimes he does. For our hero is a conflicted soul. Or perhaps just an inconsistent character. Either way, the book covers just about as much soul-searching as it does body-rending. It's up to the reader how much they take away from these moments - but personally I didn't feel that they represented the strongest parts of this book.

In short: Altered Carbon isn't a bad yarn, and although it hits some genuine highs it does struggle to maintain these levels throughout. A worthy listen, but probably only if you're an existing fan of cyberpunk or detective fiction.

(A brief note on the performance: Todd McLaren does a wonderful job of portraying Takeshi, and a solid job elsewhere. There are a number of odd pauses in the recording, which break the flow of the narrative. These often appear when one character interrupts another, and it would have been nice if these could have been tidied up a little in editing. This is only a small gripe, however.)

7 of 8 people found this review helpful

An excellent read

It was such a relief to come across this book after weeks of listening to boring books and even more boring performers. The narration is excellent. Each character is well and properly portrayed. Todd is awesome. I would recommend it to all scifi fans

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great detective story set in sci-fi universe

I don't normally like sci-fi but I loved this. the tech is interesting and is integral to the plot, but the author doesn't skimp on the story. Cool mystery, great detective-style drama, lots of twists and turns, interesting exploration of the issues that might take place when the essence of a person - the dark behind the eyes - could be stored on a hard drive. If you like joss whedon's Dollhouse and detective stories you'll love this.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Misogynist

Misogynist overtones ruin what could otherwise be a very rich sci-fi universe. Being all first person from the male lead character, it became too uncomfortable to live in his head and I abanadoned it. Probably "of its time" but I'd skip it for something more up to date.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Greats SciFi

Great book, must read. One day this will be an awesome movie!
I highly rate and recommend this book to SciFi lovers

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Poor narrator. Had to listen. at 1,25x

Interesting story, more noir than SciFi, but badly edited, with lots of akward pauses.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Good sci-fi murder mystery novel.

Would you listen to Altered Carbon again? Why?

With the book being a murder mystery, the point of the book is to learn what happens to the victim, unfortunately listening to the book again you would lose that aspect.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Altered Carbon?

The unexpected encounters with characters. And the questions that you start to ask of yourself if you were in a similar position.

Have you listened to any of Todd McLaren’s other performances? How does this one compare?

n/a

Any additional comments?

A good book overall that takes you on a journey through a short adventure in an investigators life, with hints of his character portrayed throughout. The more you learn of the investigator the more you want to know.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful