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A review by has3000
Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
A noir crime book downloaded into a sci-fi body, and ready to kill.
The premise is that hundreds of years from now, human consciousness can be stored in a device in one’s neck, so if you can afford it you can be downloaded into a new body.
There are so many interesting philosophical and technological facets to this, and Morgan does a good job of at least mentioning them, sometimes fleshing them out.
As far as the…”unsavory” things that often crop up in a noir book: The book definitely has a fair bit of sexual content, but it’s not the focus. Drugs, sex, etc. are mostly shown as things that matter less when a body is impermanent. I thought that it was being racist until I realized that “Mohican” was another term for “Mohawk”, and not a reference to Native Americans. Otherwise, the references to race are mostly to describe a characters new body, and callbacks to the MCs involvement in a brutal assault on a Muslim(?) planet. And on sexism, I felt (as a man) that the book did okay. The MC was definitely male, and definitely attracted to women, and there were several women with altered bodies, as well as whorehouses, etc. But there was also a brief aside about the MC having been in female bodies, and how women have a higher pain tolerance than men. Most of it felt like an attempt to accurately display how humanity acts, rather than sexism for sexism’s sake.
There was no LGBTQ representation, which could have fit in super well here, but in a book from 23 years ago that isn’t super surprising.
Overall, having watched the show first I still really enjoyed this book, with my main genre being Sci-fi but hardly ever reading crime novels.
The premise is that hundreds of years from now, human consciousness can be stored in a device in one’s neck, so if you can afford it you can be downloaded into a new body.
There are so many interesting philosophical and technological facets to this, and Morgan does a good job of at least mentioning them, sometimes fleshing them out.
As far as the…”unsavory” things that often crop up in a noir book: The book definitely has a fair bit of sexual content, but it’s not the focus. Drugs, sex, etc. are mostly shown as things that matter less when a body is impermanent. I thought that it was being racist until I realized that “Mohican” was another term for “Mohawk”, and not a reference to Native Americans. Otherwise, the references to race are mostly to describe a characters new body, and callbacks to the MCs involvement in a brutal assault on a Muslim(?) planet. And on sexism, I felt (as a man) that the book did okay. The MC was definitely male, and definitely attracted to women, and there were several women with altered bodies, as well as whorehouses, etc. But there was also a brief aside about the MC having been in female bodies, and how women have a higher pain tolerance than men. Most of it felt like an attempt to accurately display how humanity acts, rather than sexism for sexism’s sake.
There was no LGBTQ representation, which could have fit in super well here, but in a book from 23 years ago that isn’t super surprising.
Overall, having watched the show first I still really enjoyed this book, with my main genre being Sci-fi but hardly ever reading crime novels.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty