Altered Carbon
Finished On: - 9th April 2008
I used to read sci-fi all the time. And then something somewhere slipped - my sense of adventure, my technological interest (its hard when you work in the field to get excited by it) and the lack of decent sci-fi on supermarket bookshelves (I have a mortgage now, no excuses).
I was leant this book in an experiment - a challenge to myself to read something I would not normally pick up and something to inject some fun into reading. The unknown - how i felt years ago before the Da Vinci code ruined my opinion of humanity.
This book delivered that in spades - the story is cracking from start to finish, a real page turner despite some of the heavy prose, full of twists and turns. Essentially this is old fashioned “hard boiled” detective noir pasted into a rich tapestry of future technology. Even the writing style is straight from the 20th C, but with stunningly depicted future backdrops.
The real cleverness of the book is its ability to introduce technological advances with a brief mention or underhanded description - just like passing comment on that mundane coffe table. It makes you feel like you’re their - you even feel like you’ve been dragged across the universe with Kovacs the central character at the beggining of the book, such is the power of the descriptions.
All I can say is this book has whetted my appetite for more - more Richard Morgan and more Takeshi Kovacs.
An excellent (and surprising) novel….
Filed by Kieran at April 18th, 2008 under Books