Customer Reviews

Altered Carbon (GOLLANCZ S.F.)

5 star:		(72)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

What can I say, I've read the reviews and I won't bore you with detail excepts to say that this book is one of the best books I've read for a long time. It's like Jason Bourne (Robert Ludlum) mixed with lots of cyberpunk. Very dark and very gripping to read. I've read all of Richards books and I've just bought Woken Furies, and from what I've heard this is excellent as well. Read it or miss out on an extremely well written book.

Where has Richard Morgan been hiding? There's a good plot here, a really compelling story, and the fictional society it is set in is excellent and gets revealed drip by drip leaving one wanting more. One of the best books I have ever read (up there with Christopher Hinz's "Liege Killer"). Just buy it.

The world of cortical (brain memory) "stacks" & supralight needle-beams of data. A vividly-imagined, gritty and oft-times ghoulish yarn, with a super-hero (of course), occasionally over-complex subplots & a fair amount of gangsterised lingo, with Bond-like interludes.
Here's the true offspring of Blade Runner; another grainy & daunting future-world of hi-tech & pirate-tech juxtaposed.
Most SF fans will love it!!!

This stuff is action packed but its heart is in the speculation: what is necessary to be human? The book never comes out and answers but gives you evidence to judge for yourself. In this universe, the most "human" character turns out to be a stone-cold killer. He retains the primal human responses to threats, honed by science of course, but pure nonetheless. The character is not admirable but at least you can understand him. There is more of him in us than in the Meths of the story, for instance.
I can't believe that this is a first novel; it's written with the confidence and verve of a seasoned professional. I'm looking forward to his next!

Its up there with 'The Forever War' and 'Starship Troopers' for me. - No serious bookcase should be without it.

Just buy it...

...What is truly admirable is the author took great care in creating his alternate universe and leaves no loose ends or incongruities. There is a genuine intelligence at work here.
While it does at times seem extremely violent, one has to remember, while reading this, that the violence is appropriate to the environment being portrayed. This is not a novel set in 2001 and cannot be judged by the same sense of morality. In actuality, how different is this time? Witness 9/11, Daniel Silver, The Middle East etc.
Anyway, this is a teriffic read and I would advise, while reading it, to take your time and try to get as much out of the descriptive phrases, plotting etc that you can. The storyline compels you forward but it is too rich a read to hurry it along.

Read this book on holiday and couldn't put it down. Found myself reading it at every spare moment. Very hi-tech in a thoroughly modern way, post cyberpunk. Ignore the preface that makes it look as if the book is going to be full of gory action sequences - it's not. It's full of good ideas, page after page of them. It's visual, clever and holds your attention. It might be slightly over long and (for this bear of little brain anyway) slightly over complex. But I still see new things everytime I re-read Neuromancer and that must be about 20 times now. Looking forward to re-reading before getting the sequel. Don't miss out - get it now so you can be a "the book's much better" bore before the film comes out (film rights apparantly snapped up by a Hollywood studio for a cool $1m).

Kovacs or Ryker, you never know whos in the body. A fast moving story line and some great sci-fi ideas, this is the best sci-fi book I have read in a very long time. The Envoy Kovacs resleeved on Earth and press ganged into completing a job in 6 weeks. The man who's employing him WAS dead, suspected suicide the police said, but he says it was murder. Now Kovacs has to unravell the mess and find out who did what to who in whos sleeve.

A must have book

This book is a combination of Reservior Dogs in its violence, and Neuromancer for its vision of a very different future for humans. If you like detective stories then there is plenty here for you, and the concept of 'sleeving' giving people almost unlimited lifespans is a terrific idea, especially for committing actions then going to the backup identity if it does not work out and having no memory of what you'd done - 'it was not me officer - honest!'
I thought this a great read, action packed and look forward to a sequel or the next one from this author

I heard an eminent author laud Richard Morgan for his achievement with this book and was intrigued. It's a shame then that I find myself so disappointed. Beneath all the high-tech shenanigans the story is a pretty ordinary gumshoe yarn that happens to be set in the 26th century. Despite the scope a futuristic setting allows, Morgan has produced a plot that is both a cliché and tediously convoluted. The characters are one-dimensional, the dialogue hackneyed, and the prose style underwhelming. Morgan's use of violence is graphic to the point of inducing ennui (fight and torture scenes are often described in minute detail across several pages). His central technological premise regarding "sleeving" is unlikely and flawed and I simply could not believe in the society he's created based almost entirely around this procedure. It astonishes, and saddens me, that this novel won the Philip K. Dick award. It simply isn't up to the mark on any account.