Altered Carbon

It's hardly surprising Netflix has announced a 10-episode series based on this book. If done right, this "pure high-octane science fiction" mixed "with the classic noir private-eye tale" will lend itself pretty well to the 21st century TV audience.

Altered Carbon is Richard K. Morgan's debut, and instantly got acclaim. It won the 2003 PKD award, and comparisons to Blade Runner and Neuromancer are found in reviews all over the net. More on that later.

It's an entertaining read, and fairly easy at that. Don't believe reviewers who speak of a complex plot: one has to pay attention, yes, but the story simply goes from point A to B: easily recognizable events take the protagonist by the hand throughout the murky world to the inevitable conclusion, and new clues pop up at regular intervals. Events as: being ambushed, being shoved into a limousine to see some mighty powerbroker, being confronted by a female cop followed by kissing, being tailed, being seduced by the wife of your client, being put into a fighting pit (bare knuckles to the death!), going to an arms dealer to get new toys, etc., etc. All in all, pretty pulpy stuff.

That's not to say the novel doesn't have merit: (...)

(...)

It shouts more "lack of imagination" than anything else, and more crucially, in its grotesqueness does disservice to the critique of capitalism that underlies this book too. Even more crucially, it does disservice to the possibility of enhancing the reader's empathy for real suffering -- today's suffering and future suffering alike. Maybe Netflix should get the Nicolas Cage that did 8MM to play our hero.

Morgan wrote two more books with Kovacs as a protagonist. Apparently the next one, Broken Angels, is something totally different, as it is more military SF. I'm adding it to my list of things to read in the summer. If pressed, I'd recommend Altered Carbon, albeit with all the caveats that follow from the above.

Please read the full review on Weighing A Pig...