 |
Altered Carbon | Rating | |
| B | |||
| Richard K. Morgan | |||
| Series | Related Books | ||
| N/A | N/A | ||
Takeshi Kovacs is used to the dark side of humanity; he used to be a UN Envoy, a combination of soldier and investigator. He's downloaded himself into plenty of bodies on plenty of worlds in order to fight wars, solve crimes, and do some general troubleshooting. And now he's on Earth, investigating the death of one of the planet's wealthiest men. Everything says it was suicide, but the victim refuses to believe it. Reconstituted from backup copies, he's sure that he has no reason to kill himself. It'll be up toKovacs to figure out the truth. But sometimes, the truth is only the tip of the iceberg.
As I was reading, I found at times the cast to be a bit confusing. Kovacs would be familiar with the name, and vice versa, but more than once I was drawing a blank. This could just be because of the cast - it is a bit large - or it may just be me. This is bad enough when it's a bit character, but it's even worse when it happens with the major ones. One of the movers and shakers Kovacs talks to is a name that had cropped up several times before, but if there was ever an explantion of who it was, it must have been downplayed to such a degree that I ultimately ignored it. Either that, or Morgan simply hadn't given such an explanation at all. Whichever it is, it would have been nice to have a reminder somewhere in there.
I was more than a bit puzzled at the ending, as well. I understand who the big baddie is, to be sure - that's hardly the issue. But what exactly was done and how and why are so convoluted that I got totally lost in all the twists and turns. A simple mystery is no fun, of course, but when the solution is discovered it shouldn't leave readers baffled. And this one did, at least to me.
Altered Carbon is one of those books that will probably require multiple readings to get it all straight. I certainly am going to need to go through it again if I want to have any hope of understanding what went on. Luckily, it won't be an arduous book to reread. The core concept of "sleeving" is fascinating, and Morgan explored many of its permutations and possibilities with suitable flair. Conceptually it gets very high marks, and when it comes to the world and the ideas Morgan can get his message across beautifully. That's not so true about the story itself. While I liked the book enough not to mind the idea of reading it again - and even look forward to it a bit - it doesn't speak well for it that I feel it's actually necessary.
| By Title | By Author | By Rank |