Body gone bad? About to die? Just want a new you? It’s the 25th century and, if you can afford the greenback stack, you can dump your consciousness into a new “sleeve” – i.e. meatsack, skinsuit, human body. Welcome to the world of “Altered Carbon,” by Richard Morgan. Sound familiar? It should. Netflix recently put out a series by the same name based on Morgan’s trilogy.
Takeshi Kovacs is hired as a private dick to solve a murder by a hotsy-totsy, old-money aristocrat in what used to be San Francisco. The investigation that unfolds is a gritty, non-stop, cyberpunk extravaganza that will make you terrified of the future, but also desperate to get there.
Kovacs ends up in a concisely plotted conspiracy that spans several worlds. It’s a brutal thriller you’re gonna love, but also one you have to pay attention to.
If you like dark fiction, future speculation, or the work of sci-fi legends like Neal Stephenson and William Gibson, get your greedy fingers on “Altered Carbon.” Then go get a degree in nanotech, bio-engineering, or whatever it takes for us to start learning how to re-sleeve people because I WANT TO DIE AND WAKE UP IN A NEW BODY! Don’t you?
Patty Templeton
