Altered Carbon



I've just finished reading Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan.

It was very good - although in some points it does slow down a bit.

The main item of tech that drives the story is the stack - a device that is implanted on every human after birth and that can contain their whole memories. Those memories can be transfered to other sleeves - bodies of criminals, clones, and synthetics.

A similar tech was used in Peter F. Hamilton's Commonwealth Saga, although an important difference is that on Altered Carbon, only the very rich can have their memories transmitted and remotely stored. Other have to count on their stack being retrievable.

There are some VR tech and hacking - although I found the hacking terminology sounded silly. Plenty of fun violence with high-tech weapons, too.

Overall, an excellent read. I'll certainly be getting the other books.

Comments

Anonymous said…
The other books are very good too! But don't expect another noir detective. Broken Angels is military sci-fi with (imo) a little horror mixed in. But that's what I liked about the other books - they WEREN'T the same as Altered Carbon.
August 12, 2009 at 9:20:00 PM GMT-3
STG said…
Sounds great - I really like military sci-fi! Thanks.
August 12, 2009 at 10:14:00 PM GMT-3
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