398 pages
French language
Published July 27, 2003 by Bragelonne.
It's the twenty-fifth century, and advances in technology have redefined life itself. A person's consciousness can now be stored in the brain and downloaded into a new body (or "sleeve"), making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen. Onetime U.N. Envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Resleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats existence as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning.
i don't know why this has been such a painfully long, boring experience for me; should have been exciting, it's a neo-syberpunk with a detective story plot, after all? but there you have it: boring :-/
At first I was kind of put off by the noir-style narration but once I got over that, it is a fun story in a very interesting cyberpunk setting. There are quite a few surprising twists and reveals which kept me guessing until the end. If you like crime novels and/or cyberpunk, you'll probably enjoy this.
I really enjoyed this book. An hard-boiled, engaging story which aligns with the themes and the style of its genre, but succeeds at the same time in creating something really unique. Language is simple, straight to the point; explicit at times, but under no circumstances vulgar. A Dense, intricate plot, a crescendo of suspense.
After watching season 3 of the Netflix show I thought I should turn around and read the source material so I consumed them all. What I found was something far more substantial than the showrunners picked up on. The show is like someone read the novels, had a dream, then woke up and wrote down what they remembered of the dream--eg not much but a setting, sex, and explosions.
I enjoyed the world building here as it wasn't overly complicated and left us with a lot of questions regarding who we are if you take away the construct. That gives us ample room to play with the morality of life quite a bit more depending on whose subjective reality we're seeing it from.
This was perhaps the strongest book in the series. Lines are clear, people are not predictable but what you might expect, the crime and plays along the …
After watching season 3 of the Netflix show I thought I should turn around and read the source material so I consumed them all. What I found was something far more substantial than the showrunners picked up on. The show is like someone read the novels, had a dream, then woke up and wrote down what they remembered of the dream--eg not much but a setting, sex, and explosions.
I enjoyed the world building here as it wasn't overly complicated and left us with a lot of questions regarding who we are if you take away the construct. That gives us ample room to play with the morality of life quite a bit more depending on whose subjective reality we're seeing it from.
This was perhaps the strongest book in the series. Lines are clear, people are not predictable but what you might expect, the crime and plays along the thin blue line are fun to follow and guess out. Quick, fun, not too dystopian, not too Blade Runner, and a whole bunch all its own.
Mise à jour après une deuxième lecture :
C'est étrange comme on peut avoir un ressenti totalement différent sur le même livre à quelques mois d'intervalle. J'avais essayé de lire ce roman au début de l'année et j'avais renoncé après en avoir lu la moitié. Cette fois, j'ai été captivé par le récit dès le début et malgré une petite baisse d'intensité au milieu, j'ai tenu bon et j'ai pris dans cette deuxième lecture un plaisir que je n'avais pas connu la première fois. Comme quoi, il est parfois bon de laisse une seconde chance à un roman qui nous a déçu mais dont on perçoit un potentiel à côté duquel on est peut-être passé la première fois. C'est bien le cas ici, sans que je comprenne bien pourquoi. Sans doute une question d'état d'esprit au moment de la lecture.
Première critique après une première lecture :
Altered Carbon est …
Mise à jour après une deuxième lecture :
C'est étrange comme on peut avoir un ressenti totalement différent sur le même livre à quelques mois d'intervalle. J'avais essayé de lire ce roman au début de l'année et j'avais renoncé après en avoir lu la moitié. Cette fois, j'ai été captivé par le récit dès le début et malgré une petite baisse d'intensité au milieu, j'ai tenu bon et j'ai pris dans cette deuxième lecture un plaisir que je n'avais pas connu la première fois. Comme quoi, il est parfois bon de laisse une seconde chance à un roman qui nous a déçu mais dont on perçoit un potentiel à côté duquel on est peut-être passé la première fois. C'est bien le cas ici, sans que je comprenne bien pourquoi. Sans doute une question d'état d'esprit au moment de la lecture.
Première critique après une première lecture :
Altered Carbon est le premier tome d’une trilogie de romans de l’écrivain britannique Richard K. Morgan. J’ai découvert cette oeuvre à travers son adaptation en série TV par Netflix : j’avais trouvé cela sympathique sans en garder non plus un souvenir inoubliable. Malgré tout, la lecture récente du jeu de rôles Eclipse Phase, inspiré notamment de l’imaginaire décrit par Richard K. Morgan dans Altered Carbon et ses suites, m’avait donné envie de plonger dans la trilogie.
Il faut d’abord avoir conscience d’une chose : Altered Carbon est un polar dans un univers de science-fiction transhumaniste. Dans ce futur imaginé, l’esprit d’un être humain peut être numérisé et transféré d’un corps à un autre : la mort n’est vraiment réelle que si on efface toutes les sauvegardes de l’esprit d’une personne. Les plus riches passent sans cette d’un corps à un autre et peuvent ainsi vivre jusqu’à trois siècles, quand les plus pauvres doivent travailler toujours plus dur pour disposer d’un corps correct.
Je dois également faire une remarque sur la structure du livre : contrairement à de nombreux romans parfaitement calibrés avec des chapitres de taille quasiment identiques, généralement entre 10 et 15 pages, celui-ci varie les plaisirs : certains chapitres atteignent tout juste 10 pages quand d’autres dépassent les 20 voire 25 pages. C’est déroutant quand on est habitué aux productions littéraires récentes où tout est finement calculé pour plaire au plus grand nombre, et c’est suffisamment notable pour que je le signale ici.
Malheureusement, un polar dans un univers de science-fiction reste un polar, et c’est un genre qui ne m’a jamais vraiment plu. Si j’ai aimé certains romans policiers old-school (Agatha Christie a bercé mon adolescence), j’ai toujours du mal avec les polars, leurs ambiances sombres et poisseuses, et les enquêtes qui avancent péniblement avec un détective plus ou moins antipathique.
Après avoir tenu plus de la moitié du livre, j’ai fini par renoncer. L’univers décrit par l’auteur est passionnant, il donne envie d’en savoir plus, mais le récit m’a littéralement ennuyé. J’ai tenté péniblement de passer outre en poursuivant ma lecture mais j’ai fini par me résoudre à abandonner, constatant avec amertume que ce livre n’est pas fait pour moi.
Je ne peux même pas dire que c’est un livre raté, ou de mauvaise qualité. Je suis bien incapable de juger s’il s’agit ou pas d’un bon polar. Par contre, je peux dire que le décalage – sans doute voulu par l’auteur – entre l’univers très inventif et le récit très classique n’a pas produit chez moi les effets désirés.
[Vous pouvez lire mon avis sur mon blog, merci :)]
This is quite a 'mind-bending' ride. The novel is very reminiscent of Noir Fiction, Hard-boiled detective thrillers with major additions of tech, dystopian society, military action, blood-lust, heated/ ampted romance, and piles of violence. This is not for the feint of heart. The hero is 'skilled', uncertain of his moral compass, sarcastic and tough. If you are looking for a good adventure read, this is worth the trip.
Incredible setting and interesting characters create a thoroughly enjoyable read. Gritty, dark, and still lit up with all the neon I can imagine, Morgan takes a position next to Atwood and Goldman with this cyberpunk dystopian vision.
My only dislike is the very Masculine perspective, and the accompanying sexualized (and frequently objectifying) view of women. If not for that I would have given this a solid 5 stars. It's impossible to say if this is a character flaw in Kovacs (in which case I would have wanted a bit more self awareness from such a perceptive character) or or the author, but it actually distracted me from the story on a few occasions.
"Inside, stained light from a window and a peculiar calm fell on me simultaneously."
The prose is a little muddy at times, so I'm a bit frustrated with how slow a read this is when I have to go over a lot of things twice (I can't use my reader! Woe!). The worldbuilding is great, the story is engaging, the hero is an unbearably smug Mary Sue. Heck, I'd be smug too, if I was some sort of super soldier spy consciousness travelling the universe and solving sexy mysteries. You'd best believe you'd be hearing about what my penis was getting up to while I had a casual conversation with someone. There's a lot of penis-describing. I can see why Netflix picked this up.
Finished book & show. Imagine my dismay when the bits of the show that made no sense weren’t explained or even present in the book. I …
"Inside, stained light from a window and a peculiar calm fell on me simultaneously."
The prose is a little muddy at times, so I'm a bit frustrated with how slow a read this is when I have to go over a lot of things twice (I can't use my reader! Woe!). The worldbuilding is great, the story is engaging, the hero is an unbearably smug Mary Sue. Heck, I'd be smug too, if I was some sort of super soldier spy consciousness travelling the universe and solving sexy mysteries. You'd best believe you'd be hearing about what my penis was getting up to while I had a casual conversation with someone. There's a lot of penis-describing. I can see why Netflix picked this up.
Finished book & show. Imagine my dismay when the bits of the show that made no sense weren’t explained or even present in the book. I mean, among other things, Reileen’s whole deal. No spoilers, but y tho, Netflix? I am frustrated by this whole deal.
I appreciate the world building but didn't fall quite in much in love with it as others did. While it's a solid piece of work for about 2/3 of the novel, I found the noir too predictable and the exploration of self in an age of downloading personalities was handled better in 1987's Vacuum Flowers (Michael Swanwick). At the last third, I was uncomfortable with the tonal change; it felt more like a Shadowrun game than the previous segments (or Neuromancer, if you prefer a book to an RPG).
Don't get me wrong; it's still a decent enough read and Richard K. Morgan is a solid writer. I just wished it had reached a little more. Then again, I'm a Neal Stephenson fan so I'm used to authors going -way- out there!
I liked it, but enjoyed the Netflix movie a little more.
One of the few cases where I come to a book after seeing a movie or TV show, and one of the seriously few cases where I like both pretty much equally, and am cool with how the overall divergence between the two got assembled.
Not my normal speed for writing style, but the world and character building were a hell of a lot of fun.
A decent cyberpunk sci-fi type of story but the writing seems a bit clumsy at times. The character outlines are not bad, we're given lots of background about the main character but many things remain vague, like the Envoys. There are many secondary characters that sometimes are hard to follow, especially if one takes long to finish the book. The plot itself is convoluted enough but the pace of the story stalls at times, hence why it took me a month to finish reading it. Overall a decent book for its genre.
Mesmerizing!
Sleeve-breaking!
Greeting from Poe ;)
There are the bones of a good story here. Morgan's key technology (the ability to transfer your consciousness into another body - a "sleeve") is really cool and he did a good job showing us a society that's different but also very similar to our own. The book is written in a classically hard-boiled style, and like a lot of that Chandler/Hammett source material tends to be simultaneously terse and abstract, and when the book is working, it's great.
Unfortunately, there's more than a few places in this book that threw me off when reading them. Confusing or half-working metaphors, characters from 200 pages back that are re-introduced without sufficient callbacks (like, say, having a name). In my opinion this books is about 100 pages too long and would have been well served by another run through an editor. I also want to note that there's a couple of graphic …
There are the bones of a good story here. Morgan's key technology (the ability to transfer your consciousness into another body - a "sleeve") is really cool and he did a good job showing us a society that's different but also very similar to our own. The book is written in a classically hard-boiled style, and like a lot of that Chandler/Hammett source material tends to be simultaneously terse and abstract, and when the book is working, it's great.
Unfortunately, there's more than a few places in this book that threw me off when reading them. Confusing or half-working metaphors, characters from 200 pages back that are re-introduced without sufficient callbacks (like, say, having a name). In my opinion this books is about 100 pages too long and would have been well served by another run through an editor. I also want to note that there's a couple of graphic sex scenes and while I appreciate the fact that Morgan included a bit of eroticism, the sexiest part of hard boiled stories / film noir is the sizzling energy between the main character and his femme fatale. In this respect, as well as a lot of the others, the book falls victim to telling and not showing and it sort of comes off cheap.
Lastly, I held off on judgment of this book until I completed it, in case the end really tied it together. Instead the ending was way too predictable with virtually everyone getting exactly what was coming to them.
