Altered Carbon

A lovely post-cyberpunk romp in neo-noir trappings, the worldbuilding is gritty without being grimdark, and the entire book is shot through with humor.

Kovacs is a wonderfully flawed protagonist, not just in his emotional and heroic core, but in the sense that his small failures and harms to his pride are very real-- he seems to view male sexuality as a disgusting burden rather than something virile and manly, which is refreshing for sf written by cis men.

However, the sex scenes were pointless and lurid, and the dogfucking scene (you'll know when you get there) was pointlessly disgusting.

For those wondering, yes it is significantly different enough from the Netflix series to warrant a read. In general, it foreshadows where the series over-explains, carefully hinting at its worldbuilding.

Overall, a fun read if you have a high tolerance for genre staples such as these. Not for everyone, but definitely for me.

Death, where is thy sting?

I watched the Netflix series a bit ago, so reading the book seemed like the next logical step. I love those old detective noir mystery atmospheres, I love cyberpunk atmospheres, and the idea that your consciousness can be transferred ("re-sleeved") as often as you have the cash for it makes for an interesting premise. This seemed like a slam dunk for me.

In many ways it was. Kovacs is very much an anti-hero; you're supposed to dislike him. I liked the moral ambiguity he brought to the story, and his jaded war vet background made for some interesting philosophical considerations he has throughout the story. I liked being strung along on this cyberpunk mystery full of people with too much cash and not a lot of perspective left after being re-sleeved for over a century. I liked the gritty action, the take on a futuristic America, all of it. I had a lot of fun reading this book.

I think my only real miss is the ending. To keep it vague (since this is a mystery at its core), all throughout the first 80-85% of the book the author keeps you very informed as to what the main character is doing, what they're thinking, the connections they're making with regards to the mystery they're unraveling, and it feels like you're right there with him in this investigation. Just when you start closing in on the ending though, the author starts skipping whole scenes that you know are taking place, all in the name of preserving The Big Reveal. Don't get me wrong, the pieces are all put back in place for you at the end, but tonally it felt like the ending was played out of order in terms of putting the pieces together. A very minor quibble, I know.

This book is very much one of those either you love or you hate, from reading the other reviews. And I really, really liked it.