Reddit Reddit reviews Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs)

We found 32 Reddit comments about Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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32 Reddit comments about Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs):

u/facehair · 14 pointsr/books

I can really, really recommend Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan, and the two follow-up books. Smart, hard-boiled, fast-paced sci-fi action!

u/FlockOfSmeagols · 7 pointsr/scifi

"Altered Carbon" by Richard K. Morgan is kind of cyber punky and similar. It's the first book of a trilogy.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345457684/$%7B0%7D

u/kevinlanefoster · 7 pointsr/scifi

Footfall by Niven and Pournelle

Ring of Charon by Roger MacBride Allen (Follow up - The Shattered Sphere)

Saturn Run by by John Sandford and Ctein

From the other linked discussion - One of my favorite scifi trilogies, The Chronicles of Solace (The Depths of Time, The Ocean of Years, The Shores of Tomorrow) by Roger MacBridge Allen, makes the lack of FTL -- and the necessary workarounds for maintaining an interstellar civilization -- a major plot point.

Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown

Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan - No FTL, but consciousness can be beamed as data and downloaded into different bodies (called sleeves). Futuristic noir detective murder mystery.

--Best of luck!

u/Skadwick · 5 pointsr/Atlanta

Been on a huge Cyberpunk reading kick lately, especially William Gibson. I've never been much of a reader, so it's awesome to find books that are easy to dive into. Just finished Count Zero, now about half way through Burning Chrome. Altered Carbon arriving today for beach trip this weekend B)

I highly suggest any of these to anyone who is even moderately interested in the genre.

Met new VP of software at work yesterday. I'm actually pretty excited about working for him now. I really liked my old boss, but this dude seems much more... managerial. Hopefully I start getting actual development work now.

u/e40 · 4 pointsr/reddit.com

Glaxnor, I almost always agree with you, but here we part ways. It may be true of certain types of SciFi, or even the entire Fantasy genre, but not all. Replay and Altered Carbon are two that disprove this, for me.

u/tom_still_waits · 4 pointsr/scifi

Richard K. Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs trilogy (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies) would make a great show.

u/ubr · 3 pointsr/books

not completely military, but Rickard K Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books are really good reads.

Altered Carbon

Broken Angels


Woken Furies

and there's his non Takeshi book:

Thirteen



u/rickg3 · 3 pointsr/FCJbookclub

So, I read and finished Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Evolution, and Revolution, which I referenced in last month's thread. It was a really great collection of stories from a variety of authors.

After that, I continued my cyberpunk trend with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It was recommended on a list of cyberpunk books, most of which I compulsively bought. I really liked it, especially the character development. There are two more books in the series, which I'll have to get.

Instead, though, I started Limit, 1200 page epic translated from German. It received a bunch of awards and I read that lots of the technical details are on point, which is something that typically takes me out of the story a lot. I'm hoping to have it done by the end of July, but it's a lot to read and I'm easily distracKitty!!!

u/strolls · 3 pointsr/printSF

I kinda think Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon and sequels reflect what you have in mind. There are other science fiction themes, but the books' setting would probably appeal to you.

In the first one, although the best, this isn't quite so pronounced, as that's basically a whodunnit, but in the second a global war is being waged between the corporates and a revolutionary. The third book shows the population of a different planet that has turned to religion in response to a recession.

The overarching narrative is that the rich have all the political power and run things to suit themselves. The protagonist's background is that he grew up in the decades after his planet's oligarchy quelled the revolution on his planet, and it has not quite been conveniently relegated to the history books, more of an uncomfortable place there (e.g. its implied that political writings and poetry from that period are not actually banned, but you should be careful about certain opinions; others are taught in school, but presented in a bland manner, with the meaning stripped from them).

u/DaystarEld · 2 pointsr/rational

Hey everyone, this week we discuss action scenes and how to ensure they're engaging and meaningful. Hope you enjoy it!

May 10th is when our Scrivener promotion ends, so if you've been trying it out and want to buy it, be sure to use the code RATIONALLY at checkout for 20% off before then!

The book recommendation this week by /u/alexanderwales is Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. It's a hardboiled detective story set hundreds of years in the future, when human minds can be digitally stored and put into empty 'sleeves' at will. A wealthy man, Lauren Bancroft, hires the ex-military detective Takeshi Kovacs to get to the bottom of a supposed suicide; the suicide was Bancroft's, who was restored from backup and has no knowledge of what might have made him take his own life. The novel has all the staples of hardboiled detective fiction, filtered through a transhumanist lens where bodies are disposable, torture takes place in virtual reality, and the femme fatales have been genetically engineered for beauty. The action in particular is a highlight, which is a good thing because there's plenty of violence along the way.

If you want to give the audio book a try, sign up for an Audible trial through us to get a free book and help support the show. Thanks for listening!

u/FertileCroissant · 2 pointsr/printSF

I just finished, and rather enjoyed Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs Novels), which also falls into the cyberpunk noir genre. The first one at least, haven't read the rest yet.

u/Biochemicallynodiff · 2 pointsr/Cyberpunk

I'd like to see the problems (or solutions) of Identity that new technologies will create. I just finished the book Altered Carbon and in there, the future is going to happen in a way that we'd be able to digitize our consciousness and "re-sleeve" into another body so death would effectively be optional. Of course, if you didn't want to be trapped in the body you were born with, what would you want to make you feel as though you're You? But then again, some people (the not so wealthy) don't have the option of choosing what body they're put into.

All in all, why is it such a matter for us to determine "who we are" in the life that we didn't elect to be in? It's these philosophies that I'd like to see presented and dwelled on.

Altered Carbon - Netflix series

Altered Carbon - book

u/Khumalo_Neurochem · 2 pointsr/asoiaf

Richard K. Morgan: A land fit for heroes

It's a pretty damn good fantasy series. I got into it because his cyberpunk noir novels were so damn good. Altered Carbon and the rest of the Takeshi Kovacs novels were excellent.

Also, I was lucky enough to have friends immediately recommend Joe Abercrombie post asoiaf. The First Law Trilogy is absolutely gripping. Personally, I think it's better than asoiaf.

u/Unnatural_Attraction · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

Altered Carbon has plenty of action and sex.

u/peterparker81 · 2 pointsr/ActionFigures

Or you could read the takeshi kovacs series, those are even better.

Sorry, i get carried away.

u/baetylbailey · 2 pointsr/printSF

Try Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan; it's one of the best combinations of action, atmosphere, and hi-tech ideas.

u/victor_erewhon · 2 pointsr/AskReddit

What do you think of Altered Carbon's black/green cover on Amazon?

u/Ereth · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

You were pretty vague in your request, but i'll leave this right here:

http://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457684

Pretty dark and mature cyber punk/detective noir book.

u/untype · 2 pointsr/books

The Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy starting with Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. If you've ever wondered what life would be like if we could digitize human consciousness and shoot that consciousness at light speed through the cosmos to be inserted into awaiting bodies or "Sleeves", this may be the book for you. What is mind-blowing is not the technology so much as the insight into what our world would look like and how it's associated population would look/behave in their consequential relationships/interactions. Very enjoyable at the same time as being scary. A great time to read this type of subject matter ahead of our supposed transcendence/singularity.

u/Shadowslayer881 · 2 pointsr/booksuggestions

If you're interested in philosophy and cyberpunk/noir, there's probably nothing better for you than Altered Carbon. Humanity has gotten to the point where bodies can be swapped around with all of the implications along with it, and the main character is brought in to check out a suicide for one of the social elites.

It hits every one of your points you're interested in (except being a technical book, but whatever that's a hard sell anyway), and I'm a really big fan of it.

u/13th_seer · 1 pointr/AskReddit

Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, currently tearing through Woken Furies by Richard Morgan

fast-paced and well written stories of a commando-type. gritty and cool Gibonesque universe where consciousness is stored on in a small metal cylinder at the base of the skull, you can die, be revived, change bodies, etc. cool AI hotels, unfathomable ancient Martian tech, lots of guns

also just finished Dragon's Egg and Starquake by Robert L Forward

1mm alien slugs living life a million times faster than humans on a neutron star with 63 billion times the gravity of Earth. hard science. dry dialog for humans, but really well done conception and description of such an alien race, from when they first learned how to use natural tools, until they have control of blackholes, FTL/time travel, etc. (over a few Solar days)

u/andrew12361 · 1 pointr/books

Yall should check out Altered Carbon

u/Mykl · 1 pointr/books

A Song Called Youth by John Shirley

Halting State by Charles Stross

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Have fun!

u/HunterTV · 1 pointr/masseffect

Try Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan.
>In the novel's quasi-cyberpunk and somewhat dystopian world, human personalities can be stored digitally and downloaded into new bodies, called sleeves. Most people have cortical stacks in their spinal columns that store their memories. If their body dies, their stack can be stored indefinitely.

It's a pretty rich world, and on the upside, if you like it, there are two more novels in the series with the same main character, Broken Angels and Woken Furies. They also deal with finding stuff on Mars although I won't spoil it for you.

Each novel is a self-contained story, but it's better if you read them in order, and they're fairly different in tone and focus. Altered is a detective story, Blade Runner-ish, Angels tackles the themes of war, and Furies gets into the head of the main character more than the other two.

u/deagesntwizzles · 1 pointr/guns

Thanks for your help man. I just checked out the Steyr M9-A1 at the local gunshop (the .357 I had my eye on is on Gunbroker.) It felt really great in the hand, and I love the sci-fi aesthetic but unfortunately that style of grip angle does not suit me, it pointed really high (like 6" at 3 yards) when held in my natural wrist alignment.

Kinda random, but if you enjoy guns and sci-fi, I'd highly recommend the book Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan. In addition to being a fantastic noir/hard future sci fi, it has a quite few plausible but futuristic handguns.

u/warpcowboy · 1 pointr/science

Should read an incredible scifi noir fiction called Altered Carbon. Consciousness can be digitalized and injected into new "sleeves" (bodies).

u/Delduthling · 1 pointr/changemyview

Cheers!

>As to the mental rewriting, I'm able to simply bite the bullet. I would likely feel rather physically violated, but not mentally so.

I think this makes intuitive, almost Cartesian sense, and I think I agree. What if you still had little mental residues of the last mind, though? Dreams, for example, are probably related to our brain processing and consolidating memories. Dreaming and realizing that they're "someone else's" mental residues (or, if you like, "your" mental residues while your brain was rewritten/hijacked/tricked into thinking it was someone else) might be a bit disturbing.

Bit of a tangent but if these sorts of conundrums interest you and you haven't read it already I highly recommend Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan, a noir-cyberpunk novel about a future where consciousness can be digitized, with some strange consequences for the idea of the self.

u/malesca · 0 pointsr/atheism

I've been thinking about this since I read Altered Carbon.

Say someone makes a perfect clone of you including your memories. Then they kill the first you. Someone else will go on being you, but it probably won't feel that way from within the first you.

Now imagine they do this at night, while you sleep, so you don't notice being killed. You lose consciousness and someone else resumes a like consciousness a few hours later.

But that's pretty much what going to sleep and waking up is already. Today-you loses consciousness and tomorrow-you wakes up with today-you's memories.

I found it a bit of a mindfreak.

u/daren_sf · 0 pointsr/AskSF

Start here: https://www.amazon.com/Francisco-Street-Secrets-David-Eames/dp/0935182756. It's a history of SF from the view of it's citizens that have had our streets named after them. It's a fascinating book!

The "bad" sections of town are the Tenderloin and Bay View/Hunter's Point 'hoods. They're "bad" because they house poor residents and the area are prone to drug and human trafficking, as well as violence.

The "Muni Metro" subway is nice, but it's starting to show its age. Each station has different colored walls and floors to distinguish one from the other. They've finished boring out the main tunnel for the new "Central Subway" under Stockton Street, and how they're (block by block) ripping up the street and inserting the infrastructure around the tunnel.

It almost never snows in SF. I've lived here 20 years and I've seen it once (it evaporated before it touched the ground at Haight Street and Market Street, and this was at night!) and a friend "out in the Avenues" had a sleet / snow storm that laid out a couple of inches a few years ago. Other than those "freak" occurrences the Winter months are (WERE!) usually raining and overcast. However with the ongoing drought in California our Winter's have been pretty dry lately.

The "High Class" 'hoods are Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff.

The last two I cannot answer as they're too subjective. What's expensive to me wouldn't be to another, and "coolest" is far more subjective than just $ or $$$!

One of the biggest issues facing the city now is "Techies". These are well paid, IT-related, young professionals that are moving into the city and rents have been skyrocketing. SF is a very NIMBY city so for years now no one wanted to allow high density building in their 'hoods. Hence a shortage of rental units. We also have some very Renter-centic laws in the city that have owners of apartment buildings just not renting them out and having to deal with those laws.

That should be enough for you to get started on your research. Let me know if anything else comes up.

Personal Note: One of my favorite books is Altered Carbon (https://www.amazon.com/Altered-Carbon-Takeshi-Kovacs-Novels/dp/0345457684/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474925617&sr=1-1&keywords=altered+carbon). It's a sci-fi novel based in SF that's intelligent, very well written and trippy as hell. The author does a great job basing it in SF, but not falling into the trap of "over explaining" the details/scenery to "prove a point". (I hope that makes sense.) It was a joy to read because of that. I could "tell" where they were by what he was describing!