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Altered Carbon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Author | Richard K. Morgan |
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| Country | Great Britain |
| Language | English |
| Series | Takeshi Kovacs |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd |
| Released | February 28, 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 416 pp (Hardback), 375 pp (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-575-07321-7(Hardback) ISBN 0-345-45768-4 (Paperback) |
| Followed by | Broken Angels |
Altered Carbon (2002) is a hardboiled science fiction novel by Richard Morgan (his first). Set some five hundred years in the future in a universe in which the "United Nations Protectorate" oversees a number of planets settled by human beings, it features protagonist Takeshi Kovacs (the final "cs" is pronounced "ch"). Kovacs is a former United Nations Envoy and a native of Harlan's World (settled by the Japanese yakuza with Eastern European labor).
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In the novel's quasi-cyberpunk and somewhat dystopian world, human personalities can be stored digitally and downloaded into new "sleeves" (bodies). Most people have "stacks" implanted in their spinal columns that (so to speak) store their memories as they go along. If their body dies, their stack can be stored indefinitely. Catholics have cortical stacks, but most Catholics have arranged that they will not be resleeved as they believe that the soul goes to heaven when they die and so would not pass on to the new sleeve. Ironically, this makes Catholics prize targets for murder since the criminals know they will not return to testify about it afterwards. A U.N. Proposition to alter this legal position forms one strand of the novel's plot.
Most people cannot afford to get "resleeved" more than once per standard lifetime, and as a consequence while most people can live indefinitely only the wealthy are in practice able to acquire replacement bodies to inhabit on an ongoing basis. In what may be a deliberate echo of Robert A. Heinlein's Methuselah's Children and Time Enough for Love, the long-lived wealthy are called "Meths", for "Methuselahs". The very rich are also able to keep copies of their minds in 'remote storage', which they update every so often - this ensures that even if their stack is destroyed, they can be re-sleeved.
One such Methuselah - a rich man named Laurens Bancroft - has apparently committed suicide, having vaporised his head and cortical stack with an energy weapon. He is resleeved from a backup, but as a result has no memories of his actions during his final hours. He believes his "suicide" was actually a murder and hires Takeshi Kovacs to investigate his death.
Kovacs is an Envoy - a member of a military unit formed to cope with the challenge of interstellar warfare. In the novel's universe, faster-than-light travel is only possible by transmitting the digitally stored mind via 'needlecast' across space into a new sleeve. Transmitting normal soldiers in this way will severely inhibit their effectiveness, since they will have to cope with finding themselves in a new body while fighting. To combat this, Envoy training emphasises the mental techniques necessary to survive in different bodies over physical strength (which is useless when the soldier is downloaded into a new body). The effectiveness of the Envoy Corps' mental training is such that Envoys are banned from holding governmental positions on most worlds.
Kovacs - who is killed in the novel's prologue and stored in digital form - is downloaded into a temporary sleeve formerly inhabited by Bay City (formerly San Francisco) policeman Elias Ryker and turned loose on the investigation. The plot unfolds through Kovacs's "hard-boiled" narrative. Kovacs eventually solves the mystery, but only after great personal suffering under which he is able to bear up only because of his Envoy training.
One of the novel's most notable pieces of characterization is the Hendrix Hotel, an automated hotel that upgraded to sentience and bought itself out from under corporate ownership. It is of course named for Jimi Hendrix, whose image makes a brief cameo appearance as the hotel's virtual-reality avatar.
Sleeving is what makes this culture unique. It's not the body that's the person's identity, but for the most part, strictly the identity within. Business travelers and dignitaries can rent sleeves much like a rental car, usually the body of a criminal whose consciousness has been stacked in a virtual prison. Families can rent a sleeve so "deceased" family members can attend events such as weddings.
The sequel, Broken Angels, is set in the same universe and again features Takeshi Kovacs as narrator/protagonist, but it is not a direct continuation of Altered Carbon and can be read as a standalone work. It also provides some more of the backstory for Altered Carbon, especially as regards the process of extraterrestrial exploration and settlement. The third book Woken Furies, which takes place on Harlan's World, provides more data on the backstory and culture that shaped Kovacs.
- Philip K. Dick Award Best Novel winner 2003
According to the back cover of Market Forces, a later novel by Richard K. Morgan, and the review by Inchotaus Group the rights to Altered Carbon for movie production have been purchased.
- 2002, Great Britain, Victor Gollancz Ltd, ISBN 0-575-07321-7, Pub date February 28 2002, Hardback
- 2004, United States of America, Del Rey, ISBN 0-345-45768-4, Pub date March 4 2003, Paperback
- 2006, Hungary, Agave Könyvek, ISBN 963-7118-38-1, Pub date 2006, Paperback