I want to say I was introduced to Altered Carbon around 2007. I do remember that by the time it came into my hands the entire trilogy was out so I was able to blitz through all three. At the time I loved it and couldn’t put the books down. When I heard that Netflix was doing an adaptation, I was pretty excited from the remembered enjoyment of reading it. Then a blog talked about the problems of any adaptation to the book. Namely that a guy named Takeshi Kovacs, who is at least half Japanese, would be portrayed on screen by a white dude. To be fair that is entirely keeping with the story. The vast majority of the book he wears a Caucasian “sleeve”, or borrowed body. However, in the books they do an excellent job of reminding the reader that Takeshi sees himself as Asian and often feels like he is staring out through the eyes of a stranger. Is that something a TV show would be able to convey properly? Or would he be just another white dude? A few weeks ago a friend shared a video about the five main differences between the book and the show. Figuring I had already read the book, so how much of a spoiler could there be for the show, I watched, and realized I didn’t remember hardly anything about the plot or other characters. So it was time for a re-read to prep for watching the show.
While the first time around I had blazed through, this time I got bogged down. Started it, put it down, tried again, put it down, dealt with Girl Scout cookie season while occasionally reading a few pages but didn’t commit, read two excellent graphic novels instead, picked it back up and finally pushed through. The book hasn’t changed but apparently I am no longer as interested in a guy almost gleefully murdering his way through bad guys over the course of an investigation, no matter how nifty the setting. A blurb on the cover from The Times in London says, “This seamless marriage of a hardcore cyberpunk and hard-boiled detective tale is an astonishing first novel”, and that description of a marriage between two genres is quite accurate.
Set so far in the future the dates have no meaning to the reader Altered Carbon starts with Takeshi Kovacs being pulled “off the stack” and put into a stranger’s body. In these books everyone is fitted with a cortical stack at the base of the skull. Everything that you are is digitized and saved in your stack. In the event of death, your stack is removed, and if you can afford it you are re-sleeved into a different body, sometimes organic and sometimes synthetic. If you can’t immediately afford a body your family might set you up in a virtual space where they can come and visit until a body can be procured. For those who are mostly done with life, they can be kept on the stack and pulled out for special occasions such as family weddings, ect. Criminals are punished by being put on the stack where sentences can be in the hundred plus year range, Takeshi is one such criminal. Bodies are kept in storage with friends and family paying for it until the owner can be re-sleeved. However, sometimes your body has been bought by someone who fancies it so you won’t be getting it back. If you are rich enough you can maintain near immortality.
Takeshi Kovacs, of Harlan’s World, has been pulled off the stack and needlecasted to Earth, where he awakens to find out he is on another planet. He has been brought in to investigate the murder of extremely rich and 300 plus year old Laurens Bancroft. Laurens is the only person who believes his apparent suicide is actually a murder and has chosen to hire Takeshi for his special Enjoy training, paying to have him re-sleeved. Envoy training is mental and will follow a person from body to body. Amongst other things, it allows them to make mental connections that others wouldn’t see. What follows is an investigation that involves a lot of sex, drugs, depravity, and murder, sometimes combined. With Takeshi in the center of a job that becomes deeply personal. Interestingly my brain had wiped the actual story from memory, I was just as clueless to the ending the second time around. However, during this read through I found it to be more gratuitous than I was interested in reading.
Beyond the body swapping,cloning, and cyber hacking, what I found more fascinating this time were the little details that set this science fiction world apart. Things brought up in conversation only once that add a richness to the world. Martians are an ancient race, long ago disappeared, the common theory is they wiped themselves out in a civil war. Whale Communication Day is when humanity finally learned to speak with whales and found out whales remember Martians visiting earth. Orbitals above Harlan’s World that no one has been able to investigate because the orbitals shoot down anything airborne that masses more than a helicopter.
Based on my reactions to Altered Carbon I don’t think I’ll be re-reading the rest of the series, too many other good books just waiting to be discovered in my TBR pile! It does leave me wondering how Netflix has handled the adaptation.