Friday, August 24, 2007

Altered Carbon

I just finished Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon.  Science fiction is generally the only genre fiction I can read, but I haven't been reading more than books for work and some magazines lately.  In fact, I've only really been keeping up with William Gibson in the last few years.  Altered Carbon was fun, in a genre fiction kind of way.  Some nice meditations on identity.  Individuals, if they have the money, can "resleeve" themselves if they're injured or old, but unless they are really wealthy usually end up in a body that looks and feels different from their previous bodies.  Criminals are put on stack, stored in digital form to serve out their sentences.  The main character is some sort of super agent "resleeved" on earth to solve a mysterious suicide by a "meth," a wealthy person who can afford to keep resleeving.  The usual Asian proclivities, which seem still to proliferate even after all these years since Blade Runner.  I recommend it for those so inclined.

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