Altered Carbon is a sci-fi space murder mystery is one of my favorite sci-fi books I've read. In a world where people don't only get the body they're born with, things aren't always what they seem. You can download your consciousness into any body, also known as a sleeve. Like any great mystery, this book focuses on the characters, despite the setting. There's also a new Netflix series of the same name that I recommend.
Key Takeaways
Memorable Quotes
Rating 9.5/10
I grew up reading the Hardy Boys, and this brought me back to that childhood. It combines mystery with sci-fi, my favorite genre. I can't wait to read book 2.
Key Takeaways
- Things aren't always what they seem. Details and motives matter.
- Cloning and downloaded consciousness could become real technologies. If they do, we will tangle with many ethical questions.
- Lots of interesting thought experiments come if we separate consciousness from physical body.
Memorable Quotes
- The human eye is a wonderful device. With a little effort, it can fail to see even the most glaring injustice.
- Culture is like a smog. To live within it, you must breathe some of it in and, inevitably, be contaminated.
- A weapon is a tool," she repeated, a little breathlessly. "A tool for killing and destroying. And there will be times when, as an Envoy, you must kill and destroy. Then you will choose and equip yourself with the tools that you need. But remember the weakness of weapons. They are an extension--you are the killer and destroyer. You are whole, with or without them.
- Reality is so flexible these days, it’s hard to tell who’s disconnected from it and who isn’t. You might even say it’s a pointless distinction.
- You live that long, things start happening to you. You get too impressed with yourself. Ends up, you think you’re God. Suddenly the little people, thirty, maybe forty years old, well, they don’t really matter anymore. You’ve seen whole societies rise and fall, and you start to feel you’re standing outside it all, and none of it really matters to you. And maybe you’ll start snuffing those little people, just like picking daisies, if they get under your feet.
- In the Envoy Corps, you take what is offered, Virginia Vidaura said, somewhere in the corridors of my memory. And that must sometimes be enough.
Rating 9.5/10
I grew up reading the Hardy Boys, and this brought me back to that childhood. It combines mystery with sci-fi, my favorite genre. I can't wait to read book 2.
