Altered Carbon

I ended up with very mixed feelings on this book. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the idea of “re-sleeving” and the transfer of consciousness across worlds. The ways society has made use of this technology, the way not everyone can afford it, the use in military form, all that was interesting, thoughtful and often just downright cool.

A lot of the rest of the book got on my nerves though. It's written in noir style, and there seems to be an inherent sexism in the genre. Morgan uses the “I'm so angry with you, let's have sex!” trope that I hate more than anything. The sex scenes themselves were way more graphic than I was anticipating and honestly pretty awkward. Some on the S&L forums described the book as “harem anime” and that isn't too far off. Still not sure what Trepp's deal is, which is a shame because she was the most interesting character for me.

I'm leaving it at three stars because it's not badly written. It just makes use of a few tropes and tricks that do nothing for me. If you're very into noir sci-fi and don't mind the occasional X-rated incident, give this book a try. I think I've just read a bit too much in that style lately to really enjoy this one.