Altered Carbon sat on my night stand for just over two years. A very good friend of mine recommended it to me years ago and I bought it on sale and started it right away. The first think I realized is that this was not a read before bed book. It required more attention to detail to fully appreciate it and I really liked that. Unfortunately, that meant that it languished on the night stand for a long, long time. I finished it a couple of weeks ago but not before I started the show. I started watching with the intention of jumpstarting my interest and it worked. I stopped watching when I caught up to the point of the show that I was at in the book and then withheld until I finished. Well, now I haven’t finished the show either but it just two short years I’m sure I’ll catch up.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s great if you like rogue-ish anti-heroes or really depressing takes on future society.
***Here be spoilers***
A few things I’d like to point out/address about Altered Carbon the book versus the show. I really like a lot of the changes made by the show. I like that Kovacs was on ice longer in the show, making him closer in age to Bancroft. I think it quickly adds more to the tension between the meth and the Envoy. It gives Kovacs more weight to combat the power of Bancroft. I thought it was a nice touch to make up for some of the characterization lost from book to screen that often is troubling in adaptations like this.
I haven’t watched as much ass needed to have an opinion on him seemingly been romantically involved with Quellcrist but I did like that she was a museum exhibit in his new reality.
I loved the characterization of the hotel as Poe. I thought it was a very nice touch.
I like the more side-kick nature of the dad; his name escapes me right now.
I love some of the things that build the world too. The death fights sponsored by the meths was a nice touch to show how little the world cares about bodies.
I also love the tension building involving the Catholics and the religious/spiritual take on re-sleeving. So far, I think the show is giving a little more there than was in the book and I dig it.
Are you playing along with Bingo? It seems like a lot of us are choosing books that are not in fact better than the movie/show and either have adaptations that are equally good or improved upon the books.
I didn’t realize the show (which I haven’t watched, Netflix has too much original content) was based on a book.
I wasn’t playing along, but I think I might now.
It’s funny how many shows are popping up that are as good or better than the books on which they are based. I used to be a real snob that books were always better, but that is not the case. I suppose I’d like to think that fans of the books are making the shows and movies.