Wednesday, November 29, 2017

I expect Altered Carbon on Netflix to be dark and shocking just like Richard K. Morgan's books.

I saw on super science fiction blog io9 yesterday that Richard K. Morgan's book, Altered Carbon, is being turned into a Blade Runner-esque ten episode season for Netflix. The above image comes from one that was shared on Reddit, and it looks awesome. From what all the experts are saying, Netflix appears to be spending a ton of money on it too.

When I saw the title, I was like...Richard Morgan...why does that sound familiar? And then I realized that I read a book about a year ago by him called The Steel Remains. It was a dark epic fantasy book with a gay main character that I was planning on exploring with the sequels. It turned out that I got distracted by another book series featuring characters who were more compelling. It doesn't mean that I won't return to the Steel Remains universe (or that subsequent books will flesh the character of Ringil out even better), because I definitely will, especially now that the author is becoming well-known. Fame does make me want to read an author's stuff even more than I do now. The reason? I know that others will too, and then we can have really awesome "water cooler" type conversations with each other at work or in a round of drinks at the restaurant or wherever social situations spring up.

So what did I take away from the one book written by Richard Morgan that I might expect from Altered Carbon (without having read any of its pages)? Well, his work is very violent, with humans being hacked apart, splattered, gutted, etc. It's also heavy on sex and sleaze and it's very graphic with that stuff (yes I liked it). In the age of blood and boobs on television, anything is possible. A fantasy is what it is, and Richard K. Morgan just tends to walk on the dark side of things with a lot of morally gray if not downright wrong stuff happening. Who knows, Altered Carbon may end up making GoT look like Sesame Street. I'm so excited.

7 comments:

  1. I've not read it either. Sounds very dark, but I'll check it out - if nothing else to support a science fiction series.

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  2. I've heard of that but never read the books. I like nonfamous authors so I can feel like I'm discovering something and then lord that over other people.

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    1. You know like how people are about The Wire. 😉

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  3. Looks cool. I can't wait to wait it.

    Did you watch the CW crossover event? Other than a few cringe moments I thought it was great. It looked like they spent a fortune. I can only imagine the logistics though I'm sure it is easier since they are all shot in Vancouver.

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  4. I've read all three of the Takeshi Kovacs novels multiple times, because I think they are classics of the genre. I love all of them, but especially the second one. Any fan of sci-fi really must read them. The Steel Remains wasn't bad, but not nearly as compelling as the Kovacs novels. I'm keeping my expectations for the tv series very low, hoping they shock me in a positive sense.

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  5. This is the first I'm hearing about this.

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  6. I saw that on io9. Hopefully it'll be as good as you all are anticipating.

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