Altered Carbon (Netflix)

[Nick B]

Ahh, yeah. Of course.

 

[Connavar]

Plus as an avid fan of Altered Carbon and i think Kovacs is one of the best protoganist i have read in SF you are dismissing the half of history, family aka the half that gave him his name. Kovacs is of hungarian, eastern europe in half of him.

So even if he changes bodies his history, his different family lines is important but not in the way he looks. Anyone can actually play Kovacs since his personlity is his mind, his history, his skills. Not the body, the smoker they give for the PI job on the first book.

If you have read the books much more important than Japanese,Hungarian/Bulgarian is to him the world of Harlan where his people, his nation, his culture of mixed ethnicity live in. Its huge to him that he is from Harlan and not earth and he couldnt careless the body he is giving as special op, turned criminal that does his work for hire. Give him a short black guy and he will still be kickass, brutal PI hero or a hitman if you need it

 

[Connavar]

I can't fully remember Kovacs history but I suspect it's not so much to do with life extension as his having been killed several times over whilst he was in the Envoy Corps: "Coming back from the dead can be rough. In the Envoy Corps they teach you to let go before storage..."

I think the books say he lost his real body when he went to long term prison, his mind was put on the shelf for many years before the first book.

 

[Vertigo]

I think the books say he lost his real body when he went to long term prison, his mind was put on the shelf for many years before the first book.

Yes I think you're right I do seem to remember something along those lines.

 

[Connavar]

I must say im somewhat scared of this news because it can be great adapation that capture the brutal character, story, the tone well like Daredevil the Netflix show or it can be totally wrong, horrible adaptation like Daredevil with Ben Affleck......

To me Altered Carbon is still the best post 2000 SF novel i have read so im a huge fan. Its like postcyberpunk PKD novel with hardcore Noir hero.

 

[ctg]

Maybe I'm biased by his Japanese form, because book 2 add up so much to his past, especially when he choose to wear a top-class Japanese combat sleeve. Outside of him, I'm most interested to see in this one the hotel Ai. And then Bancrofts. Plus all those awesome fights.

 

[Connavar]

Maybe I'm biased by his Japanese form, because book 2 add up so much to his past, especially when he choose to wear a top-class Japanese combat sleeve. Outside of him, I'm most interested to see in this one the hotel Ai. And then Bancrofts. Plus all those awesome fights.

Broken Angel i wasnt keen on at all because it was a so so military SF after the awesome noir thrillers that are book 1, book 3. I can barely remember it and to me Kovacs is=Envoy mentality, his world view is based on the cold pro, the amoral things that life taught him. I enjoyed inside his head.

The awesome fights the brutal way he used his many trainig is really half to get this right, make it a good show. If you fail on that you dont have the inner monolouge, the book pages to get to know Kovacs in the tv show.

 

[ctg]

Well, you know how it is with translating thoughts and monologue in live picture. A lot acting, visuals and direct exposition has to happen. But saying all this, I had high hopes when Sci-Fi decided to make Dune mini-series. Not the best adaptation, but I liked it. Watched it once on DVD and then haven't bothered re-watching it again.

 

[Jenray]

Just finished Broken Angels, Richard Morgan's second Takeshi Kovac book...just as good as Altered Carbon which I loved...going to read Woken Furies, the third Takeshi story...I really hope the series will be as good as the book...I've read all of The Expanse series and the Netflix series of those has been excellent so hope the same goes for this book.

 

[Werthead]

Netflix are bringing Richard Morgan's classic cyberpunk noir novel Altered Carbon (and possibly the sequels) to TV. The first season of the show, which adapts the first novel in the series, will air in Spring 2018. Netflix have started releasing teasers and images for it and it looks amazing.

Three GIFs showing some of the set design can be seen here.

A fake in-universe advert and four short teaser clips can be seen here.

This looks...impressive.

 

[Cli-Fi]

I just saw these myself they look wonderful.

 

[Dave]

I've merged these three threads in the TV Discussions together into one (but left the other thread in Books.)

I must say that it looks great. I didn't find the book (only read first) particularly SF (except for the body-hopping concept obviously.) It will make a great action/thriller series with a SF slant though, which is probably exactly what they are looking for.

 

[Werthead]

FULL TRAILER.

MANY NEW PICTURES.

YES.

 

[ctg]

Netflix’s Altered Carbon looks a hell of a lot like Blade Runner. That isn’t a surprise—after all, Blade Runner is the father of modern cyberpunk. But Altered Carbon is something all its own. Because in the new scifi series, the biggest threat to humanity isn’t artificial intelligence—it’s immortality.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/altered-carbon-asks-can-humans-handle-becoming-gods-1821556381

I rewatched BladeRunner 2049 over the weekend, and I liked it more than what I saw in the theatre at first time. But this, I have a completely different picture for Alterated Carbon Earth than what they're showing here. I imagined them completely different. But, I also imagined Covacs in a bit different looking sleeve. I guess that's the curse on using minimal description.

Bancroft on right. For an immortal the sleeve doesn't look as if he has sunken a great deal of money in it.

 

[Ursa major]

It has been a while since I read the book, but I seriously doubt that the sleeves are meant to be immortal.

 

[Dave]

It has been a while since I read the book, but I seriously doubt that the sleeves are meant to be immortal.

Their "souls" or whatever you want call their "human essence" could be, because you can body-hop forever if you are wealthy enough to do so, or have a corporate backer. It isn't "immortality" though, it is more like retreading old tyres.

 

[Ursa major]

That was my understanding of Altered Carbon's "immortality".

 

[ctg]

That was my understanding of Altered Carbon's "immortality".

As long as the "stack" survives it can be downloaded into a new "sleeve." Meths, like Bancroft has lived far longer than normal people and those who know them, consider them as immortals. But, unlike dieties, they can die and then be reborn into a new body (sleeve). Kovacs has lived a number of lives, but he isn't like Bancroft.

 

[Ursa major]

I know.

 

[Dave]

In Laurens Bancroft and other "Meths", I simply imagined that kind of arrogance that comes with the privilege of being very rich. I didn't think of it as being a product of the "immortality." Interesting that article and others see it differently. Do you think that his almost 'practical' immortality actually changed his personality over time?