I just finished reading the book Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan. It’s a first-person story about a mercenary, Takeshi Kovacs, set in a world where bodily death means relatively little, AI is widespread, money is still power, and immortality has been achieved (for the super-wealthy). The discussion of the technology is kept pretty brief — most of it is revealed as the characters are, as is preferable (IMO).

I sometimes have trouble visualizing characters and scenes in books — I’m gonna blame TV — but in this book I was right there with them, able to picture what the characters saw, and feel what they felt (in as much as one can, I think). The violence and the sex were graphically portrayed, which was a pleasant change from so much media I “consume” (TV and some books are so subdued).

I’m about a quarter of the way through reading the second in the Takeshi Kovacs series, “Broken Angels”, and so far I’m enjoying it the same. I’m definitely looking forward to reading other books by Richard K. Morgan.