Lists
Reviews
Images
Movies
TV Shows
DVDs
Music
Books
Games
Profile
Reviews by Grand Assault
Not for prophet
Posted : 2 months, 3 weeks ago on 13 August 2009 02:34
(A review of The Holy Bible: King James Version)I have to say I was a little disappointed by The Bible. I've seen many reviewers call it 'life changing' and promise that it contains profound wisdom and divine knowledge, as well as it being 'the best selling book of all time', but I wouldn't go as far with my praise. The Bible is comprised of two shorter stories with one recurring character who appears regularly to tell the other characters how badly they're messing up. It starts off with some Sci-fi elements, as the character 'God' creates the universe within a week and then stuffs it full of great and wonderful things. I think it's worth noting that God is also the author of this book, which I thought reeked of egotism, but I let it slide. We're then introduced to two other characters, a man and a woman, who don't get much in the way of a back story. The only thing we know about them is that they just appeared one day and that they were created so utterly stupid that they thought they could hide from an all-knowing and all-seeing God after siding with his arch nemesis, a talking snake. This God guy punishes them in a fair and measured way for their ignorance - by condemning the rest of their race to misery, sin and injustice for the rest of time. Meanwhile, his arch nemesis the snake got away with just a few legs lopped off. When you start off with such a stupid pair of people it's obvious that inbreeding their genes is only going to make them worse, so after all of the incest and murder that their children get up too, God wipes the slate clean and kills off the entire human race, save for one guy in a boat. It all goes a bit quiet after that as God takes a step back, maybe feeling a bit guilty after his extermination of an entire planet. Then a new bearded hero arises in the form of Moses and God decides to tone down his rage, focusing instead on being a racist. After picking favourites and plaguing the Egyptians for an undisclosed amount of time, God decides to send his son down amongst the people to sort them out once and for all. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! God's son is called Jesus (probably to be played by Gerard Butler in a film adaptation), but Jesus is also God and a ghost too! The only real Godly characteristics Jesus has from the outset is his killer beard and knack for reeling off a wicked anecdote. You might think God being on Earth would be greeted with harmony and rejoice, but instead the reaction of the people is pretty far-fetched as they choose to spurn and persecute the guy, despite him trying to impress them with free alcohol and feeding 5000 festival goers with one fish. Eventually the people that God created get a bit sick and tired of him being around, showing off and telling the same old stories, so they decide to crucify him. Jesus is double-crossed by Judas, one of his right-hand men. Judas feels pretty bad about selling out his friend so he commits suicide, only to return as Dracula in the sequel 2000 years later. Like every good superhero, Jesus has a crisis of confidence and temporarily loses his powers, but it couldn't have come at a worse time as he is brutally tortured and murdered by Jews and Romans. Luckily he reacquires them in time to reincarnate from the dead and float back up to Heaven, suggesting that the all-powerful God couldn't even survive for a few years on Earth, unlike the rest of us mere mortals! The story was littered with fantastical events and a fair few plot holes, whilst the Deus Ex Machina twist was used far too often. The characters were introduced at random and given no back story, and they spoke in a language that was so difficult to understand that even Shakespeare would have to scratch his head. There were some legends along the way, like Samson and Jesus' bodyguard, Peter, but most of the other humans were just flood fodder, or there to be tortured to prove a point. It combines many themes and genres, from science-fiction, homophobia, infanticide, incest, racism, genocide and war to apocalyptic survival, horror and ultra-violence. Overall, most of the characters are too stupid to feel any connection with, I mean - I wouldn't go around nailing God to a cross, and my wife would be out on the street if she was pregnant and a 'virgin'. But it's probably worth a read for the sheer amount of carnage and violence contained within its pages.  9 comments, Reply to this entry
Generally boring
Posted : 3 months ago on 2 August 2009 08:16
(A review of Command & Conquer: Generals)C&C: Generals is the least amount of fun I've had whilst playing a Command & Conquer game. It marked EA's first foray into the franchise and left me seriously worried about what the future held for some of my favourite RTS games. It focuses on three new armies and a world that's completely new to the C&C universe where you play as either the United States of Technology (USA), The People's Republic of Brute Force (China) or the Guerilla Warfare Terrorists (GLA). Generals focuses on much more realistic combat, but this somehow manages to suck some of the fun out of playing. Two of my biggest disappointments in the game were how universally pointless infantry were, and how prevalent your superweapons are. Each faction has its own specific superweapon, but they can build as many of them as they like, meaning it's quite possible to win every mission just by sitting back and constructing 30 nuclear warhead silos before unleashing them all at once (on top of your support powers!). Unlike previous C&Cs, there were barely any cinematics between missions, meaning the story was not very well revealed at all. I found myself absolutely not caring about either faction or the state of the planet as a whole as the story was revealed without any urgency or compassion. And you always kind of know that the GLA isn't going to beat the US and China, game developers surely wouldn't allow such a thing! Whilst the game isn't really bad, it just never captured me and I really struggled to have FUN with it. There are scenes of beautiful destruction and tank battles feel a bit more realistic, but the terrain, the troops, the story, the factions and the outcomes just aren't interesting in the slightest. It's just a mad rush to build up enough of an army before a) your resources run out or b) you get superweaponed into oblivion. If it didn't bear the C&C name I'd probably feel less contempt towards it. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Red Alert 3 :/
Posted : 3 months, 1 week ago on 1 August 2009 02:48
(A review of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3)I'll start by saying that I can't believe they got away with releasing this game. It took them eight whole years to conjure a sequel to Red Alert 2, but the final result looks more like the efforts of just eight minutes of development time. This could very well have been released as an expansion pack for Red Alert 2, because neither the gameplay nor the graphics have actually been improved since their efforts in 2000. RA2 destroyed all seriousness from the franchise, but at least supplemented that with new gameplay and improved cinematic sequences. RA3 has gone gung-ho on the farcical scale and ramped it up to beyond outrageous. The cut scenes are still the highlight of the game, but there are numerous plot holes and coincidences that make you roll your eyes until they hurt. It definitely has to be approached with your tongue in your cheek, and there is absolutely no seriousness left in the game. When you beat an opponent, they often appear with a communications message along the lines of "I'll get you next time!" and a virtual shake of the fist. Imagine if real war was like that!? The only thing that has really changed is that your units have alternate fire modes. Obviously the computer can micromanage these units with army-crushing ease, but it's a bit more difficult for a human being to do so. I'd have liked to have seen a bit more ingenious AI from my units who simply refuse to fire on their attackers because I've accidentally left them toggled on an alternate weapon. RTS purists should avoid this game at all costs, because it adds absolutely nothing to the genre. Your units still make mistakes that are unforgivable in a modern day RTS, like not looking for or being able to utilise cover, or by grouping into perfectly even spaced diamond formations. Many units are also blighted by the fact that they're difficult to control. Naval units will just spawn on top of each other when they exit the naval yard, meaning 30 aircraft carriers can occupy exactly the same space and look like one unit. It's also difficult to order some units - such as expensive bombers - back to base. They'd rather fly in a circle waiting to get shot up. The one and only saving grace for this game is its multiplayer function. You can opt to play the entire campaign mode co-operatively with a friend, or team up against the computer in skirmish mode. That is the only real fun I've had from the game so far, which I doubt will have what it takes to remain installed on my comp for many more weeks. In all, a real let down, but fun amongst friends. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
So you fink you're 'ard do ya?
Posted : 3 months, 1 week ago on 31 July 2009 02:59
(A review of Ultravisitor)This album is, without question, Tom Jenkinson's finest. Ultravisitor was my gateway into the world of Squarepusher, but it's a whole lot more than just a crash course into his music. The album begins with a handful of 'smart' electro songs that lure you into a false sense of security, before the middle section of the album smashes your ears to pieces. The final third of this album returns to the more intelligent tracks that are easier to listen to and give you time to recover from the noise in the middle. There's not much of the funk that graces his previous albums here, instead he has strung together an album full of glitchy electro melodies, and some of his tracks are amongst the greatest electro tracks I've ever heard. Songs like Ultravisitor and Tetra-Sync are simply fantastic tracks that would unabashedly find themselves amongst my favourites of all time. It's just music I could never get bored of listening to. I couldn't give it the full 10/10 because of some of the tracks in the middle, they're just abrasive noise numbers that are not at all up my street. I wish that section was more user friendly! I might even have recommended the album to friends then. When you compare Squarepusher's latest two albums to this, they pale into insignificance. It seems Ultravisitor was the zenith of his creative genius. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Woken Furies
Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 20 July 2009 06:59
(A review of Woken Furies (Gollancz S.F.))Richard Morgan brings his Kovacs trilogy to a close with Woken Furies, the final insight into the adventures of Takeshi Kovacs. Despite the slight possibility of hope offered by the ending of Broken Angels, Kovacs finds himself again operating on the wrong side of the law as a petty criminal. Back on his home planet of Harlan’s World, Kovacs has not led an easy life despite his financially rewarding exploits on Sanction IV. The anti-hero begins Woken Furies sleeved in a damaged synthetic body and we catch up with him midway through executing a harrowing personal vendetta. I’d always assumed that Woken Furies would be the last of the Kovacs novels, and according to Morgan’s website, this is a book that should be ‘savoured as it goes down‘. It is the longest book of the three and I did my best to luxuriate in the story, instead of devouring the text at the rapid pace that Morgan’s writing style makes it so easy to do. I definitely did my best at savouring it, knowing that I’d have to go through the process of finding a new author to revere once I was done. Occurring one-hundred years after the events of Altered Carbon, Kovacs is funding a murderous rampage against the New Revelation religious sect by selling the stacks of slaughtered priests to an old acquaintance. It’s hardly an economical living, but his quest for revenge is purely personal. During his attempt to acquire a new sleeve, he encounters and saves a girl, Sylvie, from being assaulted by religious zealots. In return for his help she offers him a place to stay alongside her mercenary colleagues. Despite the scarcity of land on Harlan’s World, an entire continent remains uninhabitable thanks to rampaging military machines left over from a conflict that ended many years ago. Sylvie and her mercenaries are commissioned to deactivate these robots by the government on Harlan’s world and Kovacs soon finds himself out in the dangerous Uncleared zone offering a helping hand. During this excursion, Sylvie blacks out and reawakens as the long-dead, universally revered revolutionary leader, Quellcrist Falconer. Falconer’s quotes pervade all three of Morgan’s books, she is a much studied and controversial character, responsible for a previous uprising on Harlan’s World. By the time of her entrance, Kovacs already finds himself on the wrong side of the church, the yakuza and worst of all – the first family on Harlan’s World. Although fearless in the face of most would-be assassins, the Harlan’s have employed a much more able procurer of justice – A younger copy of Takeshi Kovacs himself. After two stories of Kovacs slaughtering his way through peerless opposition, Woken Furies sees him pitted against an opponent who genuinely riles him – himself. Reading through the book you pick up on slight inferences that Kovacs might be losing some of his Envoy skills, or becoming rusty with his God-like powers. He questions whether he’ll be able to defeat his younger self and strives to be as unpredictable in his plans and movements as possible so as not to be tracked down. This genuine villain threat combined with the fact that this is the final book of the trilogy, adds an extra sense of foreboding to the reading experience. Kovacs’ strained relationship with the apparent Quellcrist Falconer is another intriguing element of Woken Furies, given the stories and quotes of her that he has regurgitated throughout previous books. With his obvious contempt for authority figures and her desire to overthrow the ruling class on Harlan’s World, you would expect the violence obsessed ex-Envoy to have established a more friendly affiliation with the long dead revolutionist. Instead, Kovacs is more concerned with the Sylvie personality that has been overridden by Falconer. The Harlan’s World setting also allows for some probing into Kovacs’ past in the sprawling cityscapes and we are exposed to a whole new world for Morgan to build. One peculiar quirk of Harlan’s World is the fact that centuries old Martian platforms orbit the planet and destroy anything that flies above a certain altitude. These ‘orbitals’ shape the persona of Harlan’s World, inciting an innate fear of heights in most of the population and were alluded to back in Altered Carbon. They are involved in an interesting plot twist toward the end of the book and contain a raw power that might just be enough to bring the omnipotent Harlan family to their knees. As Kovacs’ last outing, the finale is particularly ambiguous, easily offering enough of a possibility for a fourth book to be written (however unlikely), but more importantly, enough for us to generate our own ideas of where the anti-hero goes from here. There were instances of sheer genius in Woken Furies that left me shaking my head in amazement, it makes me wonder just how easy Morgan must find it to write these stories. He is full of eyebrow-raising marvel and with all of these extra pages, he manages to cram more of it in. I guess it’s a sign of a great writer that I was tinged with sadness once I’d read the last page – not because of the story itself, but rather that I haven’t got anymore Kovacs to rabidly consume with my next read. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
If it aint broke...
Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 20 July 2009 06:57
(A review of Broken Angels)Takeshi Kovacs returns in Richard Morgan’s second sci-fi outing. Taking place thirty years after the events on Earth in Altered Carbon, Kovacs is still fighting the good fight and having a terrible time of it. Previously, Kovacs was employed as a private investigator and Altered Carbon read like a solid piece of noir detective fiction, but now he’s putting his talents to use as a soldier in a bloody corporate war on the planet Sanction IV. As a result, Broken Angels reads much more like a survivalist war piece. Broken Angels starts off at a much more modest pace than Altered Carbon, though Kovacs is still feeling the pain. This time, the opening pages tell of him regaining consciousness aboard a medical ship, suffering from serious explosion wounds. It fast transpires that Kovacs’ unit was wiped out during a failed ground campaign. Kovacs is fighting for Carrera’s Wedge, a mercenary army sworn in to fight Joshua Kemp and his rebellious anti-government army. Once again, Kovacs’ status as an ex-Envoy soldier guarantees him importance amongst the ranks of the Wedge. Sleeved in a specialised combat-ready body, he is approached by a pilot who asks for his assistance in acquiring a Martian artifact discovered just before the outbreak of war. The artifact, located in the middle of a war zone, is alleged to be a portal that leads to a specific location in the infinity of space that houses an abandoned Martian starship. Kovacs agrees, and after springing the head archaeologist of the original expedition from political prison, he contrives to enlist the support of one of the major corporations involved in funding the war on Sanction IV. Matthias Hand, an exec for the Mandrake Corp. sees the incentive for infinite profit and agrees to aid Kovacs with financial backing. He oversees the recruitment of a team of soldiers who have already died in the ongoing fighting to form a tactical protection unit, whilst secretly leaking erroneous information that results in the expedition site suffering a nuclear bomb attack to clear it of opposing forces. The expedition begins, with the team having to struggle against the effects of nuclear fallout and the radiation sickness that begins to ravage their bodies. I rate Altered Carbon as ‘un-putdownable’ because of its constant action or intrigue. I must admit that I didn’t feel the same about Broken Angels during the beginning of the story. It was a much slower burner than its predecessor. However, once the expedition had begun, Morgan’s ingenious ideas erupt into life and the inspiration that litters his work and separates him from more average science fiction writers emerges with a vengeance. Kovacs and his team must pit their wits against a possible saboteur amidst the group, a collection of rapidly evolving and deadly nanobes, in-fighting, mistrust and of course the ever present desperation of trying to finish the job before radiation melts skin from bone. Once the gate is open, the action continues to evolve. The starship awaits in all of its gigantic alien glory and aboard its decks the team attempt to comprehend their findings amidst Martian skeletons and centuries old automated machinery. The finale of the book is extraordinary and it was during the final third of Broken Angels that I realised that I was in love with the entire Kovacs universe. The protagonist himself continues to rage at all authority, to push all those around him to breaking point. At times he appears less as a human being and more as an indestructible force of nature. His abilities and amorality make him a terrifying individual, but one that never fails to interest the reader. The ending once again leaves Kovacs in a state of limbo. His future completely unsecured and his personal happiness definitely unfulfilled, you can’t help but wonder what will happen next for the ultimate superhuman. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Look how far we've come.
Posted : 3 months, 2 weeks ago on 19 July 2009 12:55
(A review of Grand Theft Auto IV)I'd heard a lot of things about GTA IV that took the edge off of my expectations for the game. I was told that it was much scaled down, size-wise, compared to San Andreas. I was also told that some of the little things that made SA so perfect were also removed, such as base jumping platforms and the ability to nose-dive 747s into the middle of Las Vegas, seconds after parachuting out unscathed. My perception, therefore, was that GTA IV would be a game built solely to test the power of the next gen consoles, before they rolled out a bigger and better GTA V. After completing the game, I can say without hesitation that neither of these features really obstructed my enjoyment of GTA IV. However, it was nowhere near on par with San Andreas in terms of replayability or initial impressions. There are just some things lacking with GTA IV that make it feel like an incomplete gaming experience. It has the potential to be wholly satisfying, but for some reason it isn't. You play as Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant fresh off the boat and ready to capitalise on the American Dream. Before long he realises he's been brought to the US under false pretences and he is rapidly absorbed into the criminal underbelly of Liberty City. I immediately disliked the main protagonist and he failed to completely win me over throughout the course of the game. Niko is a direct, soulless killer driven by the simple desire to acquire money. I got bored of him really quickly, and this is partly due to the fact that each of his meetings with new acquaintances play out in exactly the same way - 'I'll do anything as long as I get paid'. Liberty City has some really visually appealing areas, such as the Times Square inspired 'Star Junction' and Coney Island's representative, Firefly Island. There are obviously countless Manhattan landmarks that also appear, many of which are truly inspiring places to visit in a computer game. What I felt the map did lack was a large open space to cruise around in, as that was a particular favourite past time of mine in San Andreas. The plot is a standard GTA affair. Much maligned male becomes involved in petty crime and builds a reputation to the extent that he meets super crime families. Nothing new is explored here, though on very few occasions you have the choice to end certain missions in one of two ways, though it is so obvious which is the 'good' and which is the 'bad' outcome on each that it's not really a choice at all. Several aspects are improved on the last GTA game, including the ability to summon the emergency services with a phone call. This is handy if you need a paramedic or need to steal a squad car. It is also now possible to outrun the police, given that they have a sphere of detection when they're after you. If you escape their patrol route then you can consider yourself a free man. It's amazing how much of a great addition this is to the game as you no longer wait for chance or cheats to lower your wanted level. Many of the over-complicated RPG elements from San Andreas are also removed, such as the need to work out, swim and increase your ability to drive certain vehicles. In my eyes, that's a good thing. The PC version has an absolute nightmare with the insulting Digital Rights Management security system. When I first installed the game it was fine, but a re-install some months later caused all manner of cataclysmic problems and required several patches and ultimately a different disc drive to make the game work again. How publishers can get away with this, I'll never know. The graphics are also ready and waiting to be slid up to maximum, but I'm not sure any graphics card is quite prepared to show you liberty city in all of its stunning detail just yet. I still had a thoroughly enjoyable gaming experience and night time helicopter flybys of the statue of liberty were still sufficiently impressive enough to drop my jaw. In short, the characters and the diminished map meant I didn't enjoy this GTA as much as San Andreas. A one-dimensional protagonist and a cast of uninteresting support characters also sapped my intention to ever play the game through again. Whereas I could lose days just wondering around San Andreas post-completion, the lack of places to explore in Liberty City and the infuriating 'friends' feature go far to drain the enjoyment of roaming in GTA IV once the main campaign is finished. Other than that, it's just another GTA game, a welcome addition and one that's well worth playing anyway. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Hollywood 101
Posted : 4 months, 2 weeks ago on 22 June 2009 12:50
(A review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)Michael Bay laughs in the face of global recession with his 2009 summer blockbuster. It must be quite fulfilling to know that you can splash 200 million dollars on a film and guarantee that it's going to claim it all back at the box office. If you ever watched the first Transformers film then you'll know exactly what to expect from the second: 1. An unchallenging plot 2. Megan Fox in skimpy clothes 3. Sixty foot robots kicking the hell out of each other 4. US Army recruitment drive All of these are present in abundance in the sequel. The action starts immediately as the Autobots continue to hunt down and eradicate rogue Decepticon enemies in the name of a free Earth. As always, some nerdy pen-pushing chucklefuck decides that the indispensable job carried out by the Autobots is a bad thing and tries to get them to leave the planet. Luckily, the Decepticons manage to kick up a fuss before they leave and Man and Machine must unite again to fight the alien threat. In the middle of all this, Shia tries to go to college (with hilarious results) his parents try to go on holiday (with destructive results) and Megan tries to fix cars (with skimpy results). The Autobots take a bit of a back seat until the end of the film, which culminates in another mother of all battles between woefully ill-equipped humans, monstrous machines and a hapless Egyptian landscape. There's not much left to say other than the fact that the dialogue is ultra cheesy, there are gratuitous slow-motion running shots of Megan Fox, the robots sometimes fight too quickly for you to figure out what's going on and the damage to public property is relentless. And so in all, it's a mildly entertaining mind-number with plenty of (but some how not enough) explosions. 2 comments, Reply to this entry
Red Dawn
Posted : 5 months, 2 weeks ago on 25 May 2009 08:42
(A review of Red Dawn)Red Dawn is a surprisingly well executed 'alternate reality' film involving a scenario where the United States is invaded by communist forces. From the opening scene, the film pulls no punches in terms of violence and shocking imagery, as soviet paratroopers drop into school grounds before rounding up and firing on young children. Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen star as young brothers who sally out from the communist clutches before seeking refuge in the nearby mountains with a handful of other escapees. It isn't long before their home town is turned into a ghetto, with their families bundled into 're-education' camps and murdered at whim by ruthless communist generals. The scenes galvanise the young children into forming a guerilla resistance group. Calling themselves 'Woverines' after their school football team, the rebels are responsible for some serious destruction, but the war and its lack of a conceivable endpoint soon takes its toll on the youngsters. The ending of the film, as well as the fate of a handful of characters is left ambiguous, but the action was relentless and violent throughout. If nothing else, it was an extremely thought provoking film. There are obvious biases towards the right to bear arms and national patriotism, but these are more subtle than I expected, considering this film was released at the height of the cold war. The only truly negative aspect of the film was how ludicrously competent the children become with high powered weapons and military tactics, which was perhaps the most far fetched aspect of all. Otherwise this was just a great action film with plenty of harrowing and contemplative scenes. 0 comments, Reply to this entry
Altered Carbon
Posted : 7 months ago on 7 April 2009 09:40
(A review of Altered Carbon (SF) (Gollancz S.F.))Proving once again that judging a book by its cover almost always pays off, I picked up Altered Carbon for no other reason than the intriguing Da Vinci-esque anatomical sketch adorning the front page. Interestingly, I’ve never seen this version of artwork in any other bookshop, leading me to wonder whether it has been discontinued altogether, which is a crying shame. Armed with my copy of Richard Morgan’s first published tome, I meandered to the cash desk only to have to fend off excited advances from the geeky female attendant who seemed determined to jump my bones, just because I was an Altered Carbon fan. Things were looking promising. Altered Carbon is a piece of hard-boiled detective fiction, set on a future Earth, where important technological advances have fashioned a whole new way of existence for the human race. To say the book hits the ground running is an understatement. You’re thrown immediately into the action as the principal protagonist - Takeshi Kovacs - and his girlfriend are slaughtered by rampant commandos amidst the opening pages. I have to admit, I haven’t read many books that begin by killing off the lead character in the prologue, but it certainly made an impact… Luckily, there are now two types of death. Mankind has achieved the impossible by digitising the human ’soul’. A person’s memories, experiences, abilities and personality traits are all saved automatically onto a ‘cortical stack’ - implanted deep in the spinal column at the back of the neck at birth - which can then be uploaded into another body (or ’sleeve’) or stored indefinitely. Real Death can only be inflicted by destroying the stack, otherwise the human conscious can simply be downloaded again into a new sleeve to fight another day. Takeshi’s death was purely superficial and upon awaking again, he finds himself on Earth, millions of miles from his home planet and in a non-descript, middle aged sleeve. He has been commissioned to help an unpopular, yet extremely wealthy suicide victim who is convinced he was actually murdered. Those with extreme wealth can not only afford the extravagant cost of re-sleeving, but also keep reserve clones of themselves, as well as back-up stacks, making them seemingly invincible. No longer restricted by the ageing process of the human body, the wealthy now seek to extend their lifespans ad infinitum, earning them the nickname of Meths - of Methuselahs. Kovacs is sought after because of his status as an Ex-Envoy. With the human race now spread across the galaxy, the UN mandate expanded exponentially and a ‘Protectorate’ was formed. The ultimate tool in the Protectorate arsenal is the Envoy shock troops. Designed to beam across the universe into dormant sleeves, and then engage in either stealthy or all-out warfare, the Envoys are the ultimate peacekeeping soldiers. Each individual is intensely trained in combat, self-control, subterfuge and slaughter. Kovacs knows how to look after himself due to his relentless mental training. Some of his experiences with the Envoys are alluded to as the story unfolds, as well as the reasons for him quitting the unit. His flashbacks and psychological delusions were some of my favourite parts of the book. In times of great distress he speaks with his dead friend Jimmy de Soto who seems to help him overcome incredible odds, or spark him back into life after taking a thorough beating. Such spectres of his imagination give you an idea of how Kovacs manages to maintain his sanity against the brunt of such clinical and inhumane Envoy conditioning. His ability to harness and channel his anger into effective energy is devastating, saves his life on numerous occasions and presumably made him such an effective candidate for Envoy training in the first place. The future universe created by Morgan is packed with intelligent ideas and a superb Martian mythology side story. I loved reading about humanities interaction with an alien species and how that, combined with re-sleeving technology almost eradicated organised religions. The present state of Earth, and humanity’s extrasolar existence is elaborated on in mere snippets as the story progresses, and as a result, you’re never overwhelmed with information or swamped with the cyber-jargon that seems to be a mainstay of most sci-fi novels. For Kovacs, Earth itself is an alien-world and so he acclimatises to his new surroundings with the same hesitancy as we do as a reader. Morgan also overflows with ideas of how re-sleeving can be abused, how human flesh is now a commodity to be bought and traded and generally how all of the issues that plague humanity today are still firmly unchanged in this futuristic universe. The abuse of the poor by the rich is simply taken to whole new levels of depravity and the fear of an overwhelming military might still exists in order to frighten the human race into obedience. Along with the outstanding world-building, the characterisation is a real strong point for Altered Carbon. Kovacs is a demi-god of a protagonist who you never tire of reading about. He is such a ruthless and effective murderer that you begin to believe that violence is like an addictive drug for him. Yet despite his borderline psychosis, he is still troubled by very human emotions, such as love. Morgan’s writing style is extremely easy to digest. I never once found myself lost within the text and even the combat scenes were described with crystal clarity. Short, engaging chapters resulted in me reading much more of the book in single sittings than I’d intended. Altered Carbon is an outstanding sci-fi novel that begins an engaging Takeshi Kovacs trilogy, leading into Broken Angels and ending with Woken Furies. I think it was actually half way through the second book that I realised I was in love with the world that Morgan had created. I found myself imagining what life would be like in this futuristic dystopia and was constantly over awed with the authors brilliant imagination. Altered Carbon became an instant favourite and I’d recommend its furious-paced futuristic action to any science fiction fan. 1 comments, Reply to this entry
|
