The Sci-Fi Book club will kick off 2013 by reading Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon, winner of the Philip K. Dick Award.
“In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person’s consciousness can be stored in a cortical stack at the base of the brain and easily downloaded into a new body (or “sleeve”) making death nothing more than a minor blip on a screen.
Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats “existence” as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning…” – From the Trade Paperback Edition
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Buy on Amazon UK
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Want to join in?
If you would like to join us you can visit our forums and add your name to the list here. Want to know how our Sci-fi Book Club works first? Read on!
Choosing a Book
All books are nominated and voted on by our members. Anyone can nominate a book and everyone can vote. If you’d like to see what’s in the running for February, you can check out our currently book poll here.
Spoiler Free Discussion
Sci-Fi Book Club begins on the 1st of every month. Once a book is started we discuss our books in a way that will not spoil the story. We limit how much you can discuss and when and break it down by week.
Week 1 – You may only discuss the first 1/4 of the book
Week 2 – You may only discuss the first 1/2 of the book
Week 3 – You may only discuss the first 3/4 of the book
Week 4 – Anything goes
We are going to go based on page count. So for example, if a book has 500 pages then week one you can discuss up to page 125 and then week two 250 and so on. Each week will have a separate thread, so as not to spoil the story for people who fall behind or come in late.
What if you want to read faster than that?
Not a problem at all. You are more than welcome to read ahead, but when discussing things just remember to post in the appropriate thread. And if you’re not sure when something happened, you can always use the spoiler tag to hide your post.
Should you not want any spoilers or discussion during the reading process, then just come after the end of week three and start discussing the book once you have finished. (This is how most book clubs operate anyway.)
We would love for you to join us! You can sign up for this month’s book club here. Vote on next month’s book club here. Or visit our book club section to see all our past selections here.
Happy Reading!
Jennie Ivins
Altered Carbon is a great pick! I really enjoyed this puppy..
P.S. I used to program Java too, though it’s a lot of C# these days! -)