The Takeshi Kovacs Series: Difference between revisions

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Line 1: {{work}} ''Altered Carbon'' is the first book in a [[Cyberpunk]] trilogy (often called either the ''Altered Carbon series'' or the '''''Takeshi Kovacs series''''') by British writer [[Richard K. Morgan]]. The series takes place some 500 years into the future, in the UN Protectorate, a totalitarian government spread over several different planets that enforces its rule with the use of 'Envoys'; mentally-conditioned [[Super Soldier\|Shock Troopers]] who specialise in covert deployment and bringing down rebel governments. Line 14: The third book, ''Woken Furies'', finds Kovacs back on his homeworld of Harlan's World; a largely aquatic planet colonised by Japanese and Slavs. The book begins as a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] as Kovacs hunts down members of a Church who sentenced a friend of his to death, but he soon becomes involved in a growing revolutionary plot to overthrow the UN-backed government. {{~~tropelist~~franchisetropes}} * [[Action Bomb]]: People can be fitted with internal explosives, allowing them to explode at will (Though there is a significant risk of accidental detonation). There are also examples where the explosives are [[Dead-Man Switch\|set to go off upon the user's death]]. * [[Action Survivor]]: Tanya Wardani of ''Broken Angels''. * [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]]: Thoroughly averted. Without exception, in all three books, the artificial intelligences we encounter are friendly, cooperative and unobstrusive. Although it's mentioned that some are into some disturbingly illegal activities. The hive-mind-like artificial intelligence driving the nanomachine colony, on the other hand, gets seriously out of control. Line 42: * [[Da Chief]]: Isaac Carrera in the second book and Shigeo Kuramaya in ''Woken Furies''. * [[Dead Person Conversation]]: when Kovacs is under severe stress, or lost deep in thought, he tends to hallucinate his long-dead friend Jimmy De Soto. Jimmy usually gives him some useful hunch, or the resolve he needs to break through the current problem. * [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: The world is pretty shitty but there are many people who are trying to better things * [[Energy Weapons]]: Several energy weapons exist, such as the 'Sunjet' rifle (which might be either plasma, or a particle beam, depending on the book). * [[Eye Scream]]: the protagonist has memories about a soldier mate of his who ripped out his eye with his own fingers during a hallucination caused by a mind virus. Line 68: * [[Invisible Aliens]]: No one knows where the Martians went, or why. * [[I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure]]: How {{spoiler\|Kawahara}} compels Kovacs to do as {{spoiler\|she}} asks, in regards to the Bancroft case. * [[Jerk ~~With~~with a Heart of Gold]]: Kovacs can be a ''serious'' jerk, and he'll beat, kill and torture into insanity anyone who goes against him. But underneath all the cynicism, the bloodthirstiness and the gruff manners he's essentially a good guy - as he so clearly shows in the ending of the first book, when he {{spoiler\|gives a family almost the entirety of his reward money, no strings attached, so they can re-sleeve their murdered daughter. "I wanted something clean to come from all of this", he explains to the disbelieving mother.}} * [[Kill Sat]]: Harlan's World has the Orbitals, large geostationary space platforms left by the aliens before they disappeared. They rain "angelfire" on every hi-tech device that gets above a certain fixed altitude. Nobody knows why they do this, but the only way to elude them is old tech - they won't shoot down centuries-old, gas-powered helicopters and such - though there have been exceptions in both directions. * [[Killed Off for Real]]: generally averted, as anyone who gets killed can later be resurrected. A few people, however, do end up very old-fashioned dead due to disintegration of the mind-recording chip, viral infection of the same, or a variety of other [[Nightmare Fuel\|entertaining methods]]. Line 83: * [[Nanomachines]]: Including some [[Nightmare Fuel\|weaponized versions]] * [[Oh Crap]]: Almost unnoticeable in the rollercoaster of events towards the second book's finale. {{quote\| {{spoiler\|"That other ship was not Martian."}}}} * [[Older Than They Look]]: Pretty much everyone who has been through a few sleeves. * [[Pay Evil Unto Evil]]: What Kovacs tends to do to people who mess with him or anyone he cares about. Essentially the basis for the entire trilogy - in between revenge and plain hatred, Kovacs pays a ''lot'' of evil on ''many'' evil people. Line 90: ** On the other hand, the unique setting makes murder a considerably less serious crime. Now murdering of the mind, on the other hand... * [[Powered Armor]] {{quote\| ''Hospital mob suits are designed and programmed to approximate normal human strength and motion while cushioning areas of trauma and ensuring that no part of the body is strained beyond its convalescent limits. In most cases the parameters are hardwired in to stop stupid little fucks from overriding what's good for them. Military custom'' '''doesn't work like that'''.}} * [[Precursors]]: The Martians who aren't actually from Mars. * [[Private Detective]]: Tak in the first book. Line 107: * [[The Body Is A Plaything Of The Mind]]: Only in virtualities, however. * [[The Future Is Noir]]: the first book borrows noticeably from noir investigation dramas. * [[The Mind Is a Plaything of ~~The~~the Body]]: The first and third books explore how love and other forms of affection are mostly caused by (and therefore restricted to) specific sleeves, not the minds that inhabit them. Re-sleeving ruins (or, due to [[Grand Theft Me]], incites) relationships because some bodies are apparently more compatible than others on a hormonal or pheromonal level. [[Discussed Trope\|Discussed]] when Kovacs {{spoiler\|double-sleeves himself. The Ryker Kovacs is still attracted to Ortega. The Synth Kovacs... not so much.}} * [[Title Drop]]: Happens multiple times in common speech in the first and third books, and only a few in the second. * [[Training ~~From~~from Hell]]: Physical training is made practically irrelevant by the various chems and synthetic improvements one can have for his sleeve, but mental training is incredibly important for the Envoys. Kovacs' mental training has made him such an ''incredible'' [[Badass]] that he shrugs off torture sessions that would leave any normal person scarred for life and/or insane beyond any hope of cure. * [[Weak but Skilled]]: Kovacs' fight with Kadmin. While Kovacs' is sleeved in the body of a middle-aged chain-smoking cop, Kadmin has an enormously [[Lightning Bruiser\|strong and fast]] Hand of God 'freak fighter' sleeve. Kovacs still loses but gives an excellent accounting of himself. ** Also describes Kovacs in ''Broken Angels'' as his sleeve, which wasn't in particularly good shape at the start of the book, {{spoiler\|is slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Because of this, Kovacs becomes up effectively immobile if not for the [[Powered Armor\|hospital mob suits]] and drugs, and yet he manages to wipe out [[Colonel Badass\|Carrera]] and his army.}} Line 119: [[Category:Science Fiction Literature]] [[Category:The Takeshi Kovacs Series]] [[Category:Philip K. Dick Award]] [[Category:Military and Warfare Literature]] [[Category:Literature of the 2000s]] {{DEFAULTSORT:Takeshi Kovacs Series, The}} [[Category:Literature]]