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Richard K. Morgan
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trithor
Posted 2008-09-04 7:44 PM (#1444)
Subject: Richard K. Morgan



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Hey everyone. I just found this site and decided its awesome!

That said I wanted to try to start a discussion about one of my more recent favorite scifi authors Richard Morgan.

If you haven't heard of any of his books before you should check out Alteredcarbon. It is set in an awesome future universe where humans are digitally stored and could be transferred to different bodies. The main character is sort of an anti-hero who has to play detective to get out of certain criminal charges. The book is totally wicked, has lots of action and suprises, and if you like it there are two more with the same main character, although they are all independent works.

I think Morgan's books are kind of under rated as far as award nominations go, but what can you do. I would say this author is definitely worth keeping an eye on.
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Administrator
Posted 2008-09-04 8:59 PM (#1445 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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Location: Dallas, Texas
hey trithor, welcome to WWEnd and thanks for the compliment! glad you like the site. be sure to tell your friends

i'll second your recommendation for Morgan. love his stuff. Altered Carbon is fantastic and i think much stronger than Broken Angels tho that was pretty good too. i've not gotten to Market Forces yet or Thirteen (Black Man). really looking forward to Thirteen but i've got a few other books in front of it. have you read it? if so what'dya think? how does it compare to Carbon?

- dave
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Deven Science
Posted 2008-09-08 3:06 PM (#1452 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: RE: Richard K. Morgan



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Haven't read anything of his, so thanks for the suggestion. Dave and I share many similarities in taste, so if he's with you, I'll put AlteredCarbon on my reading list.
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Administrator
Posted 2008-09-08 3:18 PM (#1454 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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i would describe Altered Carbon as gritty and brutal story telling. very graphic. violence with consequence. it's not to a lot of people's taste to get the full graphic details of a fight / torture / sex scene so reader beware. there are some really cool concepts in there too. sleeving, "space" travel etc. and some great characters.

- dave
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trithor
Posted 2008-09-09 5:55 PM (#1455 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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I read thirteen, and I'd recommend it; that said, its not as good as alteredcarbon. I had two problems with it. One, the science fiction parts weren't as interesting as the other books (in my opinion) , the setting for thirteen is much closer to our own time. My other issue was after reading the first couple chapters i thought the book would go in one direction, but it sort of took a turn pretty early on, which didn't seem as interesting as it could have been.

If you haven't read wokenfuries yet, I'd say to read that before thirteen.
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imagexposed
Posted 2008-10-02 2:01 PM (#1462 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: RE: Richard K. Morgan



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You guys might be interested in this review (which I happen to agree with):

http://bookexposed.com/blog/2008/09/29/altered-carbon/

He is great but a little wordy.

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Administrator
Posted 2008-10-02 2:46 PM (#1464 - in reply to #1462)
Subject: RE: Richard K. Morgan



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imagexposed,

i would not have thought it was over wordy based on my reading but the evidence is there.  i really enjoyed the book so i guess i overlooked the extra prose.  i would still give it a "must read" tho.  that's quite a good review and an interesting site.

is that your own site or someone you know?  the name looks similar to your handle.  i ask because we've been looking to add reviews to WWEnd for some time but we're not sure yet how we're going to do it.  nobody has submitted any reviews yet and we've been wondering if we should just link to existing reviews or try to get permission/rights to post existing reviews here in the forum so people can discuss.  we'd link them from the novel and author pages to the thread here in the books forum so they'd be easy to find.  ideally we'd like to get more members that have reviews "in the can" to sign up and post them here themselves.  they could get a little more mileage from them and it might be a good way to get a little publicity for their sites.

i'd be interested to hear ideas if anybody's got 'em.

thanks for the link!

-dave

 

 

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imagexposed
Posted 2008-10-03 8:01 AM (#1465 - in reply to #1464)
Subject: RE: Richard K. Morgan



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bookexposed happens to belong to a friend who is also an author.
We have found most reviewers / review sites don't care if you link to them since it's more traffic for them too.

As long as you link to them you could probably copy the entire review.

The biggest problem I see with on line reviews is they are:

1. too short
2. it takes too long to turnaround one (weeks or months from initial contact to posting)
3. written by people who are sometimes very biased or unknowledgeable
4. like to nitpick over minor details (I had one reviewer who spent most of the review hating my cover art!)

btw- I have found so far the best way to increase traffic is to blog, blog, blog. That seems to get more hits than anything.

example of what I mean:

http://www.frontstreetreviews.com/View.html

 



Edited by imagexposed 2008-10-03 8:08 AM
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Deven Science
Posted 2008-10-20 3:53 PM (#1471 - in reply to #1464)
Subject: RE: Richard K. Morgan



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Dave,

While reviews might be good for some, I would be more interested in a shorter review that any registered WWEnder (did I just make that up? That's brilliant, if I don't say so myself!) could write, and it would appear of the novels' page, like with NetFlix. Call them "Book Notes", or "Reader Notes", or somesuch. To see that someone rated a novel "8" is one thing, but a 200 or 300 character note would let me see who rated it, and a quick blurb as to what they liked or didn't like about it.

Just another for the suggestion box.
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Administrator
Posted 2008-10-20 5:12 PM (#1473 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas
yeah i like WWEnder. we've used that from time to time. maybe we should make it official? instead of just "Member".... i wonder if it would catch on?

i think you've really got something there with the "Book Notes". i suppose we could pretty easily add a Book Notes field to the member section on the novel page that would allow you to drop in a mini review. man, i like that. we could then link all the mini reviews on the page and display them on the My World page as well as part of your profile.

we'd put in a default list of all the books you've reviewed that you can use to keep track and other WWEnders could use it to see what else you've commented on. i'll talk to whargoul about that!

we're going to be integrating Wordpress into the site in the future as well so we can have comments on the minireviews when that's done. love it!

- dave
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Deven Science
Posted 2008-10-20 6:17 PM (#1474 - in reply to #1473)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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Thanks. I've had the idea for a while, and I'm surprised that I haven't brought it up before now. I'd like it to get to the point where you click on a novel, and off to one side or somewhere is, like, three notes from three different members about the book. You could really get a feel for the novel if there's a few comments about it. Or they could be just that: comments on the novel's page. Either way, it would be very useful.
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Administrator
Posted 2008-10-24 10:33 AM (#1478 - in reply to #1474)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas
Deven,
the review feature is up and live now on the novel page.  You can read the details in the New Features forum:  Book Notes & Reviews

- Dave
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htaccess
Posted 2010-05-04 7:24 PM (#2000 - in reply to #1444)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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I'm reading Altered Carbon at the moment, I can't put it down, 10/10 so far. Can't remember when I last read a book this good.
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Administrator
Posted 2010-05-04 8:39 PM (#2001 - in reply to #2000)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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htaccess - 2010-05-04 7:24 PM I'm reading Altered Carbon at the moment, I can't put it down, 10/10 so far. Can't remember when I last read a book this good.

Yeah, that's a great book!  Totally blew me away.  I've loaned mine out several times and everyone so far has loved it too.  Of course, I'm careful who I loan it to.  It's a bit rough for some folks.

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Pierre
Posted 2010-05-04 9:47 PM (#2002 - in reply to #2001)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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Sounds great. From the synopsis, it made me think of Johnny Mnemonic / Neuromancer, both of course by W. Gibson.

I've added it to my Reading list.
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Deven Science
Posted 2010-05-04 9:58 PM (#2003 - in reply to #2001)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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I just bought Altered Carbon, and through your site, no less, so you guys could get a couple of cents. Also ordered The Forever War and The Android's Dream. All look good.
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whargoul
Posted 2010-05-04 11:05 PM (#2004 - in reply to #2003)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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Altered Carbon is an AWESOME book. I was just thinking about trying to find another book similar to or possibly rereading it.
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Administrator
Posted 2010-05-04 11:25 PM (#2005 - in reply to #2003)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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Location: Dallas, Texas

Deven Science - 2010-05-04 9:58 PM I just bought Altered Carbon, and through your site, no less, so you guys could get a couple of cents. Also ordered The Forever War and The Android's Dream. All look good.

Can I get an Amen?  Thank you for your support Mr. Science!

Forever War is really good too and I've heard The Android's Dream is another good one.  You've got some great reading coming your way.

@whargoul:  I've been pondering a re-read myself.  Looking for something gritty and visceral.  I just started A Fire in the Sun by George Alec Effinger and it's satisfying that itch for me right now. It's the sequel to When Gravity Fails.  Another book I'd recommend if you're looking for more action and violence.

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hihik
Posted 2010-05-06 9:30 AM (#2011 - in reply to #2005)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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what do you guys mean by "rough" and "graphic" - it's full of detailed description of disturbing violence?
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hihik
Posted 2010-05-06 9:49 AM (#2012 - in reply to #2011)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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OT: and about external reviews, maybe these guys - http://sfreviews.net/alteredcarbon.html
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Administrator
Posted 2010-05-06 10:44 AM (#2013 - in reply to #2011)
Subject: Re: Richard K. Morgan



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hihik - 2010-05-06 9:30 AM what do you guys mean by "rough" and "graphic" - it's full of detailed description of disturbing violence?

Exactly.  There are some graphic scenes of violence, torture and rape and the like and the language is rather colorful as well.  Please note that this is not a criticism of the book or the author.  The story takes place in the seedy underbelly of society with scum of the earth characters where the meaning of death has changed and the depictions are in keeping.  I ony mention that because some folks just don't like that kind of story and might like to know in advance that it has those elements.  If I was recommending a Xanth novel I'd be warning you about the puns.

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