'Altered Carbon: Download Blues' by Richard K. Morgan & Hoskin, Rik with art by Ferran Sellares is a graphic novel set in the world created by Morgan.

Takeshi Kovacs is a violent man, and just the right man in the wrong place. He starts by investigating a ring of sex workers sleeved as celebrities, and then stumbles upon a more sinister conspiracy that leads to him fighting himself at one point.

The story isn't bad and feels like it's set in the right world. The art was kind of poor and angular and I didn't really care for it.

A graphic novel with Takeshi Kovacs, probably the best character in modern science fiction. A good story by Richard Morgan, but not a great admirer of the art in this book.

While not familiar with this comic profession before the Netflix show, the first season on Netflix of "Altered Carbon" gave a crash course in the dynamics with admirable effect but also decent "Blade Runner"-esque visuals. What this new comic installment does is take the noir structure and give it another round. The great aspect of this world is that there is no conception of who the lead actor is so the concept of the sleeves is fairly free comparative to the show who now must change actors. The story in "Altered Carbon: Download Blues" [Richard K. Morgan & Rik Hoslin/Dynamite/128pgs] is pure gumshoe by way of assassins. Someone is cloning famous people using their genomes and using them on the black market. Kovacs, as an ex-Envoy, was trying to keep to himself but a security black market sleeve forces him back into the open to make a deal. The cool thing about Kovacs is that he doesn't really have any sense of morality but he does have a code which is what keeps him going. When he is targeted for assassination by himself in a way, he has to go, like the show in certain ways, "Total Recall", thereby finding himself on another planet. The second construct is that this world has is the ability to transfer anybody's consciousness (if you have the money) via needlecast anywhere the light connection is based. Ultimately Kovacs is requisitioned for good money to track down would-be assassins. He gets his revenge point in the end. "Altered Carbon" with the right tone is pre-neo noir "Runner" style but for the modern age. The creator knows this but understands the fun is in the unexpectedness of the journey and the ability of the character to roll with the punches. A

By Tim Wassberg

Thank you to Netgalley and Dynamite Entertainment for providing me with a copy of this in exchange for my open and honest review.

I have been a fan of the Takeshi Kovacs universe since Morgan wrote the original Altered Carbon in 2002. Not only that, I find the "Land Fit For Heroes' world to be some of the best fantasy written in the last twenty years. All that being said, I found this to be a mediocre adaptation of the source material. The fundamental problem is that the artwork did not flow well with the dialog, That, in turn, led to stunted panels. I don't think this is either Morgan or Sellares's fault. Sellares is an excellent artist. But for some reason, Altered Carbon and his style did not mesh well. Sellares's artwork is too angular and stocky to fit Kovacs predator personality. It came off as more He-Man then I would have liked. I will continue to read this universe because Morgan's writing is always top-notch. But I won't seek it out like I usually would have.

Edit: In my original review of this I switched Hoskin and Sellares roles. Sellares contacted me and was very kind in letting me know that Sellares along with Vinicius Andrade and a colorist did the graphics. While Morgan and Hoskin did the story. I appreciate the update and have since updated Goodreads.

It was archived before I got the chance to review it. My bad, not the publisher. I will give this three stars just in case. I did enjoy the first novel of AC.

Though I have the TV series saved snugly on my Netflix queue (the concept was so intriguing), I've yet to watch it or read any of the other stories from the Altered Carbon universe, so Download Blues was my introduction to a futuristic society where - when you are old, ill or otherwise have no more use for your body - you can simply, for a fee of course, swap it out for another, much younger and healthier model, or "sleeve," reinventing yourself over and over again every time. Download Blues follows series protagonist Takeshi Kovacs, former stormtrooper for the Envoy Corps and a certified bad-ass, as he's pulled in by local police and questioned about a seemingly-routine murder ... that Tak soon realizes, barely in time to save his own life, is just the tip of a much bigger iceberg; a conspiracy involving amped-up sleeves and interstellar smuggling/shenanigans that will grudgingly drag the world-weary ex-soldier into learning the truth - no matter who stands in his way. The artwork here is dark and sinister as the story, action sequences played out in broad strokes and terrific aerial depictions of the city, and Tak is an appealing if way-too-hardcore-for-his-own-good bad cop whose conscious always pulls him to the side of doing right. All the noise and visuals, regrettably, somewhat overshadow a story/plotline that's just not that interesting, by the end leaving this reader little more than in a rush to just finish the book. Good, not great, but Tak is awesome enough I will be pursuing more stories, as well as the Netflix series! 3.5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

I've watched season one of the show and I've the first book. I like this world Richard K. Morgan has built. Very cool. This graphic novel is just another adventure in the life of Takeshi Kovacs. It's violent. But a cool story to add to the repertoire.

A graphic novel tying-in to Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs series. It's a decent story, but the art looks a little dated--not bad, but very 90s cyberpunk.

I was familiar with Morgan's sci-fi setting before picking this up. This addition does a pretty decent job of hitting the main points about what makes it unique so that new readers won't feel completely lost. This is a side job of sorts for Takeshi Kovacs, the star of Morgan's setting. It doesn't really add anything to his history, but it round out the setting a little bit by showing what life is like on another planet.

The story itself seems like pretty standard fare for this pseudo noir setting. As such, it didn't strike a big chord with me. The art is a little bit of a let down. It's not bad by any means, but the character drawings weren't the best. I really like the backgrounds though. And the actions sequences were pretty decent.

This is a great introduction to the series because it gives the reader everything they need to get started and it doesn't require a lot of commitment.

I may be biased, as I absolutely adore both the Altered Carbon books and the TV show, but I loved this book. More along the vein of the TV series than the book, both in graphics and content, once again we are dipped into the world of Takeshi kovacs, and I for one could not get enough !
I devoured this book in one sitting,- very much recommended if you love this show
4 stars
I was very grateful to receive a copy of the ARC from Netgalley in exhange for my honest review #netgalley #alteredcarbondownloadblues

Bit of a mixed bag. The story's good, the art is okay. It's funny to see this and the recent TV series when the original novel is nearly 20 years old and cyberpunk is considerably older yet. But there are ideas in Morgan's take on the subgenre that haven't dated, so the setup still works. And for anyone who's already read the three novels and watched the first season of the TV series and needs more, this'll help.

A rich fellow dies while partying with celebrity sex clones, except rich people really don’t die in this future, they just download their consciousness into a new sleeve (body). The rich fellow’s bodyguard appears to be a former member of the Envoy Corps. Envoys wear military sleeves and are essentially soldiers for the Earth Protectorate. By coincidence, as the police investigate the rich guy's not-death, another former Envoy, Takeshi Kovacs, is sitting in jail. The cops bribe Kovacs into helping them talk to the bodyguard and mayhem ensues.

The celebrity sex clones are sleeves of celebrities that are piloted by AIs, unbeknownst to the celebrity. But the plot lies in military-grade sleeves that might be repurposed for convicts who would otherwise be barred from sleeves that are not docile. When Kovacs begins to tumble to that scheme, the bad guys make multiple attempts to kill him while more successfully killing a bunch of people he tries to save.

The broader plot has a lot to do with future politics, not so different from current politics, with scandals and corruption and crimes against humanity. Kovacs is like the sheriff who cleans up the wild west, except he’s a more like a mercenary with the heart of a sheriff. Or maybe he's a sheriff with the heart of a mercenary.

Download Blues is true to Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon concept, and if you like the books (or the Netflix series, which I haven’t seen), you’ll probably think this is okay. And that’s my reaction: it’s not special, but it’s okay.

The art has a certain style, but I can’t say it is a style I like. The characters all have pointy or freakishly square chins and angular faces. The flying cars and vaguely Asian cityscapes, no matter the planet, seems a little too Bladerunner.

I really liked the idea behind this sci-fi story, bodies reduced to interchangeable sleeves for a core personality and mind , but I was not a fan of the artwork which seemed a little dull for such a futuristic story. The plot and pacing was good , and a lot happened in the short volume in terms of character introduction and story telling.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

I could sadly not downlaod this book before it was archived. The fualt is mine and no one else's I wish I had more time on my hands.... I hope this does well. I thank NetGalley for giving me the oppertunity to read this, I am just sad I could not deliver it soon enough.

For completionists only, and even then only because Richard Morgan had some involvement in the script. There are moments where his voice shines through but most of it is a muddle - both in story and in art.

Sleeving does work well on the comic page though!

I'm not entirely sure whether this is meant to tie in to the books (which are excellent fun, but it's a long time since I read them) or the Netflix show (heard they'd gutted the politics, didn't bother). Richard Morgan only co-scripted it, and the art is fairly terrible, like nineties Image trying to do noir. But set against that, at least the whole concept of swapping bodies means I don't have to worry about the likeness not matching the Kovacs in my head. And while the plot has its glitches (Kovacs versus himself, again? In a different sense, sure, but still), the voice is perfect. "More spirit of the age than hero of the hour", he gets the job done, but you'd best be damned sure you checked the small print of the contract. Starting out with a clone/AI sex ring on a backwater planet, it escalates - as things tend to when Kovacs is around - until shit's blowing up in orbit and the powers that be start getting justly rattled. I think it would probably have flowed better as a fourth novel, where more space could mean the different components of the set-up would have felt a little more naturally linked. But even as it is, it elicited a few winces and at least one laughing like a drain, for a much smaller investment of time, so I'll allow it.

(Netgalley ARC)

Lou Jacobs
Apr 19, 2019 Lou Jacobs rated it really liked it
A beautifully rendered color graphic novel that makes this action packed story a significant addition to the Altered Carbon Universe created by Richard K Morgan. The narrative unwinds in a noir mystery style and the well ploted sequential plot allows an amazing degree of action in 128 pages. Ferran Sellares art provides an appropriate "Blade Runner- esque" setting that adds to the stories futuristic technology and concepts. It's good to see our hard-boiled protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs back in action ... applying his elite soldier skills in solving a mystery and seeking justice in an unjust world. Although Takeshi is an ex-Envoy corps soldier ... his propensity for rapid and extreme violence is unchanged. Critical to the plot is the futuristic advanced technology that allows digitilization of ones memories and consciousness into a container termed a "cortical stack"
The technology exists that allows the transfer of this digital construct into another body ... deemed "a sleeve" ... this has solved the problem of interstellar travel ... and for the rich: the problem of death or growing old.
Morgan and script writer: Rik Hoskin have fashioned a convoluted noir mystery involving an illegal company that is creating unsanctioned sleeves of famous and beautiful women for the purposes of being used as willing sex slaves. Murder and mayham proceed at breakneck speed across galaxies involving intrigue and destruction.
Thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Distribution for providing an Uncorrected Proof of this enjoyable Graphic Novel in exchange for an honest review. And thanks for a much needed Altered Carbon fix!!

Well, Altered Carbon: Download Blues was a letdown, really. The plot was such a mess, it's hard to even try to depict it. The setting is of course that you can buy new bodies to live forever, but in the end people are human and stupid - and even more, after power. Takeshi Kovacs used to be in the Envoy Corps and somehow those times hunt him once again and he begins to investigate how celebrity bodies end up as vendible love dolls of sorts. Then the guy just chases after a lot of other characters and suddenly we're on a space station where Dusk Team wants to take a revenge on some politician. The whole thing is such a mess and mostly just running, killing and changing bodies. The setting is interesting and I kind of wished for an interesting mystery case with lots of darkness in it and this just fell flat and boring in every way. Not to forget that nothing made sense.

The art is so and so. The panels are stuffed and some of them are well done and some are just just plain smudgy. The quality isn't balanced and the colors are mostly too dark and the line art hazy at best. The art gets better towards the end, but the wooden flat faces don't work and the sense of movement is nowhere to be seen. Panels follow one another without any connection and the text doesn't work well with what is happening. All in all this comic is a messy practice work that would still need a lot of work to be even half decent. Such a shame, since the potential was there and the universe is intriguing.

Four and a half stars.

Coming to this world brand new here – I'd never heard of the original series of novels or the Netf**ks version – I have to say I really did like this. A lot. I'd seen the author's other work in comic-book franchise tie-ins, and while acceptable they were never great adverts for the main canon. This knocked the others out the park – giving us the in-world lingo, the main character and all the machinations of the plot very easily. I did start a little overwhelmed by the amount of jargon I had to learn quickly, but that said the plot is almost too standard a revenge thriller, so you get time and space to absorb what the newbie needs. What that newbie sees is a pair of cops way in over their heads when a death occurs, and the sole person they can question is sort-of connected to our hero, who they also by chance have in custody. A hero who is the only one able to work out how out of their depth they actually are, as the story sweeps him a long way away, and a long way back in time. If anything, I said, the story is a little formulaic, and if anything the world is a little too easy – yes, people die, but the hero is so talented and pro-active there's little sense of him ever really being in jeopardy or threat. But this was still a great read, and one I found easy to really enjoy, even while being too easy a narrative for our man. It's the best presentation of seen-it-before sci-cop drama, the biggest dollop of chutzpah on top of the standard norm, that I've had the pleasure of for quite some time. For that I have to recommend it.

My previous knowledge of Richard K. Morgan’s character and universe comes from the time spent watching Altered Carbon on Netflix. With the amount of time one has with a TV series, there are ample opportunities to flesh out Takeshi Kovacs and give the watcher a decent look at his world.

In a graphic novel, everything has to be put on a much quicker timeline. This worked for “Download Blues,” as the pacing kept the action at a fever pitch. The storyline was not fantastic, but tight enough to keep me engaged with what was happening. The layout and artwork were also good, especially with the drawings of the city and the elongated scenes showing both height and depth. What really interested and impressed me was the coloring. While I am not sure, it appeared that Vinicius Andrade was using watercolors (and if he wasn’t, that is the effect). For those of us who look more closely at the artwork, I felt the coloring added much to the book.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this graphic novel and recommend it. Four stars.

My thanks to NetGalley and Diamond Book Distributors for an electronic copy of this book.