By Abbie Bernstein

Titan Books, out now

 

Abbie Bernstein introduces us to the worlds of the first two seasons of Netflix’s cyberpunk sci-fi show based on the trilogy of Altered Carbon novels by Richard K Morgan.

It has to be said that Titan know a thing or two about putting together a quality behind-the-scenes book, and this hardback volume on quality art paper certainly delivers on this promise. Released to tie in with the drop of all eight episodes of the show’s second season, the book looks at both years of the series.

Broken up into three sections, The Ground and The Aerium are focused on Season One while Off World is mainly about Season 2’s Harlan’s World. There’s also a generous selection of storyboards and useful spread of a Glossary – there’s a lot of new tech in this show.

The Ground looks at each of the main characters in and around Bay City, including The Raven Hotel and The Panama Rose Fightdome, exploring the people and locales both in-universe (as if it’s real) and with a behind-the-scenes production eye. This provides the opportunity to interview the creatives around various aspects of the show’s production and design.

The Off World section is predominantly focused on Season 2, though it does call back to the Season 1 flashback sequences with Kovacs and his sister. Each significant new character gets a profile and background, though I’m not convinced by the blue fractal mosaic filter that each character’s profile is put through. It’s a design choice presumably to evoke the digital, glitchy world of the show, but it’s not successful for me.

Verdict: Art, interviews, designs, sketches and full page character studies, this ‘making of’ tome follows a well-established formula, but it’s written with a passion for the subject and it’s great to dwell on some of the heavy tech that can get lost in the on-screen drama. 8/10

Nick Joy

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