Altered Carbon

By: Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by: Todd McLaren

Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

In the 25th 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 180 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.

Altered Carbon is the first Takeshi Kovacs novel. Don't miss the sequels Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

©2003 Richard K. Morgan (P)2005 Tantor Media, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This far-future hard-boiled detective story is a lovely virtual-reality romp." (Booklist)
"Fast-paced, densely textured, impressive....Morgan's 25th-century Earth is convincing, while the questions he poses about how much Self is tied to body chemistry and how the rich believe themselves above the law are especially timely." (Publishers Weekly)

Huge contrast with expectations

I loved the first season of the TV show and that likely colors my opinion. My issue boils down to narration. It was a very flat performance that contrasted with how i felt the main character was interpreting events around him.

Storyline is Excellent

The author’s writing is generally good but the story as written has holes and inconsistencies. The premise of the book is excellent and frightening to think about as companies are currently developing AI intelligence and human-machine I/O interfaces. Hope this is not a view of humanity’s future.

One of the only times I have thought that the film version is better than the book. The writers for the Netflix series changed the story which greatly improved the characters and storyline flow.

Different than the show

I liked the story like the show. obviously very different but still worth the listen.

The narrator was excellent

The story and the world building are solid, but it was a bit hypermasculine for my taste

Altered Carbon

Sex, violence and drugs become a strange brew in this futuristic novel with the premise that what we are can be contained in a small device implanted into any body. The hero, Takashi Kovacs, is a detective (of sorts). His neural systems are enhanced.
When people die in this future, except for Catholics, they can be brought back in another body if their device (called a stack) is not destroyed. Catholics do not have stacks.
So Kovacs, who is disliked by almost everyone in the novel, is called by a rich man, who believes his suicide was murder.
With more plot twists than a tub full of snakes, the story unfolds complete with some of the nastiest villans around.
If you like plenty of violence and strange machinations, read this novel. The writing is colorful and interesting and the plot moves along wihtout undue burdening by explantion of the science, politics and culutres involved.
The ending has a twisted nobility that I found appealing.
This is not high art, but it is darn good listening.

Awesome.

This was recommended to me by a guy who accidentally bought it with a big stack of books from a 2nd hand bookstore...and was pleasantly surprised...

WARNING: This book contains some pretty...explicit sex, and...detailed violence.

If you made it past that...the premise may sound vaguely familiar...and maybe not earth-shattering...but trust me, this one is worth picking up. I was a little worried in the very beginning...but once Kovacs (the main character) is re-sleeved, the story just takes off and doesn't stop. The technology and concepts in the story are very cool, and there's PLENTY of action, but it's...the way the story is written that makes it so good. I found myself rooting for Kovacs...though, he's not really a "good guy"...but there really aren't any "good guys" in this story. Performance is very good.

This Book has the Density of a Black Hole!

Whoa! Author Richard Morgan has ginned up a massively complex, nuanced future world as well as highly imperfect but incredibly charismatic characters that keep you riveted through this epic story. I have to admit that while I love hard-boiled detective stories as much as anyone, I doubt Altered Carbon could get much more gritty. There is plenty of raw language and imagery (both sex and violence), but I feel it ultimately adds to the story, paints a more vivid picture of characters and isn't provided simply for shock value alone. The only minor complaint I have is that the narrator's voice is SO deep, that it was sometimes hard to understand what he was saying. Not so much as to lose key plot points, but irritating when I was driving and listening. Otherwise, it's s fantastic book and I am looking forward to listening to more from Morgan.

Worth your time

Excellent read! Contains all the elements of a top-notch Action/Suspense/Thriller; violence, sex, murder, greed, lust for power, intrigue, love, hate, compassion … The technology of the future may have changed but human nature hasn’t. The author has created a disturbing world in which a well crafted, fast paced story takes place.
The book does contain a lot of violence and sex, however I felt this wasn’t gratuitous in nature but used to add depth and texture to the characters.
There are enough twists, turns and surprises that I found it hard to stop listening.

Obscured by Obscenity

This otherwise great story could have been told without all the gratuitous sex and gutter language - too bad.
It would be great to offer titles such as this in a cleaned-up abridged version.

The author wanted to write porn.

This was an ok story, but at times it seemed like the author was a bit obsessed with sex. Now sex doesn't offend me in any way, but here it took away from the story. It seemed like a hyperbolic distraction, more than something that was as integral to the story as the author wanted you to think it was. It left it all feeling unfocused.

That being said, it was an ok story. it could have been great though.