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)

great book

A story deeply rooted in faith, morality, and humanity. Great perspective on the soldier psyche. Sound quality could have been better.

good story needs better audio

sound quality could be better...had to turn it up really loudly to hear in car

Incredible Story!

This book is amazing. Watching the TV show on Netflix really helps with visualizing all of the sci-fi stuff in the book. It's definitely different from the show, but only in amazing ways!

Unfortunately though, the performance of the narrator was subpar. His voice is very monotone, and sometimes it was difficult to differentiate other characters from Takeshi. Try to overlook that though, the story more than makes up for it! As an Envoy, the Narrator succeeds. As any other character it's a bit awkward.

This is one of the best audio books I've heard in a while, and I look forward to starting Woken Furies!

I highly recommend this book if you like awesome science fiction!

A great story!

Loved the story and great narration. Richard K. Morgan wrote a very deep and rich setting and cast of character. This book is a hidden treasure.

Amazeballs!!!!

This is one of the best audiobooks ever! Todd puts you there. Not since John Glover was I so enthralled!!!

major complaint is the sound.

voice of the narrator was over driven with bass and at times too quiet. other than that, great book.

Good book, but a horrible cheap audio recording.

Loved the book, but the audio recording was pretty bad. You can hear the cuts and the levels are not consistent.

Todd

really enjoyed this book but Todd McLaren's voice was so deep I couldn't listen to it in my car without shaking my speakers. He did a great job besides that one thing.

Confusing...

I am not even sure what happened... definitely will check out the TV series though.

Don’t watch the show first

I watched the show first and my god this is such an insane departure from the Netflix series