Altered Carbon Audiobook By Richard K. Morgan cover art

Altered Carbon

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Altered Carbon

By: Richard K. Morgan
Narrated by: Todd McLaren
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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. Science Fiction Fiction Suspenseful Emotionally Gripping Scary Fantasy

Editorial reviews

Why we think it's Essential: Hardwire William Gibson into Dashiell Hammett and you get the unique universe that has earned Richard K. Morgan a legion of Audible fans. Todd McLaren wisely taps into the noir undercurrent for his narration - moving the action forward at a steady clip, letting the characterizations do the work, and treating high concepts like "sleeving" (downloading your personality into a new body) with a dead-pan legitimacy that makes them feel all the more real. — Ed Walloga

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)

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My only complaint is with the poor editing stitching together the narration: volume jumps, irregular pauses, occasional entrance mid-word. Otherwise this is a thrilling cyberpunk story in the same flavor as Snow Crash or Neuromancer, expertly narrated and thoroughly enjoyable!

Awesome story, great narrator, bad editing

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This author was recommended in a magazine article, which doesn't often carry much weight given the unknown differences between the writer and the reader of the article. But I needed a book for my Next Listen so I gave it a shot. Am so glad I did. If you are not a sci-fi fan, you can stop reading now, as this is a heavily weighted sci-fi version of a noir detective novel. Unlike many sci-fi authors who take pains to give background on the "new" world in which the story takes place, Morgan seems to take pleasure in teasing the reader with a flurry of words, concepts, historical events, and images that are unexplained and (often) confusing. As the story unfolds, however, bits and pieces are dropped so that the puzzle comes together slowly in the reader's consciousness. Maddening, and yet wonderful at the same time. The story rockets along with breathtaking action, steamy sex scenes, and gut wrenching violence, all described tastefully (yeah, I know--that seems unlikely, but it's true) under the circumstances. In the middle of this swift-flowing plot, Morgan casually drops a concept, or an image, or a reference to a historical event that the reader must store away for when it is explained later. Sometimes it isn't so much explanation as understanding by inference. This book was the most challenging in that regard since Anthony Burgess' Clockwork Orange (I didn't find the glossory in the back until I finished). It takes a bit of surrender to not let the unfamiliar stuff knock you out of the story flow. I have now downloaded 2 more of Morgan's works and look forward with a mixture of excitement and sadness to the end of Altered Carbon--sorry for it to be over, and excited to move on to another of Morgan's novels. Like Orson Scott Card's stuff, this is excellent writing that just happens to be science fiction. It may not have the extensive character development of a Card story, but it is hell on wheels in the action department. BTW, the narration is top flight as well, and provides an excellent immersion int he noir environment.

An Excellent Surprise

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I rather enjoyed the concepts behind the story, and while I have to admit I was taken a bit aback by the torture scene, I did not go in with my eyes closed. I'd read the reviews and knew that there would be explicit sex and violence, but I'm a grownup so, yeah. Whatever.

Once in awhile, the characters' dialogue has a little bit of a "first novel" feel to it (and small wonder, given that this is Morgan's first novel), but this might have been a function of hearing it aloud rather than reading it on the page.

Speaking of which: the narration, as noted elsewhere, is awful. The reader has a hard time maintaining accents for characters and actually mispronounces words--in one case so badly that he changed the intent of the sentence! I think I'll do the sequels via dead-tree or Kindle edition.

Decent Story Spoiled by the Narration

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I see no point at reading anything after I've watched the show or movie. What is the point. You already know how its going to end. Total waste of time. After I watched "Altered Carbon" on Netflix, I asked my friend if the first book was worth reading. Months after his recommendation, I finally got around to it. I should had read Richard K. Morgan a lot sooner.

The first book is so much better than the show. When I was watching the series on Netflix, I kept saying that something was missing. It wasn't that descriptive enough to catch my eyeballs on the screen. I managed to finished the first season and thought to myself, "Meh?"

After I listened to the first chapter of the book, I was hooked. It's exactly what I wanted science fiction wise. Blade Runner and Japanese Noir mash altogether. The eroticism got me instantly excited where I wanted to know more about each different skins. I will be continuing on with the trilogy because it's complex enough to keep my focus at what I'm listening to.

Fully Complex

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As a connoisseur of sci-fi and especially of future stories, I am vastly impressed with Richard K. Morgan's excellent tale of Takeshi Kovacs, ex UN Envoy, hard boiled detective and completely unpredictable character - the story is well crafted and complex. There are many wonderful details in this future of things I've not seen before. A joy and a surprise in any book. Extraordinarily creative. This is one you will listen to a second time.

Now I need the next one!

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