Altered Carbon

De: Richard K. Morgan

Narrado por: Todd McLaren

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.

Reseñas de la Crítica

"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 Sci-Fi, not sanitized for your protection

An exciting read to unravel a unique crime. The story exposes us to a wide slice of future life, the "have" and the "have nots" and how their lives are incredibly differentiatied through technology. If you want to find deeper meaning, the story allows you to explore what makes an individual unique, and whether or not being in someone elses body changes who we are. We're also dragged through the gutter numerous times, so prudes or those seeking a sheltered existance beware. Good, but gritty sci-fi.

Very good sci-fi detective story

This book is a blend of science fiction and a traditional detective story and is very well done. The narrator is fantastic.

The science fiction part of the story is very original, interesting and just plain cool. (Lots of high-tech - and nearly believeable - concepts of a future where we can store our consciousness in a portable database.)

The detective part of the story is engaging, surprising and hard to put down.

It has some swear words that are R rated, is very graphic/gory (detailed blood and guts imagery) and has very (VERY) graphic sex scenes (they are definitely adult only - moderate porn level scenes).

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind sex scenes and swear words but the sex (a.k.a. porn) is not interesting and doesn't advance the plot and - the worst part - some of the scenes last nearly 15 minutes... I don't want to listen to ANY scene for 15 minutes, but I certainly don't need 15 minutes to get the drift of a sex act.

If not for the long and uninteresting sex scenes that I ended up fast forwarding through, I would have given this 5 stars and I have already bought the next audiobook in the series.

One of the few books I don't prefer

After watching the Altered Carbon series on Netflix, I was intrigued by the concept and thought that the book would provide better development, as books tend to do. Boy was I wrong. If you are looking for a misogynistic erotic crime novel, this is the book for you. If you are expecting the concept and social/cultural ramifications of immortality to be explored, you will be sorely disappointed. It wasn't bad enough that I couldn't finish it, however I won't be listening to any other books in the series.

Excellent detective story

Please don't let the reviews of torture and sexual content stop you from getting this book. These few areas are brief and shouldn't deter people from enjoying this great detective story.

I preferred the Netflix series

I wanted to read this book because I thought the Netflix series was amazing and it's on my All Time Top 10. But it turns out that (much like Game of Thrones) the things I liked best about the show were actually exclusive to the show and weren't in the book at all.

The female characters rising above all the objectification and abuse — that's a Netflix thing, not a book thing. I liked how the show fleshed out the characters of Ortega, Elliot, and even Bancroft's lawyer Prescott. While Lizzy Elliot's mom does have a minor role, I thought the bit about her being cross-sleeved (in the show) was a great exploration of the topic, and that's not in the book. Lizzy herself is barely in the book at all, and I missed her kick-ass recovery thanks to the AI's help.

Speaking of the AI, I knew that the theme of the AI hotel where Takashi stays had to be changed for the show because of legal issues, but Takashi's entire relationship with it is missing in the book, and it's one of the things I found fun and engaging in the series. The AI as a being in its own right is not explored at all in the book.

In the book, Rei is not related to Takashi like she is in the series, which just made her a generic bad guy. In the series, because they are related, both Rei and Takashi have all these other conflicting motivations and a compelling history, which greatly adds to the story.

The book is a good SF noir, very gritty, with terrible cringey sex scenes and gory violence, but a decent plot line. Ultimately, it felt as though the book was more about who Takashi's sleeve had been, and where that leads him. The series is about who Takashi, now awakened, decides to *be.*

What happened to you, Richard?

IMHO, Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies (The "Altered Carbon Trilogy") are still the best hard, dark, violent, fun, and thought provoking sci-fi books ever written.

I've listened to each of them around 5 times. Then Richard dropped Tak Kovacs and the whole altered carbon theme and wrote a sappy fantasy story. Then he disappeared.

I couldn't believe how bad the fantasy book was after the *great* other books Richard had written. I didn't even finish it. I got about halfway through and then threw it away.

Maybe Richard was burned out? Or ashamed? Or maybe the other books had been ghost written?

Whatever it was, Richard, do whatever you have to do and start writing about Tak and Altered Carbon again. I'm sure I'm not the only reader who loved those books and misses them. So if you start writing about Tak again, your readers will be happy and you'll make lots of money. Better than a sharp stick in the eye, right?

You found a winning formula Richard. Most authors would kill for one. Why did you abandon it?

Bring Tak Back!!!

The Matrix meets Blade Runner

The noir detective atmosphere of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner combined with tech and violence of The Matrix. People have their memories and personalities stored in memory and move from body to body over centuries. Criminals are placed in storage while time takes everything they know and everyone they love, their bodies sold as "sleeves".

Brutal, not for the sqeamish story. I enjoyed it immensely.

Philip Marlowe meets Philip K. Dick

Liked it; didn't love it. It's definitely film noir fodder that should be printed on pulp paper, complete with an "I don't know..." monologue at the end. (Remember the last 10 minutes of Blade Runner?) I thought the world was well constructed, but it was 9 hours of story packed into 17 hours of listening that culminated in a disappointing "OK, spill!" exposition. And, although it clearly tails The Big Sleep, et al., this book packs none of the witty banter that makes Chandler so engaging. Morgan has apparnetly riddled his narrative with similes instead, like bullet holes in a getaway car on the business end of a Tommy gun. Also, the adolescently explicit sexual and gore scenes were self-consciously overdone. The whole thing could have used a sharp blue pencil, but generally enjoyable.

Couldn’t finish it

If you’re sensitive to scenes of assault - particularly assault involving women’s genitals - there is a scene about 1/3 to 1/2 way in that will trigger you. Overall this book i found this book’s treatment of women to be obnoxious; I don’t need (a) a detailed running description of every single female character’s breasts the second they’re introduced, nor (b) to know what the protagonist’s dick is doing whenever he speaks to her. With one exception every woman is given the “I exist to be a sex toy” treatment. The base story was interesting enough that I was able to eye roll through it but once it got to The Scene mentioned above I just couldn’t take it anymore. If you think my take on it is too sensitive, than you may enjoy it. But if these sorts of things ruin a book for you, than don’t bother. If you’re looking for a book with a similar concept (and without the Rapey undertones) “Six Wakes” is fantastic.

All around great!

I was very surprised how good this was! Just when you thought you knew what was going on it twists! Really well written and performed. Defiantly worth every star it gets!