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)

Ladies who like sci-fi beware

This is an intriguing story with characters of some depth. The sci-fi element is well done. However, be aware that there is LIBERAL use of the "c-word" for describing females, and the sexual content can be hard-core at times. Also contains a torture scene and lots of killing. Still a good read in general. I suspect most of the disturbing elements are meant to be just that. But the porn-style sex scene was, to me, unexpected.

Cyberpunk and Grit!

I was looking for something that was decidedly sci-fi and cyberpunk and this fits the bill perfectly!

Well written with three books in the series which leaves you wishing there were more to be had.

Action and mystery, there promises to be plenty of audio action and I can only cajole you to take a listen and enjoy.

We need more like this!

A good SF detective Story

Its a good story. Its reminds me of a SF 1930's style bullets and Whisky Detective Story set in San Fransico of the Future. The Reader of the story does a good job and gives it the gritty feeling the story needs.

Probably the best Sci-fi

In 35 years of SERIOUSLY and voraciously reading Science Fiction, this is probably THE best book I have ever "read".

Usually I like Heinlein, Card, Drake, Webber, Ringo, and the rest of the heavy hitters... But Morgan has scored a Masterpiece!

As has been said, You'll hear the voices of "Mr. Burns" and other "Simpson's" characters, but don't let that throw you off.. THE BOOK itself is incredible! And other than "The Simpson voices" from time to time, it's decently well read.

Far past the "Tech-Noire" Genre of "The 5th Element" and "Blade Runner".

DEEP, Intelligent, Sci-fi. Hardcore in places, NOT for the Kiddies.

In a class by itself, and I don't say that lightly.

The Bourne Identity meets Snowcrash

I was sucked in by the reviewer who said: "If you liked Ender's Game or Snowcrash... you'll love this one." I understand the reference to Snowcrash as this is definitely in the cyber-punk genre. I find no similarity to Ender's Game. The action is more reminiscent of Robert Ludum than anything Orson Scott Card ever wrote. It was worth listening to, but not a great book.

I liked it

Good sci-fi detective story. Well written, well read.

Wow

I do not normally read science fiction but the title and reviews got my attention. This was a well written book with a well thought out plot and believable dialog. I plan to read another in the series.

*BEWARE: Explicit sexual encounters*

The story was good enough. SciFi noire pulp fiction story. The narrator did a nice job and had a wide rang of voices, but the production was noisy. A lot of white noise in the background. When a section was edited, you could really tell the difference as the noise would drop out. The sex did not bother me, but there should be a warning invade you have kids around while you are listening.

convoluted

this story wanders around quite a bit. the plot is muddied by the addition of new characters throughout the timeline. action sequences are well paced but somewhat sparse. you'll need to listen twice to fully understand this story.

Excellent

Got the book because of the Netflix series and the book and the show differ a very large amount. I very much enjoyed both and think that the seperate media both nailed it in different ways. Defietly going to be carrying on with the series when I get my next coin.