Altered Carbon

Richard K. Morgan

Jan 2005 · Kovacs Book 1 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Todd McLaren

About this audiobook

In the twenty-fifth 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 one hundred eighty 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. . . . "Morgan's debut novel, the first in a series, combines noir mystery with ultra-high tech science to create a complex sf thriller. Featuring a hard-nosed antihero with his own sense of personal honor and ethics, this is highly recommended for sf collections."-Library Journal

Ratings and reviews

Clever ideas but poorly executed. The story is overly complicated and pacing is painfully slow. The writing frequently descends from sci-fi into porno-lit and the performer is reduced to the role of shock jock. I can't help but feel that the author chose to substitute graphically over-the-top violence, sex, and language in place of real creativity, knowing that some of the masses would not understand the difference. Shocking readers with sex or violence is easy. Developing characters is hard.

The concepts and ideas are interesting, but the pace and noir aspect really seem to drag it down. Morgan also seemed to get distracted in parts of the book and solved it by throwing in very descriptive cheap erotic porn. Its SciFi that focuses less on the science and more on the fiction. I had high hopes, because books are usually better than their on screen interpretations, but I would recommend just watching the Netflix show & reading the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey instead.

Liked the book but didn't love it, seem to drag on forever. I think I would have liked it more if I didn't see the Netflix show first. Much faster pace.

About the author

Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that also won the Philip K. Dick Award. Morgan sold the movie rights for Altered Carbon to Joel Silver and Warner Bros. He lives in Scotland.

Todd McLaren was involved in radio for more than twenty years in cities on both coasts. He left broadcasting for a full-time career in voice-overs, where he has been heard on more than 5,000 TV and radio commercials, as well as TV promos, narrations for documentaries on such networks as A&E and the History Channel, and films.