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)

Cyber-pank at its best

Any additional comments?

Best in Kovacs series, very well-narrated. The idea of digitized consciousness nicely played at all levels (ethics, society, interstellar travel) and really catches imagination. The plot is quite good. Violence and sex might be overstressed sometimes but it is a part of the environment here. Overall impression - very good.

Well Written

Just the right blend of future science, characters and plot.

Yes, there is some 'adult' material but its not about that as far as the book goes. The way the author writes demands he put the amount of detail he had in the adult scenes, otherwise glossing over and hiding the technology involved would not make sense, as well as the character's development. It really gave depth to what mankind has always had as a motivation for a lot of his actions anyway. I would say don't let those scenes stop anyone that enjoys a good future vision of life from not listening to this book (or the series), just skip ahead.

The reading was well done and I had no trouble knowing who was talking and when scenes changed.

The author has a unique way of story telling and the his view of the future is very interesting. The whole idea of being able to extend life if very believable despite our lack of technology in doing it any time soon, if ever. Even if it was impossible, he still makes it work.

Already listening to the next one.

the audio is a little too low quality

like the title says. the story was really good though. also some of the characters were read in annoying voices but thats just my opinion

Loved it!!

Loved the book! The show was good but I wish they would have kept the story of the book.

Unique adventure in an advanced technological age

Unnecessarily explicit at times. However, the story is unique and difficult to predict. On a deeper level this book will make you question the morality of future technological advances. In the end, it is a fun adventure and definitely worth a credit.

Really enjoyed the narrator!

Great narrator, and the story was much more compelling and rewarding than the television program, which was also enjoyable. The book, though, felt like it had much more depth, obviously due to the nature of literature and the narrative capacity to delve into things like ethics and morality.

Cyberpunk Noir

I first encountered the print version of Richard Morgan’s Takeshi Kovacs novels in 2005 with this book. I had long been a fan of John Varley and his exploration of the effects on society of memory recording and cloning. The combination of which imparts upon the practitioner a sort of pseudo-immortality. I thought that Varley might have the last word on the concept until I read ALTERED CARBON. Morgan takes the idea to a level previously undreamed of. The realm occupied by Takeshi Kovacs is a gritty as a Dashiell Hammet mystery and a action packed as a James Bond movie, but with more witty banter than either. The world that Morgan has created is very different than anything we know, but somehow we can relate to it. The people have been changed from who we are and their situations so foreign that one might think that no relevance could be found, but somehow we can empathize. This is a world that you will live in and think of as real, but will be thankful that you don’t have to live there. We wouldn’t last a day in Takeshi Kovacs shoes.

Listening to Todd McLaren perform ALTERED CARBON made me appreciate it even more. He adds such great voice to each and every character that this great book becomes unexpectedly even more amazing. Each of the book’s characters come alive through McLaren’s voice.

A Substantial Literary Work

Good science fiction is good literature, and this book fits that criterion. The reader glides without difficulty into the fictitious space, without any excessively self-conscious reason not to suspend disbelief. The themes of life, death, and their meanings, within a different context--not our own, then unfold. But the echoes reach back to us, especially in this era of a rapidly aging population.
What can I say? I liked it.

Good story and narrator, production need tweaked

The quality of the audio needs some work. Too much base makes the voice muddy.

Pulpy - Hollywood SciFi action flick in the making

the plot was tortured and seem to struggle. the ending suffered from one too many twists. disappointing. But it made for an excellent Netflix action drama.