Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan

Not for the faint hearted....

In a Hurry Synopssis

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. . . .


Altered Carbon is an extremely good example of the rising group of British Cyberpunk novels, as led by the likes of Michael Marshall Smith (this novel is very reminiscent of 'Spares'). It combines a great sci-fi setting and superb eye for intricate detail with breathtaking nihilistic thriller pace. Packed with shockingly violent action set pieces and embittered realistic characters, Altered Carbon is an incredibly involving read.

The novel leads off with a punch, as the cynic Ex-con Takeshi Kovacs and his partner get blown away very violently by the police in a raid. This highly irregular start is solved when the main plot idea of Altered Carbon is revealed: Human minds can now be uploaded into data networks, and then sent across the stars to be downloaded into new bodies.

Due to Kovacs' military background, he gets transported to earth and downloaded into an aging chainsmoker, in order to solve a murder case. An extremely rich three hundred year old businessman has been killed, and after his resurrection cannot remember why he has died. Kovacs is called onto the case, and
is drawn into a sordid mass of sex, violence and drugs revolving around the death.

This kick-start novel by Richard Morgan has done an sound job in creating a truly believable future world, full of bizarre and intriguing technological wonders and a run-down earth culture that begs for further exploration. The Language and superb prose punch throughout, and although the end is slightly off-pace, the novel as a whole is well worth the read.