ALTERED CARBON Review. "Cyberpunk Noir"

Altered Carbon

by Richard K. Morgan

Narrated by Todd McLaren

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.