Altered Carbon book cover by Richard K. Morgan

Altered Carbon

Adult • Science Fiction • Fantasy • Hard Science Fiction
Consciousness stored in cortical stacks Kovacs re-sleeved in Bay City Investigates a shady conspiracy Set in the twenty-fifth century Society values existence as currency

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.

Choose a book format
Paperback prices by retailer

Pick a format, then compare retailer prices. The main button points to the preferred option for the selected format.

Edition information

Book details

Publisher
Del Rey
Publication date
2003
Print length
375 pages
Language
English
ISBN
9780345457684

Science Fiction + Fantasy + Hard Science Fiction

Reader guide

What to Know Before Reading Altered Carbon

Altered Carbon is a cyberpunk sci-fi noir set in a future where human consciousness can be digitalized and transferred into new bodies, making death temporary for those who can afford it.The story follows Takeshi Kovacs, a elite former soldier who is brought back to life centuries after his death. He is hired by a wealthy, long-lived aristocrat to solve a murder—the aristocrat's own previous body. As Kovacs navigates a dark, neon-drenched metropolis controlled by corrupt elites, tech-savvy criminals, and advanced AI, he must piece together a massive conspiracy while surviving a world where identity is fluid and human life is disposable.

Join the Reader List

Join bks.social’s reader list for book recommendations, reader updates, featured titles, and occasional community news. No noise. Just the important things.

About the author

Richard K. Morgan

Richard K. Morgan

Richard K. Morgan is the acclaimed author of The Dark Defiles, The Cold Commands, The Steel Remains, Black Man (published in the US as Thirteen), Woken Furies, Market Forces, Broken Angels, and Altered Carbon, a New York Times Notable Book that won the Philip K. Dick Award in 2003. The movie rights to Altered Carbon were optioned by Joel Silver and Warner Bros on publication, and the book remained in feature film development until 2015. It is now being turned into a 10 episode Netflix series by Skydance Media. Market Forces, was also optioned to Warner Bros, before it was even published, and it won the John W. Campbell Award in 2005. Black Man won the Arthur C .Clarke Award in 2007 and is currently under movie option to Straight Up films. The Steel Remains won the Gaylactic Spectrum award in 2010, and its sequel, The Cold Commands, was listed in both Kirkus Reviews‘ and NPR’s best Science Fiction / Fantasy books of the Year. The concluding volume, The Dark Defiles, is out now! Richard is a fluent Spanish speaker and has lived and worked in Madrid, Istanbul, Ankara, London and Glasgow, as well as travelling extensively in the Americas, Africa and Australia. He now lives back in Norfolk in the UK with his Spanish wife Virginia and son Daniel, about five miles away from where he grew up. A bit odd, that, but he’s dealing with it. Photo by Roberta F. [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.
A favorite quote

“The future is a question mark, and the past is a book with pages torn out.”

Join the book lovers community

Continue the conversation in the Book Hub for Altered Carbon

Visit bks.social’s Book Hub for reader discussions, reviews, posts, quotes, questions, reading activity, related books, and G-NRIS story intelligence.