Altered Carbon cover art

Altered Carbon

Netflix Altered Carbon book 1

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Altered Carbon

By: Richard Morgan
Narrated by: Todd Mclaren
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £16.99

Buy Now for £16.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 Four hundred years from now mankind is strung out across a region of interstellar space inherited from an ancient civilization discovered on Mars. The colonies are linked together by the occasional sublight colony ship voyages and hyperspatial data-casting. Human consciousness is digitally freighted between the stars and downloaded into bodies as a matter of course.

But some things never change. So when ex-envoy, now-convict Takeshi Kovacs has his consciousness and skills downloaded into the body of a nicotine-addicted ex-thug and presented with a catch-22 offer, he really shouldn¿t be surprised. Contracted by a billionaire to discover who murdered his last body, Kovacs is drawn into a terrifying conspiracy that stretches across known space and to the very top of society.

For a first-time SF writer to be so surely in command of narrative and technology, so brilliant at world-building, so able to write such readable and enjoyable SF adventure, is simply extraordinary.

Read by Todd Mclaren

(p) 2005 Tantor, Inc©2002 Richard Morgan Adventure Crime Thrillers Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Thriller & Suspense Fiction Exciting Cyberpunk Interstellar

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Blade Runner cover art
Snow Crash cover art
Hyperion cover art
The Left Hand of God cover art
Anathem cover art
Empire in Black and Gold cover art
14 cover art
Dome City Blues cover art
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 7 cover art
Hardwired cover art
Daemon cover art
The Diamond Age cover art
Red Rising (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation) cover art
Departure cover art
Hard Magic cover art
The Dispatcher cover art

Critic reviews

Outstanding. An astonishing first novel
An astonishing piece of work. Intriguing and inventive in equal proportions (Peter F Hamilton)

Audible Sessions with Richard Morgan

Meet the author of Altered Carbon
0:00
All stars
Most relevant

If you could sum up Altered Carbon in three words, what would they be?

Action packed throughout

What did you like best about this story?

The overall concept is a fascinating one, - I won't offer any spoilers here, but has an interrsting take on inter-stellar travel and how to get around issues of time dilation

I bought the book when it first came out, following a good recommendation in SFX magazine, and its one heck of a read - on audio, its equally as entertaining

Which scene did you most enjoy?

Very difficult to focus in on one scene when the entire book is so packed full or action and activity. One scene which I found unpleasant featured torture (if you're squeamish about eyes, watch out in the final two chapters , but it fit very well into the storyline

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

Any additional comments?

Well worth reading or listening to

Altered Carbon

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I don't normally like sci-fi but I loved this. the tech is interesting and is integral to the plot, but the author doesn't skimp on the story. Cool mystery, great detective-style drama, lots of twists and turns, interesting exploration of the issues that might take place when the essence of a person - the dark behind the eyes - could be stored on a hard drive. If you like joss whedon's Dollhouse and detective stories you'll love this.

Great detective story set in sci-fi universe

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I downloaded this book after finding it on someone's must read list. After about 5 minutes I realised that I had read the book already when it first came out in 2002 (doh). The fact that remembered so much detail after 13 years says something about the story (and something about my forgetfulness) . There's a lot of good story telling and some vivid imagery in book. It was well worth a second read. Action packed and great fun. Read it!

A great action packed scifi

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Dark, gritty and thought provoking sci-fi set in a dystopian future where the little people get stepped on and the rich & powerful do whatever they want (sex, drugs & violence).
The voice performances were on the whole good but a number of times the thrilling sections were let down by a change either in volume or tempo where Todd must have done two takes or maybe stopped due to interruptions. Either way it effected my listening experience.

Twisted future shock post singularity

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

What did you like most about Altered Carbon?

Altered Carbon is fantastic science fiction with a Maltese Falcon feel.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Personally I love the Hotel. What a cool idea!

Did the narration match the pace of the story?

Overall, yes however there is a curious editing issue, extremely long pauses when the narrator gets to the end of a page. Very irritating when it happens in the flow of action, or the middle of an important conversation.

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not really into really explicit sex scenes, I wanted to fast forward through them.

Action packed adrenaline fuelled

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews