Market Forces
by Richard K. Morgan (Victor Gollancz, 2004)
audiobook read by Simon Vance (Tantor, 2006)
Near-future dystopia that mashes brutal, corporate-driven world politics with Shakespearean tragedy. Though deeply flawed, antihero Chris Faulkner almost charms as the embodiment of an increasingly dog-eat-dog society. It’s hard not to imagine him and Mike Bryant as Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt.
Altered Carbon, Season 1
(Netflix, 2018)
The television series succeeds in capturing the slick, dystopian setting and jaded noir cyberpunk vibes of Richard Morgan’s novel. Beneath the SF layers, however, the plot is then twisted out of shape with the introduction of Kovacs’ sister as a major player.
Woken Furies
by Richard K. Morgan (Del Rey, 2005); audiobook read by William Dufris (Tantor Audio, 2006)
Morgan’s great anti-hero and brutish cyberpunk imaginings are lessened here by wallowing writerly indulgence, gratuitous, cringeworthy sex scenes and a narrator who guesses at pronunciations and whose hard-boiled American take on Takeshi Kovacs entirely disregards the character’s Japanese / Eastern European ethnicity.
Broken Angels
by Richard Morgan (Victor Gollancz, 2003); audiobook read by Todd McLaren (Tantor, 2015)
Reprising antihero Takeshi Kovacs, Morgan expands upon his racially diverse though otherwise cynical SF future beyond cyberpunk. More world-building than story, Broken Angels suffers from awkwardly explicit sex scenes and—in audiobook form—from McLaren’s faux-jaded characterisation of Kovacs and jarring mispronunciations.
Altered Carbon
by Richard Morgan (Gollancz, 2002)
Beyond the action/intrigue of its no-holds-barred cyberpunk murder mystery, Richard Morgan’s debut novel packs a hefty SF punch by immersing the reader in a cynical, comprehensively envisaged future of haves and have-nots; of memory storage, body downloads and associated abuses and liberties.
Black Man
by Richard Morgan (Gollancz, 2007)
Anybody looking for the written equivalent of Blade Runner should try the immersive, unromanticised near-future science fiction of Richard Morgan. Black Man (or, rebranded with North American irony, Thirteen) is a stark, at times gruesome classic, pitting genetic manipulation against human prejudice.
The Dark Defiles
by Richard Morgan (Gollancz, 2014)
Richard Morgan made his name writing gritty SF, then dragged the fantasy novel kicking and screaming from within its feel-good boundaries. Unapologetically dark, spurning escapism, this book clinches his genre-breaking trilogy, Morgan showing no compunction at leaving Tolkien and Company for dead.