Richard K. Morgan

Richard Morgan
Richard Morgan in Zagreb at SFeraKon, 2008
Born 1965
London
Nationality British
Genre Hardboiled, postcyberpunk, Science fiction, fantasy
Website
www.richardkmorgan.com

Richard Morgan, known as Richard K. Morgan in the U.S., (born 1965) is a British science fiction and fantasy author.

Morgan's books are generally set in a post-extropianist dystopian world. Morgan described his "takeaway" of one of his books as

Society is, always has been and always will be a structure for the exploitation and oppression of the majority through systems of political force dictated by an élite, enforced by thugs, uniformed or not, and upheld by a wilful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the majority whom the system oppresses.[1]

Early life and education

Born in London, and brought up in the village of Hethersett, near Norwich, Morgan studied history at Queens' College, Cambridge. After graduating he started teaching English in order to travel the world. After 14 years and a post at the University of Strathclyde, his first novel was published and he became a full-time writer.

Literary career

In 2002 Morgan's first novel Altered Carbon was published, combining elements of cyberpunk and hardboiled detective fiction and featuring the antihero Takeshi Kovacs. The film rights for the book sold for a reported figure of $1,000,000 to film producer Joel Silver, enabling Morgan to become a full-time writer. In 2003 the U.S. edition received the Philip K. Dick Award.

In 2003 Broken Angels was published, the sequel to Altered Carbon, again featuring Takeshi Kovacs and blending science fiction and war fiction in a similar way to his cross-genre début.

Market Forces, Morgan's first non-Kovacs novel, is set in the not-too-distant future. It was originally written as a short story, then as a screenplay (both unpublished). After the success of his first two works, it was released as a novel and optioned as a film.

Morgan's third, and he has stated final,[2] Kovacs novel Woken Furies was released in the UK in March 2005 and in the U.S. in September 2005.

Morgan wrote two six issue miniseries for Marvel Comics under the Marvel Knights imprint. His first story, Black Widow: Homecoming published monthly in 2004 was followed by a second, Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her published monthly in 2005; both are available in collected editions. According to Morgan's official website the series was "an artefact of limited appeal" and is unlikely to be continued, although he has other comic projects in development.

Black Man was released in May 2007 in the UK and in June 2007 in the United States (as Thirteen or Th1rte3n). According to the author, the book is about the constraints of physicality and the fact that people are locked into who they are. These are things he could not deal with in the Kovacs universe, because for Kovacs and people like him mortality is avoidable: they just skip into a new body.[3] The novel won the 2008 Arthur C. Clarke Award.

Morgan wrote a fantasy trilogy with a gay protagonist, A Land Fit for Heroes, the first volume of which has the title The Steel Remains and was published in August 2008 in the UK[4] and on 20 January 2009 in the United States.[5] The second volume, titled The Cold Commands was published in 2011. The third book in the series is called The Dark Defiles and was published on 17 August 2014.[6]

Liber Primus Games is creating a gamebook series based on the A Land Fit For Heroes trilogy. The first game was published for Android, Apple and Amazon Kindle Fire devices on 4 November 2015.

In 2008, he worked with Starbreeze as a writer for Syndicate, the 2012 re-imagining of the 1992 original.[7] Additionally, Morgan worked with Electronic Arts and Crytek as lead writer for their 2011 video game, Crysis 2.

In October 2018, Morgan's science fiction novel, Thin Air will be published in the UK by Gollancz.[8]

Bibliography

Takeshi Kovacs novels

  • Altered Carbon (2002) ISBN 0-575-07390-X
  • Broken Angels (2003) ISBN 0-575-07550-3
  • Woken Furies (2005) ISBN 0-575-07325-X

A Land Fit For Heroes

  • The Steel Remains (2008) ISBN 0-575-07792-1
  • The Cold Commands (2011) ISBN 0-575-07793-X
  • The Dark Defiles (2014) ISBN 0575088605 [6]

Other novels

  • Market Forces (2004) ISBN 0-575-07584-8
  • Black Man (2007) ISBN 0-575-07513-9 (known as Thirteen or Th1rte3n in the United States ISBN 0-345-48525-4)
  • Thin Air (2018) ISBN 9780575075146

Graphic novels

  • Black Widow: Homecoming (2005) ISBN 0-7851-1493-9
  • Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her (2006) ISBN 0-7851-1768-7

Videogames

References

  1. ↑ Morgan discussing his "take away" of his novel Altered Carbon, in "Never Mind the Cyberpunks: An Interview with Richard Morgan", SaxonBullock.com. Originally published online at SlateMagazine.co.uk, 2002.
  2. ↑ "Interview with Richard Morgan". IT Conversations. 16 August 2005.
  3. ↑ Moira Gunn. "Tech Nation". Your Mom's Basement. Archived from the original on 4 August 2009.
  4. ↑ "The Steel Remains". Richard Morgan's website.
  5. ↑ "The Steel Remains (Hardcover)". Amazon.com.
  6. 1 2 "Richard K Morgan - The Dark Defiles early cover art revealed". Gollancz Limited.
  7. ↑ Michael Plant (22 March 2012). "Interview: Richard Morgan on rebooting Syndicate". London: The Independent.
  8. ↑ Morgan, Richard (2018). Thin Air. U.K.: Gollancz. ISBN 9780575075146.
Awards
Preceded by
Carol Emshwiller
for The Mount		 Philip K. Dick Award
2003
for Altered Carbon 		Succeeded by
Gwyneth Jones
for Life
Preceded by
Jack McDevitt
for Omega		 John W. Campbell Memorial Award
for Best Science Fiction Novel
2005
for Market Forces 		Succeeded by
Robert J. Sawyer
for Mindscan
Preceded by
M. John Harrison
for Nova Swing		 Arthur C. Clarke Award
2008
for Black Man 		Succeeded by
Ian R. MacLeod
for Song of Time
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