Richard Morgan

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Richard Morgan in Barcelona, 2006

Richard Morgan (b. 1965) is a British science fiction author.

Morgan studied history at Queens' College, Cambridge. After graduation he started teaching English in order to travel the world. After fourteen years and a post at Strathclyde University, his first novel was published and he became a fulltime writer.

The common theme to Morgan's books is that they take place in a dystopia. His attitude is summed up by the following statement: "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 willful ignorance and stupidity on the part of the very majority whom the system oppresses." [1]

In 2002 Morgan's first novel Altered Carbon was published, combining elements of cyberpunk and hardboiled detective fiction and featuring the anti-hero 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 debut. Following was Market Forces Morgan's first non-Kovacs novel, set in the not too distant future. It was originally written as a short story, then a screenplay (both unpublished). After the success of his first two works, it was released as a novel and has also been optioned as a film. His third Kovacs novel Woken Furies was released in the UK in March 2005 and was released in the U.S. in September 2005.

Morgan wrote two six issue miniseries for Marvel Comics under the non-canon 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 now available in collected editions.