Search - Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, Bk 1)

Thumbs up for an interesting sci-fi proposition, as well as a complex and compelling plot. Thumbs down for gratuitous sex and violence.

Cyberpunk-inflected SF; dark (the protagonist is more an antihero than a hero) and quite violent, but quite good. This is the first in a loosely connected series of three novels dealing with the same character.

Over sized Paperback book published March 2003, first printing.

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, moniotored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions of race, religon, and class still exsist, advances in tech have redfined life itself. Assuming one can afford the expensive proceedure, apersons conscious can now 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 blip on a screen...unlesss...(this is hard core cyberpunk, and a hardboiled detective tale all rolled into one.)

This was so out of the ordinary that I really got into it. Gives a new meaning to "slipping into something comfortable." Like maybe another body?

The well-to-do have a stash of spares but others have to get a replacement body off the rack.

Go ahead and start this book. It will hook you!

A great exploration of one science-fiction concept and every facet of its effect on future society. Wonderful cyberpunk, a great guilty pleasure. A must read.