Larger	Altered Carbon (Takeshi Kovacs, Bk 1) Author: Richard K. Morgan
	Book Information Publisher: Del Rey Book Type: Paperback Members Wishing: 2 Rating: 73 ISBN-13: 9780345457684 - ISBN-10: 0345457684 Publication Date: 3/4/2003 Pages: 384 Book Reviews

In the twenty-fifth century, humankind has spread throughout the galaxy, monitored by the watchful eye of the U.N. While divisions in race, religion, and class still exist, advances in technology have redefined life itself. Now, assuming one can afford the expensive procedure, a person's consciousness can 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 minor blip on a screen.

Ex-U.N. envoy Takeshi Kovacs has been killed before, but his last death was particularly painful. Dispatched one hundred eighty light-years from home, re-sleeved into a body in Bay City (formerly San Francisco, now with a rusted, dilapidated Golden Gate Bridge), Kovacs is thrown into the dark heart of a shady, far-reaching conspiracy that is vicious even by the standards of a society that treats "existence" as something that can be bought and sold. For Kovacs, the shell that blew a hole in his chest was only the beginning...

2003 winner of the Philip K. Dick Award